Staff

Bob has been President and CEO of the CNYTDO since 1994 providing the organization with a unique combination of executive level business, technology, manufacturing, and economic development experience. As CEO, Bob has led CNYTDO’s initiatives to introduce service offerings to meet the evolving needs of small to medium size manufacturers and technology oriented entrepreneurs. He has recruited, trained and developed top consulting staff and developed partnerships to increase CNYTDO’s effectiveness and reach. Bob is experienced in working cooperatively with academic, corporate, government and economic development professionals.

Bob’s extensive experience in technology commercialization, international business and manufacturing helped CNYTDO to develop and support innovative programs such as ExportNY, Training Within Industry and New York State’s SBIR Academy. In addition to his Center Management responsibilities, Bob also coaches clients on strategies, finances and technology commercialization. He has served as a coach and/or judge in programs such as Smart Start Venture Forum, Creative Core Emerging Business competition and Pre-Seed Workshops.

Prior to joining the company, Bob was president and CEO of Hamilton Digital Controls in Utica, NY, 200-employee, publicly held, design, development and manufacturing company with extensive international involvement. From 1973 to 1984 he was executive vice president of Brush Industries in Pennsylvania. Bob held product line management and engineering positions at Hamilton Watch and Forglo Corp., also in Pennsylvania, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. on Long Island--where he was assigned to the lunar excursion module project--and Hazeltine Electronic Corp. in Greenlawn, NY. Bob brings perspectives from defense and non-defense, large, medium and small business to the CNYTDO.

Bob was awarded the 2009 Going Global Award for CNYTDO’s role supporting the in supporting international business development in the region. In 2010 he was appointed to the Regional District Export Council by the United States Secretary of Commerce.

Bob holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Bob is a licensed private pilot and is very active in community volunteer activities, having served or serving on the boards of CNYNet, the New York Export Society, the Central New York International Business Alliance, the CASE Center, the SUNY Morrisville Business School, the LeMoyne College IT advisory board, the Mohawk Valley Applied Technology Corporation, Housing Visions Unlimited, and Temple Emanu-El in Utica. He also has served on advisory boards to the New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Albany Law School Science and Technology Law Center as well as having been a member of the executive board of the Land of the Oneidas Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Email: rtrachtenberg@tdo.org

Deb Forbey serves as a Business Growth Advisor for CNYTDO. Utilizing more than 25 years of experience in new product innovation & development, manufacturing, strategic planning, and consulting, Deb understands how to implement business improvement initiatives including training clients in lean six sigma leadership & techniques and assisting clients in product innovation, development and commercialization. Working throughout central New York, Deb helps clients find solutions & innovative strategies to grow and keep pace with domestic and global competition. She also serves as a liaison to CCMR’s Jumpstart program, helping clients gain access to academic resources in materials research and development.

Deb has received training in Sales, Project Management, Lean Enterprise, and completed GE Medical Systems Master Black Belt Development program. Deb is also certified as a TWI Job Instruction and Job Relations trainer by the TWI Institute. Deb is a graduate of Cardinal Stritch University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business. She also has completed post graduate work at the University of North Florida’s school of Business. Deb holds Master Black Belt certification from GE Medical Systems & George Group Consulting; NIST MEP certification in Lean Product Development and Lean Office. Deb is currently a senior member of the American Society of Quality and member of the Project Management Institute®.

Prior to joining CNYTDO in 2008, Deb worked as a Master Black Belt consultant with The George Group (now Accenture) and supported clients including the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), National Digital Medical Archives (NDMA), Bank of New York and Cardinal Health Systems. She has also worked for Convergys Corporation, GE Medical Systems and ConMed Corporation, where she held positions including Director of Quality, Engineering Manager & New Product Development Engineer. As a Deployment Leader and Master Black Belt, Deb has trained over 400 Black Belts, Green Belts and Master Black Belts. In addition to training, she has supplied direction in the deployment of Lean Six Sigma programs including education of management and staff, structure of implementation, selection of candidates, identification of projects, and determination of cost accounting. Activities in these multiple deployments include business process assessment, infrastructure design, training delivery, coaching and project identification and execution. Deb has been with TDO since January, 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI.

Email: dforbey@tdo.org

As a Program Administrator for TDO, Lynne manages the inside operations for the TWI program, TWI Institute staff, and its trainers. She manages the website, program scheduling, training logistics, contracts, vendors, inventory management, documentation and translations.

Prior to joining TDO, Lynne was a Project Manager with Wells Fargo and a Senior Business Analyst and Lease Portfolio Manager with Telmark LLC. Her areas of expertise included training, documentation, project management, information technology and quality control.

Lynne attended SUNY Canton and is trained and proficient in MS Office products, Dreamweaver, and PhotoShop.

Email: lharding@tdo.org

Dick began his manufacturing career at Remington Arms Company in Ilion, NY as a machine operator. Since 1982 Dick was employed in various management positions at Remington that included Quality Engineer, Engineering Supervisor, Organization Development Resource, and as the Group Leader of the Continuous Improvement Group.

He left Remington in 1996 to become Vice President and eventually President of Revival Industries in Herkimer, NY where he directed all daily activities as the majority owner until 2007. Dick then looked to put his experience to work as a Lean consultant helping local manufacturers as they struggled to compete in the global market. This work led him to the discovery of the TWI Program and he became a TWI Institute Certified Trainer for JI, JR, and JM in 2008. Dick has since delivered numerous TWI training classes and implementation consulting at companies around the globe for the TWI Institute. His strong engineering and management experiences are now put to good use when introducing TWI to companies and when providing follow-on coaching for the implementation process.

