TRU Group Core Management Profiles
Engineers + Managers + Planners + Integrators
Industry Sector Teams - with Roster of Distinguished ExpertsAssignment Team biographies are given in TRU Group confidential proposals to Clients
One of the key to TRU Group success and unique competitive advantage is our ability to staff each assignment with the most industrially and technically qualified person to be found. We carefully select the appropriate experts for each assignment based on the specific mix of capabilities required to achieve assignment objectives. The TRU Group core assignment management team includes:
Edward R. Anderson, B.Sc. (Hons), Dpl (Marketing Research), MBA, FCIArb
TRU Group President & CEO. For more than fifteen years, Edward Anderson has successfully managed many TRU Group international assignments involving investment decisions of hundreds of millions of dollars. He is an expert manufacturing & industrial company technologist, analyst and planner. He has assisted start-ups to grow exponentially and obtain the financing to do so. He has several years Vice President Operations, and Director level experience in a cross-section of North American middle-market technology-intensive multinationals. Examples of high tech segments include optoelectronic devices, lasers, photonics and specialty metals like strontium and scandium. He has worked for prestigious engineering and multi-billion-dollar investment firms as well as a small high-tech manufacturing start-up. He taught business at the Universities of Arizona and Toronto. Click here for detailed biography
Maureen Paterson, B.A.Sc. [Engineering], P.Eng (PEO, Canada)
TRU Group Vice President Engineering. Maureen is a deep-dive engineer with more than twenty-five years hands-on practical experience in a variety of technology-intensive industries. She is particularly adept at innovative approaches and the technical challenges of complex front-end engineering issues. She is expert at process development, piloting and the conversion of FEED into state-of-the-art actual manufacturing facilities. At TRU Group she has led the engineering of several battery materials assignments as in lithium and graphite as well as specialties like magnesium, strontium and rare earth metals. She has been TRU Group Engineering Lead in numerous engineering assignments, feasibility studies, due diligence investigations and financial assessments. She previously was Manager Process Technology at Aker Kvaerner and participated in many major projects as Lead Process Engineer, Process Engineer or Study Manager. She is a Member of Professional Engineers Ontario.
John Roumeliotis, M. Engineering [Metallurgy & Mining], P.Eng], P.Eng
TRU Group Vice President Frontier Industries. John is the hands-on director of most TRU Group Assignments and has done so for more than a decade, leading many complex assignments in technology-intensive industries. He is is a manufacturing industry processing specialist able to design & engineer the most intricate facilities in a wide cross-section of industries. He acts as Study Manager on many aspects of TRU Group Frontier Industries with a particular focus on processing from resource through mineral, chemical plant, metal smelting, to final products. He has coordinated many major feasibility studies, due diligence reviews and Engineering Studies including process testwork, design, pilot testing, and front-end engineering FEED. Previous to TRU Group he was Manager, Research & Development for Lithium at Raymor Industries. He designed and oversaw the construction of pilot plant equipment and assessed and purchased available technologies for use in the various stages of the extraction process.
Scott Kennedy, B.Sc. [Engineering], MBA [Science & Technology], P.Eng (PEO, Canada)
TRU Group Director Science & Technology. Scott is an expert in quantitative decision support methods and thinking in science, technology and engineering. Financial modeling incorporating technology and materials changes, building business models, both quantitative and process/ qualitative sides, technical and manufacturing performance quantification and improvement, and problem solving and decision support from a strategic/ managerial perspective. He previously worked in Manufacturing Economics, Fuel Cell Research Centre, Technical Economic Analysis, Centre for Automotive Materials and Manufacturing, Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport, and as a VP at a leading New York consulting firm. He taught at the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Institute and Queen’s University (including Professional Practice). He is TRU Designated Engineer for the purposes of Professional Engineers Ontario.
