Empty shell to running operation. Three times in five years.
Senior operations leader on a 400,000 sq ft distribution center in Mantua, Ohio. One hundred fifty associates across two shifts, $7.7M in site direct spend through July 2026, and accountability for output, safety, quality, and capital. Twenty-six years in distribution, nearly twenty of them in cold-chain third-party logistics.
Starting on the forklift.
Ending up on the deed.
Twenty-six years in distribution began in March 2000 on a forklift at Americold in Massillon, running shipping, receiving, and the production tunnel that connected the Kraft Heinz plant to the distribution center. Nearly twenty years later that run ended as Warehouse Manager over two buildings totaling 250,000 sq ft, shipping about 160,000 cases and 1,600 pallets a day on roughly 60 outbound truckloads to more than 50 retail customers including Walmart, Kroger, Meijer, and Safeway.
That site earned its first SQF certification with my name on it as named Practitioner, scored in the Good band, and recertified every year through departure. It also held a zero DART rate in 2018 and 2019. The successor trained to take it over has kept it certified since, and Americold sent me to Augusta, Georgia to prepare a second site that earned its own certification.
Since September 2021 the work has been Piping Rock Health Products: three buildings opened in five years, culminating in an $11M company investment in Mantua taken from realtor-supported site search through layout, contractor management, and go-live. Site fill rate rose from just over 80% in 2024 to over 90% in 2025. Cost per case came down from $2.91 in April 2026 to $2.42 in July, while absorbing a full facility relocation and eight new hires.
Underneath all of it, one operating conviction: a building only performs as well as the standard the people on the floor hold themselves to, and that standard is set by whoever is willing to walk it every day.
The Floor. 400,000 square feet, zone by zone.
Twenty-six years.
One trade, learned end to end.
Senior operations leader for a 400,000 sq ft distribution center: 150 associates on two shifts, two managers and one supervisor reporting directly, and $7.7M in site direct spend through July 2026 including $3.9M in labor at about $788K a month. Opened three buildings in five years and led an $11M company investment in Mantua from realtor-supported site search through layout, contractor management, and go-live, plus over $2M in racking and a full material handling fleet. Managed three sites at once in 2026. Grew headcount from 65 to 150 and annual case volume from 4.06M to 5.59M.
Opened micro-fulfillment centers in Boardman and Akron inside two months, covering racking, staffing, and a seven-day operating cadence.
Stood up a 110,000 sq ft distribution operation dedicated to a national e-commerce perishables account, from interviewing and hiring through live shipping, reporting to the regional director. Ran 5 to 10 outbound 53-foot truckloads a day with three supervisors and 55 associates. Launched in July 2020 and kept it running through the pandemic without a single shutdown day. Owned the site budget, P&L reporting, purchasing, and customer invoicing.
Managed stock accountability across a one million sq ft complex with four direct reports and ran the drop system to cut material waste. Built the process flow for the coil slitter and Clifford line on the Epicor implementation, mapping label printer, data entry, and workstation placement for the IT team.
Owned quality and safety across two buildings totaling 250,000 sq ft shipping about 160,000 cases and 1,600 pallets a day on roughly 60 outbound truckloads, running dedicated third-party distribution for Kraft Heinz Frozen to more than 50 retail customers. Served as named SQF Practitioner for the facility's first certification, owning SOPs, internal audits, CAPA meetings, mock recalls, and training records. Trained the successor who has kept the site certified since, and prepared a second Americold site in Augusta, Georgia that earned its own certification. Served as the Kraft Heinz Insider in SAP, coordinating orders and carrier scheduling across shared TMS and WMS platforms.
Scheduled shift labor, ran coaching, reviews, and interviews, wrote SOPs for operational tasks, and monitored KPIs in a union environment. Served as lead site tester on the 2010 conversion from AS/400 to Red Prairie WMS, became site subject matter expert, and traveled to Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania to support additional go-lives. Led a Kaizen project that pre-printed receiving labels and moved paperwork handoff to the dock, cutting 10 to 15 minutes from each of 20 to 30 daily inbound unloads.
Ran shipping, receiving, and the production tunnel connecting the Kraft Heinz plant to the distribution center, and trained incoming drivers.
Every one taken from an empty shell to a running operation.
What gets brought into the building.
- Site start-up and relocation
- Racking, layout, and slotting design
- Capacity planning and multi-shift operations
- Peak season planning
- Display and co-pack programs
- Full site accountability
- Cost per case management
- Site direct spend and P&L reporting
- Capital justification and ROI analysis
- Vendor selection and negotiation
- Equipment fleet strategy
- Labor modeling and scenario planning
- SQF Practitioner, cGMP, HACCP
- ISO 9001 internal auditor
- OSHA 30 and site safety leadership
- Cycle count program design
- WMS and ERP implementation
- Red Prairie, Epicor, NetSuite, SAP
Certified on the things auditors ask about.
Give me the shell. Give me the number. The rest is process.
Open to Director of Distribution, Director of Operations, and General Manager roles in high-volume distribution, supplements, food, and third-party logistics. Based in Dover, Ohio, and open to relocation to Jacksonville or West Palm Beach, Florida.