Speakers at the Lean Executive Masterclass

Below you will find biographies for the speakers of the Lean Exeuctive Masterclass in order of appearance.

Daniel Jones – Chairman, Lean Enterprise Academy Limited

Daniel Jones is a management thought leader and advisor on applying lean, process thinking pioneered by Toyota to every type of business across the world. He is the founding Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy www.leanuk.org in the UK, dedicated to pushing forward the frontiers of lean thinking and helping others with its implementation. His work has inspired the very successful implementation of lean by Tesco and many other companies.

He is the author with James P Womack of the influential, best-selling management books – The Machine that Changed the World, and Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Organisation – which describe the principles and practice of lean thinking in production. Their latest book Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers can Create Value and Wealth Together extends these ideas to consumption, provision and service delivery.

These books have triggered a worldwide movement of lean practitioners and the establishment of the Lean Global Network of Lean Institutes (including the Lean Enterprise Academy) which teach lean locally and have organised over 25 Lean Summits in the USA, UK, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Turkey, Israel, South Africa, India, China and Australia.

Takashi Tanaka – Senior Business Consultant, QV System

Takashi Tanaka helped develop the visual-based product development process at Toyota Motor Company at 1990’s while dramatically shortening their development time. This process is now the standard inside Toyota. Takashi went on to implement it in Europe and North America in over 35 installations including automotive, construction, electronics, fashion, chemical, and consumer product industries.

Takashi formed QV System in 2004 and is its Founder and Principle Consultant (QV-System.com). He currently works with clients in the US and Europe. His experience and deep ties within Toyota allow him to help his clients understand and apply the latest thinking and innovations.

Sharon Tanner – Senior Leader, Boeing Commercial Airplane

Sharon Tanner works in applied research and product development at NASA and The Boeing Company. At NASA, she worked Space Shuttle and Hubble telescope issues and led national collaborative efforts among academia, industry, and multiple NASA sites.  At Boeing she leads the Fuselage Integrated Product Development Team for the 737-900, manages numerous high-leverage structural projects for Boeing airplanes, and served as senior leader for internal consultants, applying lean methods with executives and knowledge-workers.  Sharon’s technical degrees include a BS in Mechanical Engineering and graduate work in Acoustics at Penn State University; she also has graduate work in education and undergraduate degrees in journalism and Spanish.