Dick received an AS Engineering Science degree from Mohawk Valley Community College and then continued his education in night school at Syracuse University where he earned a BS Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration

Email: rjackson@tdo.org

Email: skuhns@tdo.org

Email: alane@tdo.org

Cindy Oehmigen is a leader recognized for serving as a trusted advisor at the senior level as well as coaching and developing leadership skills on the front line. Her expertise is leveraged in guiding companies through change, improving manufacturing competitiveness, creating team environments, reducing costs, and helping grow the top line. Her experience crosses a wide variety of industries including traditional manufacturing, healthcare and high tech start up.

During her tenure at Central New York Technology Development Organization, Cindy has worked with hundreds of companies and individual company leaders resulting in significant sales and employee growth, bottom line improvements and positive culture change. She also conducts initiatives in lean manufacturing, plant layout, methods design and improvements, capital project management, environmental assistance, and workforce development.

Cindy has over 30 years of diversified manufacturing and engineering experience in union and non-union settings and has held positions as Director of Process Improvement, Director of Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Project Manager, and Production Superintendent for both small and multi-national corporations.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Management Engineering from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Business Administration from Syracuse University. Cindy is a graduate of United Technologies Lean Manufacturing University and has been certified in APICS and ASQC. She is a certified trainer in all four TWI Training Within Industry modules and in several quality control and management planning tools. Cindy is a Eureka! Ranch certified growth coach and in 2010 completed the NIST Emerging Leaders program.

Email: coehmigen@tdo.org

Clara has thirty years of Accounting experience; fourteen of which are in the non-profit sector. Clara joined CNYTDO in September of 1991 and is responsible for handling all of CNYTDO's finances and reporting. Clara manages our client contracts, tracking & invoicing and monitors CNYTDO's goals, participates in Board Meetings and is responsible for our yearly audit in conjunction with our auditors. Prior to joining TDO Clara spent 10 years raising her family and held many volunteer positions in the School District that her children attended. Clara is still an active community member in her school district and church. Clara is also a Notary Public.

Email: cscherfner@tdo.org

Marcene S. Sonneborn is a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Business Development Specialist for the Central New York Technology Development Organization (TDO). The TDO's SBIR/STTR program has supported small companies for nearly 20 years in a 35-county region to generate over $200 million in awards.

In this capacity, Marcie conducts workshops around the region for companies interested in federal technology programs including SBIR, Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR), the NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP), and others. She also provides one-on-one assistance to companies and entrepreneurs to help them to coordinate the proposal preparation process. She reviews proposals for her clients prior to submission, and assists them when they are preparing their SBIR project budgets. She also uses the NYS Empire State Development Corporation network of resources to provide expertise to clients from across New York State if capabilities are not available within the client's region.

Marcie also provides technical and business development assistance to TDO clients, principally in the areas of research and development, technology transfer and commercialization, intellectual property protection and licensing agreements, technology-business organizational planning, management team development, and strategic planning and marketing. She coaches clients to make presentations to venture capitalists and to participate in venture capital forums.

Marcie's specialty is marketing and strategic planning for technology-based and emerging growth companies. She has her MBA from the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management and received her degree in the Innovation Management Program, with emphasis in marketing and finance. Marcie is an adjunct faculty for the Whitman School of Management Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises Program, teaching both classroom-based and distance learning courses.

Marcie was a recipient of the Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. This award is given for economic impact of technological innovation, business achievement and effective collaborations, and effective state and regional impact and support.

Marcie also has published articles on technology management, wrote an assessment workbook for "Taking Your Business Online," and a chapter on the marketing of financial services for a textbook which was published in Eastern Europe. She has participated as the marketing representative on a management team for management training programs in Eastern Europe. She also has worked in marketing research and survey design, including participation on a subcontract to a Fortune 50 company designing and developing technology products for the 21st century.

Email: msonneborn@tdo.org

Bob began his manufacturing career at Chevrolet in Buffalo, NY where he was promoted to supervisor after earning his BS at nights from Canisius College. He moved on to Kodak in Rochester, N.Y. where he became interested in organizational development while earning his MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Bob joined a high volume retail drugstore chain in Syracuse, N.Y. when it was a 12 store operation. He standardized store operating systems and procedures, developed internal training, and reorganized central distribution as the company profitably grew into a regional chain of 140 stores in 11 years.

Not content with becoming an administrator, Bob returned to manufacturing as an independent TQM consultant for small manufacturers to engage their people to improve performance. Fifteen years of hands-on implementation made it clear that supervisors lacked the skills to lead in the new world of Lean Manufacturing. He discovered TWI when studying Kaizen and tracked down TWI Master Trainer Patrick Graupp in 1998. The opportunity for them to reintroduce TWI in the U.S. came in 2001 when Bob became a Lean Consultant for CNYTDO, Inc. that provided support to reintroduce TWI in Syracuse, NY as detailed in his 2007 Shingo Prize winning book The TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors. His new book Implementing TWI: Creating and Managing a Skills Based Culture was published by Productivity Press in November 2010.

Email: rwrona@tdo.org