Kathy Menasche leads Carroll Community College's Business Training Group as their Senior Director of Workforce and Business Development.  Kathy provides clients with superior leadership to identify training issues and customize solutions--building skills that build business. At the college she has successfully secured more than $1.5 million in grant funding.

Kathy has developed many signature and award-winning programs. Her accolades include the International Award for Excellence from the Association for Volunteer Administration for Volunteer Management Training, and the 2000 National Association of Counties (NACO) Achievement Award for consortium professional development training for local governments in Carroll County. Kathy was also instrumental in the development of Carroll’s “Four Partners One Purpose” program (later known as the Small Business Training Network) for entrepreneurship development, which attracted a 2007 NACO Achievement Award.

In April 2007 Kathy pioneered the development of the Carroll County Manufacturing Consortium to encourage Carroll manufacturers to work together on issues of mutual interest--such as workforce recruitment and training--and to share best practices to improve their businesses.

With over 20 years of experience at Carroll Community College, Kathy serves on the college’s Planning Council of Senior Leaders, the Technology Advisory Group, and many ad hoc committees. Active in the community, Kathy also serves on numerous advisory boards and is on the Board of Trustees for Carroll Lutheran Village. In previous years she has held many leadership positions in the county's various business associations and Chambers and served for many years on the Carroll County Public Schools’ Local Advisory Board for Career and Technology Education.  Kathy holds a BSPE from the University of Delaware and a MPA from the University of Baltimore.

Kay Rand

As Vice President of Manufacturing for Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems (ES) Eastern Region, Kay Rand has responsibility for manufacturing and test engineering at company facilities in Maryland and Connecticut.

Ms. Rand joined the company in 1982 as an electrical engineer and has held a number of professional and management positions of increasing responsibility. In 1988, she was appointed Manager, Maintenance and Facilities Engineering, and in 1991, was named Manager, Regulatory Compliance.

In 1997, she was appointed Director, Quality and Regulatory Systems. In this position she was responsible for quality and all aspects of environmental, health and safety and fire compliance.

In 2000, she was appointed Director, Business Operations, Aerospace Systems Division. In this position, she worked closely with the Aerospace Systems staff to ensure the efficient planning, execution and completion of all aspects of the Aerospace Systems business plan, and provided support for the accomplishment of both strategic long-term and short-term division goals.

In January 2002, Kay was appointed Deputy Director and eventually Director of the F-22 radar program with responsibility for both the development and the program execution phase of the APG-77 radar being built for the U.S. Air Force’s Raptor.

She assumed her most recent position in October 2006.

Ms. Rand received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from James Madison University, a bachelor’s in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Dayton, and a Masters in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University. In addition, she has completed the Executive Marketing Program at UCLA and The General Manager Program at Harvard University.

Van Reiner

Van Reiner is a native of Lakewood, Ohio, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wittenberg University and a master’s degree in chemistry from Lehigh University. He also has completed executive education programs at Duke University and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

He joined Bethlehem Steel in 1974 and spent the first 10 years of his career as an engineer in the coke oven department at Bethlehem’s Lackawanna, NY, plant. In 1984, he was transferred to the Burns Harbor, IN, Division as assistant superintendent of the slab mill/plate mills department and in 1990 was promoted to superintendent of that department.

In 1995, Mr. Reiner was appointed superintendent of the Galvanized Products Division, an operating unit of Burns Harbor located at Lackawanna. He became senior manager, operations, for the Burns Harbor Division in 1997, and president, Bethlehem Lukens Plate, when that division was formed in May 1998 following Bethlehem’s acquisition of Lukens Inc. He was then named president, Bethlehem Sparrows Point Division in August 2000. During his career at Bethlehem, he was a leader for introducing six sigma and lean throughout the company.

Professionally, Mr. Reiner is a past member of the board of directors of the American Institute of Steel Construction. He also held memberships in the American Iron and Steel Institute, Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, American Chemical Society, Western States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Operators Association.

Since the closing of Bethlehem Steel, Mr. Reiner has served as interim Director to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, MD, and in March of 2005, was named its permanent President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Reiner also serves on the Board of the Maryland World Class Manufacturing Consortia and is a founding member and Treasurer of the Partnership for Baltimore’s Waterfront.