Natasha Ababei, B.Sc. [Biochemistry] [Hematology]
TRU Group Biobanking & Stem Cell Manufacturing Lead. Natasha is an expert in biobanking manufacturing and processing. She has more than a decade of hands-on laboratory experience from a leading USA and Canadian state-of-art laboratories: CBR California Cryobank Life Sciences, worlds largest stem cell company and Insception Lifebank & Cells for Life Cord Blood Institute, formerly located within Toronto General Hospital. Hands on and as a scientist in operations she has strong capability in proficiency testing methods, equipment operation / validation, maintenance and calibration, performing quality measurements / assessments, preventive maintenance, periodic inspections and testing for proper equipment operation. She is CBR Certified in operation of Navios Flow Cytometry, CFU-GM proficiency testing and CFU enumeration & identification, sterility testing, AXP II System preventive maintenance & repair, Thaw & CD34 testing for AXP II samples. etc. and has extensive hands-on capability in all the use of high-tech state-of-the-art processing equipment (such as, Macopress Smart, Sysmex XE-Series Analyser, Flow Cytometry and Thermogenesis AXP), storage, cryopreservation, measurement & analysis equipment.
Robert Bagwell, BSCS. [Mathematics], MBA
TRU Group Director Global Business Development. Bob is an expert in Battery Technologies and Power Management having spent more than seven years at Honeywell Batteries Global Technology Systems. He is well qualified in battery physics and their chemicals. Also spent many years in the Radio Frequency Identification, Electronic Article Surveillance industries. He served companies as a senior account executive, project manager, and in various systems engineering management roles as well. At Boeing Apache Production in Arizona he worked with a company that installed a Real Time Location Systems. Although working out of the United States at TRU he has responsibility for world-wide Business Development with focus on USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea.
Bernard Closset, M.Sc. [Chemistry & Physics], PhD [Metallurgy]
TRU Group coordinator in Europe. He speaks most European languages and stationed in Geneva. He travels extensively throughout Europe and is frequently in North America. His academic background is in physics, chemistry and metallurgy and he has more than twenty years of experience with manufactures in North America, Europe, China and eastern Europe. He is a material specialist - in particular in high technology magnesium and other light metals, alloys, or compounds for aerospace, electronics, medical device and pharmaceutical use. He is a technical authority on specialty metal processing, magnesium, lithium, strontium, calcium and aluminum metals & alloys technology. See TRU Group Europe + Cyprus Regional
Katherine Liu, M.S. [Physics], PhD [Eng - Optics & Lasers]
TRU Group coordinator in Tucson, AZ. Katherine Liu has twenty years of experience in photonic, electro-optical, and laser devices and materials both the technology and their commercialization. She is an authority on all aspects of lasers. She has worked in marketing, products design & development, testing and product launch. Her experience includes product marketing and product development of optical fiber amplifiers and fiber lasers for a manufacturer of optical devices and systems for telecommunications industry; Product development and applications development of laser marking systems for manufacturer of industrial lasers and integrated systems; development of medical lasers, beam delivery systems, and laser-tissue ablation medical procedures for a manufacturer of medical laser systems. Katherine is frequently in China.
Kevin Miller, BSBA (OD), MBA, RODC
TRU Group Strategic Planning Facilitator Lead, AZ. Kevin Miller is a strategy planning consultant and facilitator with experience in a wide variety of companies across several industries. He leads the TRU team facilitation service in strategy, customer forum, focus group and product development. Previously he held executive positions in planning, strategic plan facilitation and organization development OD in industry - mostly at aerospace / electronics company Honeywell International and metals / mining group Phelps Dodge both billion dollar enterprises with multiple businesses. Kevin helps clients to revitalize their vision and market strategy and then works with the organization to reorganize their systems and processes in order to stay current with ever-changing customer requirements. As a practitioner, executive coach and speaker on progressive organizational effectiveness issues, Kevin delivers presentations and leads public forum discussions on strategy, leadership, policy formulation and business process improvement.
Cecile Domercq, M.Sc. (Biochemistry / Microbiology), MA (Industrial Engineering)
Cecile Domercq is an Operations Engineer in with an emphasis on pharmaceutical, medical devices, microelectronics and optical industries. She has strong international experience in planning and managing fast track complex technology intensive industrial projects and facilities - including clean room design and management. She has worked on material devices for information technology research, pilot operation forecasts, equipment, facility layout, facility upgrade, manpower, and facilities budgeting. She designed and supervised new facility construction for glass and fiber optic plant, clean rooms and photonic / optics laboratories and managed safety and preventive maintenance programs. She has designed engineered, procured and managed construction of turnkey projects.
