Meet Our Team:

We are currently looking for experienced senior level new product development (NPD) professionals who have deep NPD experience (engineer, product manager, marketing and R&D) to help grow our business. Experience with a consulting firm and selling consulting service is a plus. Please contact mdrotar@strategy2market.com for more information.

Mary Drotar
Partner

Mary Drotar is a strategic innovation professional with extensive industry and consulting experience. Mary’s new product development expertise is in process, lean techniques, organizational development, and team dynamics. She has most recently worked with companies that represent the medical device, industrial, transportation, and consumer electronics industries.

Mary began her career at Ford Motor Company and she progressed through various positions in marketing and development. Mary then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, concentrating in the areas of strategy, voice of the customer and scenario planning.

Mary transitioned to consulting and successfully helped scores of companies in capturing the Voice of the Customer and in gaining clearer understanding of markets and competition. She then leveraged this knowledge in her work developing winning strategies, identifying new product and service opportunities, and designing successful business models. She was Director of Consulting at Cambridge Management Consulting and subsequently appointed the position of Vice President at Targetbase Marketing, a firm specializing in marketing analytics.

Mary has an MS in Organizational Leadership and Development from College of St. Catherine’s and an MBA from The University of Chicago. She is certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA). She is also certified by the PDMA as a NPDP Preparation Review Instructor, and is on the national certification committee. Mary serves on The University of Chicago Innovation Roundtable Board as the VP of Programming.

She also serves as a board member for the PDMA Chicago Chapter as the VP of NPDP certification. Mary is also a patent holder and a member of the Society of Women Engineers. She has guest lectured at Northwestern University in the School of Engineering and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mary has recently received provisional certification to facilitate Design Thinker, a simulation program developed by Experience Point and IDEO for developing break-through ideas. She also serves as a member of The University of Chicago CEO Roundtable.

Maurilio Garcia
Consultant

Maurilio has recently graduated with a Master of Science in Engineering Design and Innovation from Northwestern University’s Segal Design Institute. Trained to solve design problems with a human-focused approach, he has obtained a keen understanding of how to create innovative and effective products. His specialization is in differentiating products through their design, analyzing current market trends, and strategic design. In addition to his graduate program’s focus, he received a Minor in Engineering Management; gaining knowledge of engineering management principles, optimizing business models, and developing holistic and strategic business plans.

Before entering graduate school, Maurilio’s undergraduate major was in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University. Here his focus was in product design and manufacturing, including plastic injection molding, CNC machining, and product optimization. Maurilio also holds a Minor in Economics.

John C. Levine
Principal

John Levine is an innovative marketing professional with more than thirty years of experience in brand marketing and new product development.  His expertise in new product development is in innovation strategy, market opportunity assessment, brand leveraging, idea generation, and process improvement.

John has held line management positions with both Fortune 100 and entrepreneurial firms, where he provided new direction and leadership to improve business performance.  He began his career in brand management with leading consumer marketers such as H.J. Heinz and Pillsbury, advancing to the role of Director of Marketing–New Products.  His accomplishments included developing and launching new products to extend brands into new categories and market segments, and revitalizing brands to reverse sales declines.  As Vice President of Marketing for a new venture, Bernard Foods, he led pioneering marketing and sales efforts to expand the business in an emerging category.

John earned an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Kathy Morrissey
Partner

Kathy has over 20 years of experience with Fortune 100 companies specializing in market and customer research, strategy, business processes and models. Kathy’s new product development expertise is in developing innovation, product, technology, and market strategies, as well as product and technology roadmaps. In addition, she also has considerable experience in portfolio management and early-staged new product development activities.

She has most recently worked with companies that represent the medical device, industrial, transportation, consumer electronics and appliance industries.

Kathy was a senior manager in research and strategy positions with Ameritech, Household International and CNA Insurance Companies. She has led research projects to develop customer segmentation systems, quantify customer value and understand customer choices and preferences. She has also led large teams in developing coordinated planning initiatives for business and product strategy. Kathy is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded two businesses in the music industry.

Kathy is a mathematician that has an MS in Statistics from Carnegie-Mellon University and has completed the doctoral core courses. She also has an MBA from the University of Chicago. She is an active and long-standing board member of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association and currently Past-Chair of the national ASA Council of Chapters. Kathy is also licensed to teach Design Thinker, a software simulation program jointly developed by IDEO and Experience Point.

She is certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA) and serves on the Certification Committee. She has guest lectured at Northwestern University in the School of Engineering. She is also a member of The University of Chicago CEO Roundtable.

Mike Napier
Principal

Mike is a product development and marketing professional. He started his career as an engineer in electronics manufacturing, bringing complex military communications equipment from prototype to full production. This included extensive experience in environmental testing as well as developing and implementing product improvements for high-reliability product operation. He has also done work in optimizing manufacturing line throughput.

