Overview
Larry Swan provides interim leadership and coaching for small to midsize manufacturing companies. He has over 40 years of experience in engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, operations, strategic initiatives, and senior executive positions. This includes responsibility for multisite, domestic and international manufacturing companies. His leadership and technical strengths have resulted in progressive track record in both process and discrete industries.
Larry thrives on working with people and helping them succeed better than they had thought possible.
His approach is people-centric, developing individuals, teams, and organizations. He utilizes effective metrics and lean techniques for operational excellence.
Larry is able to relate with technical and manufacturing people while bridging with other business functions. This unique ability to understand and operate in technical and nontechnical domains often translates into innovative and effective solutions.
He is especially successful in turnaround situations and transforming dysfunctional cultures. Larry is able to enter distressed organizations, create and lead people to a shared vision.
Core Competencies
Executive Leadership
- Able to quickly assess existing operations, develop a shared vision and make it happen
- Effective metrics, process improvement, and operational excellence
People and culture
- Ability to listen, coach, mentor, and develop individuals, organizations and culture.
- High Emotional Intelligence
Turnaround initiatives
- Leadership and change management when entering dysfunctional situations and throughout transformational growth.
Strategic initiatives
- Technology and Operations Strategy development and implementation
- Organization structure, and culture development
- Business and product development
Personal values
- Integrity, ethics, honesty, trust, fairness
Drivers/Motivators
Coaching individuals and organizations
- Helping people become, or do more, than they could envision.
- Realizing that touching the life of someone pays forward well beyond that person.
- Internal rewards when providing experience and coaching to augment skills of evolving leaders
Achievement-oriented results
- Innovating, building and accomplishing results, whether things, technologies, processes or people.
- Inciteful analysis, thinking outside the box and creative problem solving
- Helping leaders find innovative solutions to complex performance issues
Background
Larry began his career as an engineer from one of the top engineering universities. He was quite successful in technical roles which quickly led to increased responsibilities. However, early on he realized his knack for developing individuals and organizations was intrinsically the most rewarding.
This core value along with his technical strengths resulted in a range of successes in both process and discrete manufacturing industries including R&D, capital projects, engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, operations, strategic initiatives, and senior executive roles.
LG Swan Associates – Interim Operations Executive
Business consulting and interim leadership
Hayssen, a Barry-Wehmiller company – VP Global Operations
Engineering, supply chain, manufacturing and operations for an international machinery OEM
Idea Connection Systems – President, Atlanta branch
Organizational consulting for Fortune 500 companies
ExxonMobil
Increasing R&D, engineering management and business development roles
Goodyear T&R
Increasing R&D, engineering management and business development roles
MBA Marketing & Operations – University of Rochester
BS Mechanical Engineering – University of Illinois
Professional Engineering Licenses, patents, numerous training programs
Currently, Larry is often engaged coaching or providing domain expertise to others. Otherwise, he can be found on the tennis court, running half marathons, or pursuing a variety of creative pursuits.
For more information: