George McCain, FIDSA, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of IDSA said, “Brian has an amazing ability to come into a new situation and immediately analyze the problems, formulate steps to be taken and then execute on the plan, all the while maintaining the respect and cooperation of all involved. Brian’s work is always on time and within budget and his communication skills are exemplary. In sum, Brian is effective, intelligent, drive to perform and fun to work with.”

Daniel Martinage, the newly hired Executive Director adds, “As the new Executive Director of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) I had the fortunate experience to follow Brian who served as IDSA’s Interim Executive Director. Brian provided the most well-prepared and comprehensive transition package that I have ever experienced. He highlighted the critical issues and provided a clear status of all external relationships, internal dynamics and lessons learned during his tenure. I am well prepared to take over and hit the ground running as a result of Brian’s thoughtful and thorough preparation. I highly recommend Brian for other interim CEO and/or acting executive director roles in both nonprofit and commercial organizations. “

Brian has returned to the Boston area, resumed his consulting practice and is now available for new projects with current and new clients.

August – Brian concluded some follow-up work with MKS regarding their operations in Sweden.

Sept – Brian concluded his long term consulting/coaching project with the On-Line division of MKS. He also attended the IDSA national conference in New Orleans where he was chair of the 2011 personal recognition and fellow awards committee.

Sept – Brian began discussions with Jordan Nollman of Sprout about some consulting work and agreed to become the senior advisor to the 2012 IDSA national conference committee of which Jordan is a key leader. This conference is scheduled to be held in Boston from August 15 – 18, 2012. In addition to his senior advisor role, Brian also accepted the leadership responsibility for the business track at the conference (one of five tracks). In that capacity, Brian has since established a strong committee of top business people from the design industry to plan and execute this track.

Oct – Brian met with Eric Anderson in Pittsburgh. Eric is the past president of IDSA and is a professor at Carnegie Mellon. Brian also began a consulting relationship with Brian Heidsiek of Sandbox Innovation Studio in Seattle Washington.

Nov – Brian conducted another project for Mike Maczuzak of Smartshape in Cleveland, started a consulting engagement with Jim Bleck of Bleck Design Group, began a discussion about collaborating with Tom Lockwood of Lockwood Resource, and was asked to recommend some organizational and leadership changes for the MKS operation in Sweden.

Dec – Brian completed another project for AOA/Northrop Grumman and conducted another short project for Sandbox Innovation Studio.

Brian began his second engagement with MKS. This time he is mentoring and coaching a newly assigned program manager who is leading some high priority projects within the OnLine business. He also participates in monthly senior management meetings for setting the goals, objectives and project priorities for the business.

Brian was introduced to MKS Instruments by Jesse Ambrosina, formerly of Cooper Perkins and now a VP with Foliage . Brian’s role at MKS is to mentor and provide coaching to the project leader and the development team for a new gas monitoring system being developed for the security industry. With Brian’s help and advice, the team successfully shipped two separate orders of systems on time to their lead customer and are well positioned to build this and similar products into a major business. This mentoring role continues with other projects and project leaders.

Bryan Hunter, the Founder and President of Fahrenheit Design (FHT Design), engaged Brian to help him and his team to begin the process of determining their positioning within the design industry and to frame out the steps to “get the word out.” Their goal is to roll out their “articulated” positioning by the end of this year via a newly designed website.

Peter Bressler, the Founder and Chairman of Bressler Group, engaged Brian to help him and the three managing directors work out the remaining details of the management transition that Peter initiated as he throttles back his day-to-day involvement in the business. Brian remains involved as an advisor to both Peter and the management team.

In other news, Brian had the great pleasure of introducing two of his favorite people – Gerhard Pawelka, CEO of Cooper Perkins, one of Brian’s first clients, and Matt Haggerty, founder of Product Genesis and now CEO of ProGen, a management consulting practice specializing in strategic product development. The meeting was held at Cooper Perkins’ new facility in Lexington, MA, and the discussion revealed many things in common between Cooper Perkins now and the many years of successful work at Product Genesis. Brian believes the two leaders will develop a great friendship in the years to come.

He was engaged by the IDSA Board of Directors to lead IDSA after the departure of the previous Executive Director and, as part of his assignment, hire the next permanent Executive Director. Brian is pleased to announce that he successfully completed this assignment, helped turn IDSA around, and hired the next director in time for a proper transition prior to the national conference in Miami which was also very successful, especially considering these tough economic times.

Please refer to the “Testimonials” section for quotes from key IDSA leadership regarding Brian’s performance as Interim Director.

Also
During this special assignment, Brian was also engaged in another project locally in the greater Boston area with a new client, Adaptive Optics Associates (AOA), a division of Northrop Grumman located in Cambridge, MA. This project involved helping AOA expand and promote a special service unit offering commercial and industrial customers custom electro-optical design and development services leading to full manufacturing.