After completing his MBA, Mike moved into medical products. He spent time as a field clinical representative in the Midwest helping physicians implant pacemakers and defibrillators in patients, assisting with over 200 procedures. He then moved into product development, gathering Voice of Customer input around the world from physicians for implantable devices and related products. Mike has been a product manager for cardiology, laparoscopic surgery, diabetes, and diagnostic products, focusing on product development, product launch, and cost reduction. He also has considerable experience teaching electrocardiology and medical device technology to corporate sales representatives throughout North and South America and Europe. Additionally, Mike has staged symposia on advanced diagnostic cardiology algorithms with medical luminaries at major scientific sessions.

Mike has a BS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Illinois at Urbana, a MBA from the University of Chicago, and he has passed the North American Society for Pacing and Electrophysiology Exam for Associated Professionals. Mike is also an accomplished triathlete.

Mike is certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA).

Robert Stathopulos
Principal

Bob Stathopulos is a product development executive from the medical device industry. His career can be divided into two segments – over fifteen years employed as an R&D engineer and manager for several global medical device manufacturers, followed by over fifteen years serving as a product development consultant to early stage medical device ventures and established device companies.

As an employee, Bob served as Director of Research & Development and Director of Business Development for the $50 million surgical products division of Becton Dickinson, Director of Manufacturing Development for the $250 million medical device division of American Cyanamid, and Director of Product Development for the $125 million surgical products subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. He worked on the design, development and manufacture of hypodermic needles, venipuncture needles, scalpel blades, suction catheters, surgical sutures, cranial surgery devices and general surgery instruments.

Currently, Bob consults to privately funded enterprises, assisting the management team move their “first product” out of development and into production. He consulted to several divisions of Baxter Healthcare on their product development process, and to Silliker Laboratories on the automation of their pathogen-testing process. “First products” worked on include safety needles and syringes, safety blood collection devices, fiber optic catheters, transdermal drug patches and electrical stimulation patches.

Bob’s expertise includes streamlining the product development cycle, the application of FDA design controls, new venture and new product due diligence, manufacturing supply chain development, and cost analysis of new products in development.

Bob earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from City College of the City University of New York, and a Master of Science in Bio-Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York. He participates in the New Jersey Entrepreneurs Forum (NJEF) and Venture Association of New Jersey (VANJ).

Mike Wissman
Principal

Mike is a product development, process improvement, marketing, and business development professional. He began his career as Manager of Quality Control in electromechanical devices serving military, aerospace, medical device, and textile applications. Subsequent roles included Process Engineering Supervisor which included overseeing production of cathode ray tubes for Panasonic. Mike then was appointed Manager of Process Engineering and Lean Implementation for Spinnaker Coating, LLC, providing adhesive coating and label converting. Mike then was appointed Business Unit Product Manager for Bullen Ultrasonics, who provides CMP and machining services for glass, quartz, and other hard brittle materials used in MEMS and semiconductor process equipment.

Most recently, Mike served as Director of Product Management for Standard Register, with oversight of new product development, marketing, and sales for the industrial business unit. He directed commercialization of pressure-sensitive labels, printed literature, and in-mold labeling/decoration utilized with injection, transfer, rotational, and stretch-blow molding processes. In this role, he engaged with companies in the medical disposable, medical durable, consumer appliance, power equipment, electrical distribution, and HVAC&R markets.

Mike holds a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Dayton, researching inorganic polymer degradation, a B.S. in Biology, minor in Chemistry from Wright State University, and has completed the coursework for a M.S. Biochemistry at Wright State University, focusing on tissue research in visual protein degradation.

Featured Speakers:

Dan Brown

Dan embarked on a career in the chemical and plastics industry where he applied his science education, and natural ability in engineering to a fast track business career. While serving in roles of increasing responsibility in the rapidly globalizing marketplace of the 1980's, Dan quickly discovered the necessity of creating competitive product advantages to sustain a business model. These early marketplace experiences inspired Dan to identify and create many new technologies for his employers and later his consulting customers leading to the creation and commercialization of over 30 patents in basic research, B2B, and B2C markets.

As a consultant, teaching and executing this strategy though his clients organizations, Dan has worked with large and small companies to create and commercialize many differentiated products and processes for their customers, often creatively redefining these spaces, while at the same time receiving intellectual property protection to secure the commercialization investment for these projects. Beyond product development and commercialization, Dan is an organizational specialist in the design process, lean supply chain implementation and the integration of differentiated distribution channel strategies.

As an advocate of leveraging design leadership to create and support sustainable markets, Dan has participated in numerous interviews, conferences and educational activities. One of Dan's life goals has been to teach. Dan attended St. Xavier University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry. He earned a Master’s Degree in Product Development (MPD) from Northwestern University where he is currently an Associate Professor at Northwestern teaching in both the Graduate and Undergraduate programs in the McCormick School of Engineering.