SBTI Leadership
Team
 Dr. Stephen Zinkgraf - CEO
Steve founded SBTI in May 1997. Steve holds a Ph.D. in applied
statistics from Texas A&M University. After spending a number
of
years in academia, Steve joined Motorola in 1988 as a Statistical
Quality Engineering Group Leader leading a large electronics plant's
SPC (Statistical Process Control) effort. Other positions held while at
Motorola include Engineering Group Leader, Production Manager and Plant
Quality Manager. Steve has also spent time at Compaq Computer
Corporation as a staff statistician and at ABB leading an internal
consulting group focused on implementing Six Sigma in combination with
Lean Manufacturing systems.
Steve was
instrumental in deploying Six Sigma in the
Engineered Materials Sector of Allied Signal from 1994 through 1997,
returning over $360 million to the company.
 Dan Kutz - President
Dan had a successful career at Motorola from 1986 to May 1998. He
served in a variety of capacities, including the successful support of
the Hong Kong and China factories. He was involved with quality
improvement projects in every aspect of his career at Motorola. During
his tenure, Dan was part of the Six Sigma initiative with Steve
Zinkgraf, SBTI's founder and CEO.
As an SBTI Project Manager, his knowledge, leadership skills and
support of Six Sigma deployment has ensured success for a number of
valued clients. Dan's skills as a Project Manager assisted one major
client to achieve 10x their investment within the first year of
deployment. Dan's responsibilities include leading the Project
Managers, heading the marketing activities, improving the leadership
training curriculum, and expanding Regional Training Programs
offerings.
 Joe Ficalora - President of Global
Services
Joe had a very successful career as Program Manager and Engineering
Supervisor, including the development of a first of a kind Fiber Optic
Rate Gyro for Mercer Engineering Research Center. He was also the
Engineering Supervisor for the development and initial production of
AlliedSignal's Ring Laser Gyro product line. His work at AlliedSignal
earned him a technical achievement award. His team's efforts increased
delivery rate by 400%. Joe holds several US patents and has delivered
several talks on Six Sigma and it's applications.
Joe has been a
valued consultant with SBTI since 1998.
He has been instrumental in the design, development and execution of
the Master Black Belt Program. This highly rated program consistently
receives letters of recommendation. He has also been the Master
Consultant for a number of clients.
 Joe
Costello - Vice President of
Operations
Joining SBTI in 2002 after a very successful career as a Senior
Consultant where Joe led enterprise wide deployments for his clients
who’s programs won awards and worldwide recognition for
operational excellence in some of the most competitive industries.
Joe’s deployment expertise and program management skills were
honed as an automotive prototype and design engineer responsible for
concept-to-production responsibilities. Joe’s production
designs
were used on automotive platforms such as Chrysler’s Viper
and
Prowler production lines.
Joe has brought his expertise of Lean operating systems to
SBTI’s
already powerful Six Sigma methods and as chief designer of
SBTI’s Lean Leader® program Joe has led global
implementations of Lean programs for some of SBTI's most successful
clients. Many Fortune 500 companies now use SBTI’s Lean
Leader® program as their preferred Lean implementation vehicle.
With the same
self-funding requirements as Lean
Leader®, Joe has been key in the design of SBTI’s
K-Sigma™ and Lean Sigma deployment programs that assure
SBTI’s clients the greatest return on investment.
Now, as Vice
President of Operations at SBTI, Joe
manages SBTI’s delivery resources, account development,
customer
satisfaction and most importantly assuring SBTI’s
customer’s highest returns on investment.
 Dr.
Ian Wedgwood – Vice
President of New Services and Technology
Prior to joining SBTI in 2001 as a Master Consultant, Ian worked for
the global engineering group Invensys PLC as a Program Manager for
major change initiatives. In Invensys Power Systems Division, Ian led
the efforts to lean the Divisions’ New Product Development
processes and then led Invensys’ highly successful Lean
Product
Development for Six Sigma deployment. Some 380+ Design Belts within
Invensys Power Systems alone yielded a 65 times return in less than two
years.
Since joining SBTI
he has facilitated a number of change
initiatives in industries as diverse as electronics, engineered
materials, medical devices, chemicals, and healthcare, and has trained
and mentored numerous Executives, Champions, and Project Leaders
(Belts) in Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), Six Sigma, and Lean.
Ian was a key
member of the teams that created
SBTI’s Lean Product Development, K-Sigma (accelerated Lean
Sigma), EHS, Project Management and Healthcare methodologies and
curricula. Drawing on over a decade of Lean and Lean Sigma experience,
Ian has played a pivotal role in integrating Lean and Six Sigma
throughout SBTI’s product offerings.
Ian joined
SBTI’s Leadership Team as Executive
Director in 2003. In this role he headed up SBTI’s Healthcare
Group, facilitated client deployments and acted as a primary change
agent for SBTI’s internal processes.
In 2008, Ian was
chosen to be the Vice President of New
Services and Technology. As the Vice President of New Services and
Technology, Ian spearheads developing new products and services,
developing new technologies, strategy execution, managing
SBTI’s
product portfolio and overseeing SBTI’s Information
Technology
support
Ian holds a Ph.D.
and a First-Class Honors degree in
Applied Mathematics from Scotland’s St. Andrew’s
University.
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