Thank you for your interest. With this information I've gone into much more detail than will probably interest most people. Hopefully some of you may be interested in the detail of some of the information. In any case, it was fun doing it !
To navigate simply click on the + sign next to the item you wish to read. Enjoy !
Skill set summary:
- Business Development / Marketing
- Strategic and Financial planning
- Budget preparation and execution
- Marketing campaigns, email, website, social media
- Trade show planning and execution
- Sales Management
- Sales team building and motivation
- Pipeline driven CRM systems
- Incentive plan development and implementation
- Development of Domestic / International pricing plans
My career history in reverse order from top to bottom………………….
My colleague, Dan Whelan, who had been Controller at Datum, Timing, Test, and Measurement, for a number of years, convinced me that we were the people to take on the market. Armed with an SBA loan, and a team of people recruited from our old employer, we established Precise Time and Frequency, Inc. in October 2002.Division of responsibilities was as follows: Our product portfolio at the time comprised a number of instruments that with a degree of persuasion our competitors agreed to sell to us at a significantly discounted price. We then repackaged and relabeled as Precise Time and Frequency, Inc. products, creating the “ptf” brand.In an astonishing (and for us quite fortunate) move, Symmetricom decided to shed virtually the complete network of previous Datum representatives. These were people with whom I had successfully worked for the past five years, and whose fingers were on the pulse of the market. Needless to say I immediately set about recruiting them, and together we were able to insure that Precise Time and Frequency (ptf for short) hit the ground running ! together with supplying some of the most recognized companies around the world including: Traditionally, the majority of precision time and frequency references have used the GPS satellite system, owned by the US Government and operated by the US Air Force, however in international markets there has been some skepticism as to whether or not one day the US could make this unavailable to international users. Over the past decade however, new satellite systems have begun to come into operation (QZSS/Japan, Glonas/Russia, Beidou/China, Galileo/Europe) which means that this dependency on a single system can be eliminated. In 2015 ptf completed and launched the latest development in multi GNS (multiple satellite system capability) Time and Frequency Receivers, that to the best of my knowledge outperforms any other time and frequency in its class available on the market today. “ptf 3207A Features for Dummies!”
Precise Time and Frequency, Inc. website.
It took about one year to start to replace the re-labelled products with our own designs. Driven by some good contracts, and a great engineering team, we were able to develop some excellent performance products, and establish ptf as a high quality Time and Frequency equipment manufacturer. Having been in business for well over a decade, we are now an established supplier of hig performance products, and today have supplied equipment around the world to some of the most prestigious programs, including:
In fact the new instrument is so feature packed, we even had difficulty within ptf remembering them all! Clearly, getting the message to potential customers would take some doing, and so I recently took the time and effort to produce a small booklet entitled:
With my previous sales experience, supported with some solid technical knowledge, this task proved to be challenging, interesting, and very doable. Leaning on my previous experience I; When I joined the company, revenue was around $5M. Having demonstrated a track record of success, I was promoted to Vice President, Marketing and Sales. By achieving year on year double digit growth, the company grew to just under $30M by the time I realized that again after around 6 years, it was time for a change. The company’s success had drawn much attention and in 2000, the company was acquired by Symmetricom Corporation. With various moves that had occurred in the time and frequency market, this had left somewhat of a void, presenting an opportunity for a new player to join the field, enter Precise Time and Frequency, Inc.
Datum Corporation, or as it was at that time Frequency and Time Systems, (then Symmetricom, and now Microsemi) was one of only two companies worldwide that manufactured Cesium Atomic Clocks. The other company was Agilent (now Keysight) Technologies. Datum’s main claim to fame at that time was supply of the atomic clocks used in the GPS Satellite Constellation, which was not only high profile, but very lucrative business.
The only drawback was that there were a finite number of satellites, so at some point that business would be saturated. My job was to build the rest of the business so that when the time came, the company’s dependency on the GPS business was minimal.
Having determined that my main skill set was in Business Development/Sales within a technical environment, I spent some time putting together a resume and a general cover letter and set about the task of getting my name out there. I mailed somewhere in the region of 3000 letters to a subset of companies that seemed to fit the criteria I was looking for, then waited. In the mean time I also set up a sole proprietorship, DSBGroup, attained an ISO 9001 Quality Auditor Certificate, and put together a portfolio to enable me to do some local consulting in the Quality field (something with which I had become intimately familiar with during my time as a General Manager). Lo and behold, I got a hit, several actually, but the one that caught my attention was from Whittaker Electronic Resources, in Simi Valley, California. The company was looking for a Business Development Manager for its line of ultra high stable, high temperature, semi rigid, coaxial cables using Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) as the dielectric insulating material. The interviewing process, with Larry Kauffman, an ex. president of Teledyne, was somewhat exhaustive. After at least three overnight visits, and completing several exercises to develop a forward plan for the business, I was finally hired.
As much of my time would be spent travelling, it was decided that I need not relocate in the short term. When I wasn’t travelling elsewhere, I would go to Simi Valley early Monday morning, stay for 4 long days and take the redeye back to Massachusetts on Thursday evening. My previous experience in managing sales proved invaluable. Although it was early days for a CRM, I was able to generate opportunities, track them, and close sales with a pretty good picture of what the pipeline looked like and where I needed to focus my efforts. The market for Silicon Dioxide cables included aircraft radar systems, nuclear power plants, oil and gas operations, spacecraft, ships, and other generally hostile environments. The position was enjoyable and also quite demanding, however after about one year the company was launching into a re-organization. I had been considering permanent relocation, but shelved it. Coincidentally at that time, another company that remarkably had kept my resume from my previous job search, got in touch with me to see if I might be interested in a Director of Sales position. Given the environment within Whittaker, and the fact that the new position was within driving distance of home, I responded positively, see the next entry…………………………
My next opportunity with Infrared was a big one. I was appointed as the President of the USA subsidiary, and was responsible for managing and growing the business in North America, with a staff of Sales Engineers, Applications Engineers, and administrators.
