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Ken Horton is a veteran of nearly 25 years as a senior executive responsible for operations. He has had broad management experience, and brings a well rounded business perspective to the management of operations having served as a CEO, and having held VP positions in Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Product Engineering. He has helped to lead both domestic and international organizations through major transitions, including mergers, acquisitions and a profitable liquidation.
Ken has led successful enterprise-wide initiatives in cost, cycle time and inventory reduction, on time shipment, quality improvement, design for manufacturing, lean process implementation and domestic and international outsourcing. In his most recent role as Vice President, Operations for Mattson Technologies Wet Process Division, Ken managed the all aspects of manufacturing, materials, quality and sustaining engineering in a $145M international division that included significant manufacturing operations in both the US and Germany. Prior to his appointment, the division suffered from poor shipping performance, excess inventory, long lead times and uncompetitive product costs. Ken helped reshape the performance of the division by:
Integrating the German and US operations, including the successful transfer of one product line from Germany to the US;
Improving on-time shipping performance from 40% to 100%;
Reducing inventories from $55M to $10M while simultaneously improving shipping performance;
Successfully implementing a product standardization and outsourcing project which led to significant improvements in manufacturing cycle time, quality and cost.
Leading the successful certification of the firm to ISO 9001 and 14000
At Quadrant International, a VC financed startup company making after market hardware and software for PC's, Ken served as Vice President of Operations from the company's earliest stages, building both the operations staff and systems from scratch. He developed and implemented all production, quality, materials, purchasing, shipping, returns and facilities activities, as the company grew from nothing to $4M in annual sales. He tightly managed assets in a severely resource constrained, but high growth environment.
At Great Valley Products Ken was the Vice President of Operations. Here he greatly improved the operating performance of the production, quality, materials, shipping, returns and facilities functions. This firm was a rapid innovator and Ken successfully introduced six new products into the production and the distribution chain.
Ken's primary role at Quad Systems, an $18 million manufacturer of automation equipment for electronics assembly, was as Director of Marketing. In this role, Ken devised and implemented corporate advertising, promotional, pricing and trade show strategy. He also oversaw technical documentation and provided international sales support. During his tenure Quad introduced its most successful product, the IIIc, which gained 30% share in its segment within a year of launch.
For a period of three years, Ken served as President and CEO of Pneumatics and Hydraulics, a multi-million dollar distributor of industrial components. Ken improved the operating efficiency of the business, increased operating profits and cash flow. The improved performance of the enterprise during his tenure ultimately enabled Ken to successfully sell the business.
Ken's formative career experience was his tenure in the General Electric Manufacturing Management Program. Here Ken served in various manufacturing roles, being rotated through assignments in the Major Appliance Group, the Large Steam Turbine Group, and the Aircraft Engine Group. In these assignments, Ken cut his manufacturing teeth in one of the most successful manufacturing companies anywhere.
Ken holds a BA from Dartmouth College, where he had a double major in engineering sciences and economics, and later went on to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received an MBA with a concentration in operations management.
In his free time Ken is focused on his family, with two girls or 16 and 8. He is an environmentalist, both a heavy reader of natural history and a volunteer at local environmentally oriented organizations. Since his early days as an athlete in school, he has been dedicated to fitness, and spends considerable time running and biking through the Pennsylvania countryside, where he makes his home. In addition, he spends time as a youth athletic coach. |