He and his wife, Shirley, are the parents of three children. They reside in Bel Air, MD.

Joe Riley

Joe Riley has more than 36 years of experience in a variety of manufacturing and general management positions. He has worked as an Industrial Engineer, Quality & Safety Manager, Plant Manager and Director of Operations, from 1968 – 1984 for Baltimore Aircoil Company, a world wide manufacturer of evaporative cooling equipment.

From 1984-1990 he was President and CEO of Chesapeake Wood Products a lumber distribution and fabrication company with operations in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

He rejoined Baltimore Aircoil in 1990. Since then he held positions as Director of Operations- International, Corporate Manufacturing Engineering and North America Customer Service.

Joe was most recently Senior Lean Leader with Baltimore Aircoil with a mission to simplify the business processes within the Corporate Headquarters and three manufacturing facilities in North America using Lean techniques and kaizen events to improve information flow to support shop floor continuous improvement activities.

Joe was instrumental in getting BAC to join the Consortia and implement lean manufacturing in North America. He served on the first two implementations that converted batch production and bay assembly into continuous flow production in 2000, using Consortia consulting resources.

Joe currently serves as Chairman of the MWCC's Board of Directors.  He is a Senior Member of SME and has served on the Howard County Committee to Improve Workforce Quality.

Joe has a BS from the University of Maryland- College Park and an MBA from the University of Baltimore.

Gary Ruddell

Gary Ruddell is President of Total Biz Fulfillment, Inc., a leading provider of back office and customer relations services, in addition to warehousing, picking, packing and shipment of merchant and consumer orders throughout North America. Companies depend on TBF to build their brands and to support their sales growth. Client manufacturing companies are headquartered in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Denmark and the Philippines. Re-engineered from a publishing company in 1992, Total Biz Fulfillment has built six warehouse expansions over two campuses in western Maryland over the last sixteen years.

Total Biz Fulfillment allows companies to focus on their core competencies of building a brand and selling their products. The challenge of successfully doing so requires managing a myriad of details, including the last-in-line presentation of products, transport of products, order management, credit and financial management, and customer relations. In 2000 TBF lost a large contract for 15 (fifteen) cents per transaction.  Research suggested that, had lean principles been employed, they could have enabled TBF to offer a lower commercial cost that could have won the contract. Total Biz Fulfillment thus joined the Maryland World Class Consortia.

Gary has been actively engaged with the Maryland World Class Consortia for a number of years and has been a missionary for lean principles and membership in the MWCC. In September 2007 some forty-eight companies listened as First United Bank and Trust (first bank in the State of Maryland to join MWCC); New Page (paper manufacturing); and TBF presented their lean business journeys. Gary and other management from his firm have attended a bevvy of MWCC meetings.

Gary’s academic background is Marketing and Sales where he holds a Bachelor’s degree from University of Maryland (College Park).

Gary resides in a home overlooking Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County with his wife Luanne.

Jerrold Solomon

Jerry Solomon has had a unique opportunity to implement Lean accounting and Lean Business Practices, as he’s held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Manufacturing simultaneously at three middle market manufacturing companies. In his dual role he was able to cast aside traditional departmental barriers and galvanize the accounting and manufacturing areas to develop timely and actionable information.

In 1986, while Mr. Solomon was the Chief Financial Officer of Vermont Castings Inc., he assumed the additional responsibility for the manufacturing operations of this heavy industrial company. He immediately realized that a key customer of the accounting department, the manufacturing organization, was getting information that at best was marginally useful. Mr. Solomon redesigned the accounting procedures and teamed with the operating folks to provide user friendly reporting that facilitated the improvement process taking place on the production floor.

In 1998, Mr. Solomon became the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Manufacturing at PACE, Inc., an electronics manufacturing firm providing equipment to the telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive, computer and medical industries. Mr. Solomon led the Lean transformation that resulted in customer lead-time reductions of 75%, productivity improvements of 64%, space reductions of 50%, quality improvements of 100%, and a doubling of inventory turns. In addition to the improvements taking place on the plant floor, the cost accounting system was simplified and the use of MRP for executing the production plan was eliminated in favor of a pull system with electronic links to all suppliers. As a result of these efforts, PACE, Inc. was the first company certified to World-Class levels by the Maryland World Class Consortia.

