Ralph Ahlgren
321 El Molino Way rahlgren@pacbell.net
San Jose, CA 95119 (408) 396-4954
Senior Operations and Engineering Executive
Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Project Management
- Over 25 years experience in high-tech operations and engineering leadership in Silicon Valley
- Directed 60 person biotech equipment manufacturing start up to $40M annual revenue shipments
- Innovated unique power supply recovery process saving $4.5M annually at a major equipment supplier
- Directed turnaround of 160 person Digital X-Ray detector business unit, grew GM from 19% to 54%
- Awarded prestigious Lockheed-Martin Silver Supplier Award for Quality Excellence in military systems
- Developed deliver first multilayer SOI based wafer for MEMS devices; generating $11M in revenues
- Led turnaround of magnetic recording head fab; grew yield to 95% from 24% and reduced cycle time 50%
- Led production facility conversion saving 54% in direct labor fab costs and improved yields 25%
Qualifications and Skills
● Manufacturing ● Engineering ● Product development
● Quality Assurance ● Lean Six Sigma ● Yield Management
● Statistical Process Control ● DMAIC ● Failure Analysis
● Project Management ● Facilities ● Environmental Safety
Professional Experience
Vice President, Operations, Velocity11, Menlo Park, CA 2007 - 2008
- Led operations, manufacturing and procurement teams in delivery of record $40M in shipments of automated biotechnology instruments and integrated robotic platforms for biological research.
- Established operational growth strategy to double facility capacity. Directed commercial real estate efforts to select, lease and fit up property. Managed physical facilities to assure uninterrupted growth. Initiated and managed transition and transfer plans into new facilities.
- Created outsourcing strategy with key off-shore supplier to address capacity bottlenecks and enable continued growth.
- Participated in preparation of company acquisition; led integrations team following acquisition
Senior Business Consultant, Cisco Systems, MSquared Consulting, San Jose, CA 2005 - 2007
- Analyzed and mapped Cisco test and repair business processes,, documented performance gaps and developed business case to rapidly correct quality and reliability issues.
- Developed and implemented a novel test methodology to resolve quality issues and saving more than $4.5M per year. Procured, installed and deployed complete process, software, equipment solution in 6 months.
- Key contributor in serialized part number tracking process development. Instrumental in developing method to analyze data and identify defect trends.
Site Leader (GM), PerkinElmer Optoelectronics, Santa Clara, CA 2003 - 2005
- Senior production manager responsible for $60M in annual revenue in the delivery (manufacturing and test) of custom medical X-Ray detectors and military CCD cameras.
- Expanded process capacity 50 percent through, process yield improvements, critical bottleneck tool management and capital expansion while driving gross margins improvement from 19 % to 54%.
- Significantly upgraded management talent and organizational structure; established process and quality accountability. Recipient of Lockheed-Martin Silver Supplier Award for outstanding quality.
Vice President, Engineering and Operations, WaveSplitter, Inc, Fremont, CA 2002 - 2003
- Senior Engineering and Operations officer of WaveSplitter design and manufacturing team developing and manufacturing advanced DWDM components used in fiber-optic telecom systems.
- Led team of 40 engineers and scientists in the development of advanced PLC (planar light circuits) and micro-optical (MEMS) components.
- Key contributing member of management team; managed three directors and CTO.
Senior Vice President, Engineering, C-Speed Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA 2001 - 2002
- Senior Engineering officer leading the C-Speed development work to commercialize fully scalable MEMS based all optical switches for fiber optics telecommunications systems.
- Led a team of 35 engineers and scientists and 3 directors to achieve critical milestones in development cycle on-time and budget for advanced fully scalable switch core.
- Successfully productized scalable switch core and system; demonstrated and showcased Alpha-product; executed beta test with key telecom customers. .
- Developed complete supply base to support manufacturing ramp.
President (COO), Silicon Evolution, San Jose, CA 1999 - 2001
- Senior managing partner of Silicon Evolution, a SOI (silicon-on-insulator) wafer product start-up.
- Designed, developed and commercialized unique process for the delivery of low-cost SOI wafer products using a novel, low cost technique for use in semiconductor, MEMS and PLC optical circuits
- Secured financing, established marketing channels and developed business partnerships with key customer base (including Intel), qualified and delivered production volumes to seven customers in 12 months.
- Negotiated successful merger with leading materials technology company to expand shareholder value.
Vice President of Development Engineering, Candescent Technologies Inc, San Jose, CA 1998 - 1999
- Developed critical manufacturing process technology for advanced Flat Panel Display products employing a novel cold cathode emitter based technology. Led a team of 60 engineers, scientists and technicians to successfully ramp into development pre-production volumes.
- Established proper process controls to assure repeatability of processes, improving process yields 40 percent higher than original baseline; qualified new substrate format, improving productivity 200 percent.
- Provided technical leadership on factory design, equipment specifications, and negotiated key equipment contracts with leading Japanese and German equipment suppliers.
Senior Director of Operations, Read-Rite Corporation, Fremont, CA 1996 - 1998
- Directed aggressively turned around and optimized the performance of the Read-Rite (now Western Digital) Fremont, CA thin-film magnetic recording head facility.
- Led the manufacturing, engineering and operations team of 400 employees to improve yields more than 100%, slash NPI and standard product cycle times 70%, and improve on-time delivery to 98%.
- Launched new magneto-resistive technology in record 3 month cycle, preventing loss of market share.
- Introduced 15 new products in record time; implemented new FIB process control capability, enabling unparalleled process capability and reliability.
Senior Manager and Engineer, IBM Corporation, San Jose, CA and New York 1978 - 1996
- Created and implemented “Production Facility” concept to consolidate manufacturing operations. Improved operational productivity 54%, yields 25% and cut production cycle times 25% through Kanban deployment.
- As Program Manager of Recording Head Products, drove customer satisfaction metrics from 12% to 96%.
- Implemented novel program to expand IBM personal computer capacity. Delivered over one million IBM PC component board assemblies to create record expansion of PC program in three months.
- As manufacturing Chief Information Officer, cut IT costs more than 40% by eliminating unnecessary automatic job execution and redundant or outdated report generation and downsizing main-frame MIPS loads.
Education
Master of Science, Chemical Engineering Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Bachelor of Science, Analytical Chemistry Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Executive Manufacturing Program University of Virginia, Darden School of Business
IBM New Managers School Armonk, New York
IBM Middle Manager Program Armonk, New York
IBM Management Assessment Program Armonk, New York
AWARDS
IBM Outstanding Achievement Award “Manufacturing Ramp Up” 1993
IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award “MR Wafer Production Ramp Up” 1994
IBM Outstanding Innovation Award “Production Facility Implementation” 1995
American Chemical Society Certified Analytical Chemist 1977
Senior Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2007
Volunteer service with the Boy Scouts of America and leadership training Hold Eagle Rank.
Volunteer Financial officer and Treasurer, Rancho Santa Teresa Swim and Tennis Club.
Volunteer Service Leader for training youth organization to meet leadership goals and objectives.
Papers
“Analysis of pollutants from a high temperature entrained-flow coal gasification unit” 1977
