Karen Tadd

Karen Tadd has a long and varied work history. Karen began their career in 1997 at Pilkington, where they held roles of Production Team Leader, Master Black Belt, Black Belt, and Industrial Engineer. During their tenure, they led a variety of projects across multiple plants, products and processes, resulting in project returns of over $4.5M per year. In 2002, they moved to Hayes Lemmerz, where they were the Master Black Belt & Production Manager. Karen developed and deployed Six Sigma and Lean Programs to HLI world-wide, developed Operational Excellence Intranet Site, and managed yield, uptime, productivity, safety, quality and continuous improvement of operations. In 2005, they became the Owner of Chain Reaction, where they developed and led Six Sigma Training, Lean Training, and 8-Step Problem Solving Training, and led supplier audits and improvement projects for defect and cost reduction. In 2008, they joined Ultra Electronics - AMI as the Vice President of Operations, where they developed manufacturing operations and processes to take manufacturing from prototype-level production to manufacturing-ready production, implemented company-wide ISO-required processes, and achieved ISO9001:2008 certification in less than one year without a quality department. In 2013, they became Co-Owner and COO of Pescara Hand Crafted Foods, LLC. In 2014, they joined JAC Products as the Director of Quality, where they were responsible for Quality Management System, Customer Quality, Warranty, and Supplier Quality for North America, Europe, and China. Karen drastically simplified and reinforced implementation of the Quality Management System (QMS) across all sites, resulting in a 10x reduction of third-party audit findings, and implemented supplier performance tracking and corrective action processes, reducing Supplier PPM rate by 25%. In 2019, they joined P.J. Wallbank Springs, Inc. as the Vice President of Operations.

Karen Tadd attended Hoban High School from 1988 to 1992. Karen then went on to The Ohio State University, where they obtained a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1997.