Currently Mr. Solomon is the Vice President of Operations – Hunt Valley, for MarquipWardUnited, the largest division of the Barry-Wehmiller Companies Inc., the Western Hemisphere’s leading packaging automation and converting group.

Mr. Solomon has a B.S. degree from Clarkson University, an M.S. degree from Michigan Technological University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He’s served on the Board of Directors of Vermont Castings Inc. as well as the Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation. He’s been an instructor in Lean Accounting, is on the Board of Directors of the Maryland World Class Consortia, and chairs the Vendor Certification Committee. Mr. Solomon is also the author of the Shingo Prize winning book, Who’s Counting?, a highly acclaimed business novel focusing on the interaction of the manufacturing and accounting functions during a Lean transformation and Leading Lean, a novel about a three day Lean event. Mr. Solomon brings a truly unique perspective to the requirements of manufacturers in their quest to achieve World-Class performance levels.

Robert "Bob" Walker has over 25 years of senior level expereince in both the public and private sectors.  He was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the newly created Division of Business and Enterprise Development in July 2009 as a result of a major re-ogranization of the Department.  The new Division melds together what were once five separate divisions including Finance, Business Development, Business Services, International investment and Trade, and Military and Federal Affairs.  The Division’s primary goal is to create, attract, retain and expand jobs while promoting Maryland’s many assets and strategic location.  As Managing Director of the Division of International Investment and Trade for DBED (2008-2009), Walker was responsible for the State’s international operations, including foreign direct investment attraction and assisting small and medium-sized enterprises in developing export markets for their products and services.  He has served as the Chief Administrative Officer for Anne Arundel County (2001-2006), responsible for the day-to-day management of county operations, served in the diplomatic service for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (1994-2001), and as Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for the State of Maryland (1986-1994).

He has also regularly consulted with national and international organizations primarily focused on policy, market and rural development, or food assistance in the former Soviet Union, Central Asia and Africa. He began the first cooperative program between the leading Russian agricultural university, the Timiryazev Academy and the University of Maryland College Park, in 1987, cited by the White House as a “model for the nation” in educating Russian students about the importance of a private, market-driven agriculture. 

In the 1990s, Walker served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Congressional Research Service, USDA’s Office of International Cooperation and Development, the Stanley Foundation, and other organizations focusing on agriculture and food reform in the former Soviet Union.  He also consulted on the World Bank’s Pre-Export Guarantee Program in Moldova and market reform initiatives in Central Asia.

Walker has received numerous awards and recognition.  These include the US Secretary of Agriculture’s Honor Award for Excellence; the Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator’s Special Award for outstanding support of USDA programs in Russia during a time of extreme political and economic upheaval; and the FAS International Honor Award for fostering high quality technical and commercial assistance in agriculture to the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union.  He also received honorary awards from the Timiryazev Academy in Moscow, including the Chayanov Gold Medal, the first American ever to receive the award, and the Distinguished Service Award from Rosmyasomoltorg, food agent for the Russian government.  He has had extensive civic and community involvements including the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents, TowsonGlobal Advisory Board, CGBS Steering Committee through the University of Baltimore, Maryland Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) Advisory Board, President of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, and currently serves as Chairman of the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Shawn Wolf

Shawn Wolf is currently President of Wright Manufacturing Inc. (WMI) in Frederick, MD. Shawn started his career at Wright as a consultant handling marketing and management issues, then joined the company in 2001 as the Chief Operating Officer. Shawn, along with Bill Wright, the CEO of WMI, completed the MWCC leadership program and aggressively began transforming Wright from a traditional batch manufacturer to a lean enterprise. Wright Manufacturing remains focused on its lean journey and proudly promotes lean enterprise to other businesses through tours and other means. Wright Manufacturing produces commercial lawn equipment serving the professional lawn care industry.

Previously, Shawn spent ten years in higher education as an administrator for three different universities. He also spent several years as an independent consultant focused primarily on leadership development, management, and marketing. He has a B.S. degree in Business Administration, Bryan College, an M.S. in Management, Eastern University and is currently a student at Regent University pursuing a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership.

Shawn resides in Frederick County with his wife Denise and their three children - Ryan, Lauren and Connor.