Andrew Gluck, B.Sc. (Eng)., MBA
Andrew Gluck is a technology management expert analyst with exposure to many technologies such as coatings, adhesives, inks, thick films, membrane switches, touch screens, PBC manufacturing, UV curing systems, extrusion, injection molding, polymer foam formation, abrasives, ceramics, automation, computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided machining (CAM), solids modeling, G-code, custom graphic user interfaces, transparent conductors and laser processing. He is an expert in the membrane switch and touch panel industry. He has over ten years experience in the design and manufacture of these devices, with applications ranging from defense to the medical industry. He has been employed by technology development companies such as Advanced Ceramics Research Inc and Materials & Electrochemical Research Corporation.
David Peterson B.Sc. [Industrial], MBA
David Peterson is a manufacturing engineering and design specialists with much of his experience in electronic component and semi-conductor production at leading US companies such as Intel Corporation and Microchip Technology Inc. He is an expert on semi-conductor machinery and semi-conductor factory operations. He is competent in factory strategic planning; lean manufacturing integration; operations & plant management, and manufacturing finance. He has managed many large-design, engineering, manufacturing and operational projects utilizing industry standard management principles and participative management techniques. He has developed & implemented supply chain process improvements, improved factory automation system and layouts in manufacturing facilities, conducted flow analyses of production work cells, and developed automated capacity models for factory scheduling.
Gary L. Smith, B.Sc., MBA [Finance]
Gary Smith is senior business executive with over twenty years experience emphasizing general and financial management in small or medium-sized companies in proprietary fields and/or market niches. He was a General Partner at a venture capital firm where he developed a flow of investment opportunities; analyzed, structured, negotiated, closed, and documented investments; monitored and assisted portfolio companies. He is a specialist in the commercialization of new technology, intellectual property protection and licensing.. He was President and CEO of the Arizona Technology Development Corporation assisting University of Arizona faculty in transferring technology to the private sector by forming companies based upon their inventions and discoveries.
Humberto Tapia, PhD., MBA
Humberto Tapia heads TRU Group Mexico practice. He is an expert in market research, statistical analysis and planning. He has been a executive for several Mexican corporations and a consultant for the Mexican and Sonora Governments. These assignments were focused on trade promotion and economic development. In the past he has managed an industrial park for maquiladoras industries in Hermosillo, Sonora and consulted with more than 100 Mexican businesses. Now an American citizen living in Tucson, Humberto Tapia is fully bilingual with undergraduate education in Mexico with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the Technological Institute of Superior Studies of Monterrey. His other qualifications were obtained at the University of Arizona.
Sonia Vohnout, M.Sc. [Systems Engineering]
Sonia Vohnout has an industrial engineering background and ten years experience in a high tech industrial, medical device, photonics and specialty mining setting. She has worked on several TRU Group challenging assignments such as the 2017 work on autonomous vehicle sensors vs materials. She was a Vice President at Physical Optics Corporation, California a high tech company specializing in advanced military defense, surveillance systems, homeland security, and energy solutions. In addition she was Director, Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Division at Ridgetop Group, Inc in medical devices, Tucson, Arizona. She is an expert statistician and modeler as applied to all aspects of industrial production, marketing, finance and supply chain management. In the past she has worked for MediPac, Modular Mining, IBM and AT&T Bell Laboratories. She taught at University of Arizona and has published several papers in a cross-section of high tech industries. She has extensive expertise in software systems. She has strong experience in cross border trade with Mexico and the Maquiladoras.
TRU Group Inc maintains permanent industry teams and a roster of leading world renown technical industry experts and has the distinctive capability of being able to provide the very best qualified teams for our clients. Assignment Teams are usually identified in our confidential proposals to our clients. Our people are organized into industry-specialized teams for most of the advancing industries each supported by the roster of experts. The TRU Industry Teams are flexible, very much customized to the assignment and readily expandable for the large projects