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With nearly 200 years of combined, front-line experience in manufacturing and business problem solving, RIMES can bring more to your factory floor and front office than any other single organization. We know the Rhode Island business landscape and are dedicated to helping local manufacturers compete on a local, national, and global scale.
Meet our team:
- Leslie Taito, Chief Executive Officer
- Don Nester, 6-Sigma, Lean, Quality, Leadership, Team Building
- James Brum, Project Manager
- Susan Clark Fonseca, Project Manager
- Carl Dwinnells, Project Manager
- John Gilheeney, Project Manager
- Harsha Prakash, Project Manager
Leslie Taito, Chief Executive Officer
Leslie Taito, Chief Executive Officer/Lean Office Specialist Leslie has over twenty years of experience in the service and manufacturing industries. Early on in her career, she has served as the sales and marketing manager for several firms in the industrial and medical products industries. Over the past twelve years, Leslie has held leadership positions with three non-profit organizations. She was the Director of Operations for the Greater Rhode Island Regional Employment and Training Board (RETB) where she was responsible for facilitating the development and administration of several training consortiums and hundreds of company training programs supported by state grants. In 1998, the RETB promoted her to Acting Executive Director. At the RETB, she also supported the planning and implementation of the NetWork RI "one-stop" employment system and three regional school-to-career partnerships. Leslie has also served as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association. As the RIMES CEO, Leslie is responsible for day-to-day operations along with the administration of state and federal grants. She is also a Manufacturing Extension Partnership certified Lean Office trainer and implementer. Her account and project management work has enabled RIMES to annually generate $35M in increased client sales, $11 M in decreased costs and an estimated 470 jobs created or retained as a result of RIMES projects. Leslie currently serves as the Chairperson of the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce. She also serves as a member of the Exeter Job Corps Academy Manufacturing Steering Committee. Leslie also is a member of Leadership Rhode Island's Beta II class.
Don Nester, 6-Sigma, Lean, Quality, Leadership, Team Building
Don has 23 years experience at Hoechst North America in Coventry RI including: Six years as Plant Manager responsible for all aspects of $100M output and $30M in capital assets, implementing cultural changes to turn around company failing because of extreme foreign competition; six years as Quality Manager responsible for delivering quality dye products made by 900 employees in 5 business units; Quality Coordinator responsible for reducing hazardous wastes and wasteful use of water; Diagnostician for quality training and productivity improvements; Microprocessor Programming of chemical processes to optimize productivity and cycle times; and department foreman. Don is owner of Work Place Solutions, a firm providing consultant services to improve competitiveness in the areas of people, processes, performance and profits. He is a founder of the RI ISO-9000 Round Table, and Past President of RI Association for Quality and Participation. Skills include: strategic planning; expertise in all aspects of six-sigma, lean and other best manufacturing practices; motivational leadership and team builder training; and hazardous materials handling. He is the author of five publications on quality and pollution prevention. Don has a BS in Economics, with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry, URI; MS in Management, Anna Maria College. Other certificate training in Executive Strategies, Leadership, ISO-9000, Auditing Quality Systems, Experiment Design and Hazardous Material Handling.
James Brum, Project Manager
Jim has worked in the state of Rhode Island as a Facilities manager for the past 37yrs. An authorized OSHA instructor, he has developed a “safety one" program that helped reduce workman’s comp insurance by $80,000 over a few yrs, and complying with the regulatory requirements along with various environmental programs which included a soil remediation project that resulted in a no further action required. Jim’s core responsibilities always included machine reliability and have increase uptime 30-50% by using preventative, predictive and tpm type initiatives along with leading problem solving teams to help improve machine uptime and reduce maintenance costs. An experienced facilitator who took a work improvement team to a national quality competition. A teacher of lean manufacturing and problem solving skills at major Rhode Island companies. Jim has been involved with quality systems as an ISO 9001 auditor along with bringing a company into ISO 14001 compliance. Jim has also help develop sustainability and green programs and had many projects that both satisfied the green inititive and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars using a less than 2 yr payback in the process. A magna cum laude graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Roger Williams College, Jim has used his technical and people skills on the factory floor where he is very comfortable with working with the people to improve their work area.
Susan Clark Fonseca, Project Manager
Susan Clark Fonseca, a Certified Career Management Coach, brings over 25 years of experience to RIMES and our clients. Her expertise includes training, coaching and consulting thousands of individuals and groups in various industries such as manufacturing, financial services, health care, non-profits, academia, and government. As the former Vice President of an international HR consulting firm she managed several career transition centers for United Technologies Corporation and its subsidiaries throughout the U.S. Susan brings a diverse background as the former Manager of Training Programs at Brown University where she developed, implemented and presented training programs for 2200 staff including supervisory, management and leadership development, customized departmental training, sexual harassment prevention, and non-management training. She was also instrumental in implementing the Mentoring for Manager's Pilot Program, which was noted internationally for its "Best Practices". She has been effectively training individuals and groups in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) since 1982. Susan is an alumna of URI with a degree in Human Development, Counseling and Family Studies. She recently received her Human Resource Management Certificate from Villanova University. Susan is a Certified Facilitator in TimeWise 101, Career Directions Talent Management, and Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. She is a charter member of The International Association of Career Management Professionals (IACMP), a member of the Career Masters Institute (CMI), Coachville International (CV), and was selected as a member of International Who's Who of Entrepreneurs.
Carl Dwinnells, Project Manager
Carl's 25+ years of experience in manufacturing and distribution in the jewelry, electronics, and metal fabrication industries strongly complement his background in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Carl's broad background includes extensive experience in plant layout/design, materials handling, and office planning for plant expansions and consolidations; product design and design for manufacturability; time studies, load and capacity analyses, and machine utilization analysis; and PC-based and mainframe computer systems, including MRP systems and AutoCAD. Carl holds a Masters degree in Management Science/Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
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John Gilheeney, Project Manager
John has over 35 years experience working with organizations throughout North America helping them to improve operations, productivity, quality, customer service, environmental, health and safety performance. He has 8 years experience working for DNV (Det Norske Veritas) Certification, Inc. as a Senior Lead Assessor auditing quality, environmental, health, safety and security management systems against the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, National Bio-solids Partnership (NBP) and Responsible Care® Standards and Technical Specifications. Some of the organizations he has worked with include, but are not limited to: Toyota, General Motors, Rohm and Haas, Alcoa, NASA, General Dynamics, Tyco Electronics, BP, Marathon Oil Company, Lucent Technologies, Caterpillar, City of Fort Worth and Rhode Island School of Design. Read more>
Harsha Prakash, Project ManagerHarsha has worked closely with various small manufacturers in Rhode Island enabling them to navigate the meticulous process of government contracting. He successfully launched a bid matching training program in the state of Florida which still progresses. His team efforts in both of these states has resulted in over $30M in new revenue for manufacturers. He continues to support the Rhode Island manufacturers as a facilitator of Lean initiatives. Harsha has a BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Business Management from Temple University. He is also serves as a board member for the IEEE Providence Chapter Board of Directors.
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