During my time at the helm of Infrared Engineering Inc. there was no doubt that my primary focus was on business development and sales. I recruited a team of regional managers to cover the territory in the US, and along with them also a comprehensive network of Manufacturers Representatives in order to cover the necessary amount of ground. I also personally undertook a number of sales training courses to get up to speed with what was in the US regarded as a real profession, as opposed to in the UK where sales was simply considered a necessary evil.
I established internal systems to log and track sales activity in terms of leads, quotes, and of course orders. The main market niche when I arrived was measurement of moisture and other ingredients in tobacco, but this was quickly expanded into foodstuffs (potato chips, coffee, cereals) and the plastics industry, in particular blown film (used for making supermarket carrier bags) and other plastic film manufacture.
This 2 year appointment lasted for 5 years, during which I achieved a year on year double digit growth for the company. My follow on offer was a tough one, head up the business back in the UK.
Tough because the offer was a very good one, but myself and my family were now fully embedded into life in the USA, and not inclined to move back across the pond. I had been with the company for over a decade, and there was really no other place within it for me to go, so I decided it was time to take a leap of faith and look for something else in the US.
Like most people that have been driving ahead successfully for many years, I hadn’t really given too much thought as to what my key skills and abilities were, so my first task was to recap and make sure I could identify what I was good at.
Infrared Engineering was slightly larger than EDI, but still relatively small, employing around 30 people when I joined as a Project Engineer. The company founders consisted of three people, and they had founded the company on the basis of developing and selling a product line of infrared spectrophotometers. The particular niche into which they had penetrated and established a strong reputation was in real time measurements on production process lines. Although in principal the technology of infrared absorption is quite straightforward, the implementation of an effective system is not. The latest measurement systems (pictured below, actually differ very little in appearance from those being manufactured during the time I was there.
After spending several years in an engineering capacity, I was given the opportunity to become General Manager of the facility, with responsibility for engineering, production, and facilities. This was a very challenging and rewarding position, with the pressures of achieving delivery goals each month, supervising an engineering team designing custom configurations, and managing a facility of what grew to around 80 people. In addition, I was tasked with planning and implementing a move into a new, much bigger facility utilizing two industrial units next to where we were located to increase from around 4,000 to 15,000 square feet.
Strange, I remember it looking much better!
Along the way I was responsible for updating IT systems, including a significantly more efficient inventory control system, CAD system and others. I was also appointed as a Director of the company, with a significant stake in the ownership of the business.
So it was time for a change to broaden my experience. Fun as Marconi Avionics was, things inevitably moved slowly in such a large organization, and the technology we were using was always many years behind the curve. EDI (Electronics Designs Ipswich) was at the other end of the scale. Less than 15 people, of which when I joined three were Engineers.
The company was an Engineering Consulting Firm, bidding on small, self contained contracts. My first project was to design a test set for testing alternators on a production line. Simple but fun. The test load was actually a solid copper bar approximately 6 inches long. I had to take into account the load, testing time, and temperature rise within the load to insure the whole thing didn’t overheat. Quite an interesting departure from the work I had previously been doing.
My next project was for the UK scientific research council to undertake development work on a new design approach for a hearing aid, using RF logarithmic compression techniques. There were numerous other small projects along the way but the last one of note that I remember involved designing and building an ignition timing test set for Ford Motor Company.
Ford went as far as milling a notch in the engine flywheel so that our sensor could compare the timing delay between the distributor and the flywheel. I had the opportunity to visit the Ford production line and work on the equipment in situ, really quite amazing to see how the cars went together. As interesting and varied as this job was, I quickly realized that it wasn’t going anywhere and so I decided it was time for another change.
I was fortunate enough to be gainfully employed straight out of high school. I had opted for a University “Sandwich” Course in Electronics which meant that between semesters, as a part of my degree qualification, I had to be employed in a position that complemented my course work.
After a short initiation period at Marconi Avoinics in Rochester, Kent, during which I learnt to solder, build a wiring harness, and file a block of steel to within a couple of thou square (really useful!) I was off to college.
I immediately realized this had been a good choice, because unlike many of the students, I was fortunate enough to receive a “subsistence allowance” (read beer money) from the company, which also covered my housing rent! The down side was of course, that as soon as we finished the semester, I was immediately back to work in Rochester, but actually it was quite an interesting job – working as part of a team on a “stick force sensor” (system of strain gauges) to enable piloting of the Concorde aircraft even if the actual control column was for some reason immovable.
By applying the appropriate amount of force in the correct direction, the pilot was still able to steer the aircraft – quite neat ! Other projects in which I the honor of making a contribution included an autopilot for the Tornado fighter, designing a drone system for the Sea Vixen to be used for target practice, and testing and troubleshooting head up displays for the A7, both of the last two were of course Navy aircraft.
The project which really caught my imagination was the equipment designed to project a “bomb fall line”. With this equipment, an aircraft could approach a target from behind a hill, and without ever seeing the target could watch the projected line of where the bombs would drop if released at any point. So this was my first job, and I remained for a few more years, during which time I trained and qualified for my professional qualification of “Chartered Engineer” (Professional Engineer)
Paul Baia – President, Datum Timing, Test, and Measurement
I think of David. I had the pleasure of knowing David for
around 5 years during which time he reported directly to
me as VP Sales and Marketing.
Above all I was impressed by David’s ability to directly
contribute to company growth by motivating the sales team,
and his leadership by example. David would be a true asset
for any positions requiring dynamic leadership and
sound business development and comes with my heartfelt
recommendation.