Leadership Of The Industry

It all began with our founder who was one of the original authors of Six Sigma at Motorola. Today, the leadership and management of SBTI are seen as the forerunners in innovation and process excellence — driving breakthrough change in multiple industries across the globe.

For more than a decade of success, SBTI has recruited only the best and brightest talent in the industry. Our consultants come with years of experience in delivering performance excellence in the industries in which they are consulting.

BILL ZINKGRAF | PRESIDENT & CEO

As CEO, Bill is responsible for the overall strategy of SBTI along with the customer focused quality of all services provided by the company. Prior to being named CEO, he had held a number of positions within SBTI to include Lean Leader, MBB, and Methodology development. Before SBTI Bill worked in banking and insurance as a Black Belt and in aerospace using Lean techniques to implement cellular design.

During Bill’s time as a consultant he executed multiple Six Sigma Projects in ceramics and plastic extrusion as well as effectively facilitated over 100 Kaizen events in banking, insurance, all aspects of hospital functions, printing, manufacturing, consumer goods, and military.

As a member of the U.S. Army Reserves Bill served 14 months on active duty and in combat for Operation Iraqi Freedom, being awarded the Bronze Star and Grizzly Award for Outstanding Engineer Platoon Leader.

JENNIFER Dahl | COO & VICE PRESIDENT

As COO, Jennifer is responsible for the day-to-day logistics and general management of SBTI. In this role she has helped the company expand its client base, both national and internationally, as it consistently achieves year-over-year growth.

During her more than 15 years with the firm, she has worn a number of hats from being a Team Leader in the Customer Focus Group, a member of the Accounting Department, Human Resources Manager and Director of Operations before assuming the COO position in 2012.

Though a natural multi-tasker, she consistently streamlines many of SBTI’s activities for greater efficiency, especially within event execution. Jennifer obtained a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Management from Southwest Texas State University.

Jim Longshore | VICE PRESIDENT

As Vice President Jim is both a deployment expert and trusted advisor responsible for the Healthcare sector and key global accounts. Prior to being named VP, he delivered consulting services for SBTI demonstrating both technical expertise and change management proficiency. Jim’s consulting engagements included 25+ hospitals, multiple managed care deployments and manufacturing accounts. Prior to SBTI Jim worked for 10 years in Manufacturing and then led the change management initiatives within a global pump manufacturer (Peerless Pump) and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. This experience allowed Jim to expand the application of both Lean and Six Sigma to transactional processes including claims management, call centers and patient centric processes. Jim holds an MBA and was part of the SBTI wave 6 MBB program while at Trane

George Strodtbeck | Vice President

As Vice President, George is responsible for strategic account management and providing expert change management advice to SBTI clients.

Prior to joining SBTI in 2015, George spent 23 years with Cummins, Inc. He was the Executive Director of Quality leading the deployment of Six Sigma for 16 years and the Cummins Operating System for 10 years. George also worked for Pepsi Cola for 6 years as an Area Manager of Fleet Maintenance and Distribution and spent 10 years as an officer in the US Army.

Currently, George is responsible for the General Motors account and the development of new SBTI intellectual property. George’s study and practice of leadership and management has uniquely prepared him to help companies successfully drive organizational change. George attended West Point graduating in 1976. He has a wife and 4 children and lives in Indianapolis, IN.

Al Landers | VICE PRESIDENT

As Vice President, Al is responsible for helping customers drive Innovation into all aspects of their organization along with deploying Lean Six Sigma, consulting and executive coaching.

Prior to joining SBTI, Al was the VP of Innovation at a multi-national manufacturing organization and has worked in the Chemical, Building products and Engineered Wood Products Industries. While at SBTI Al has provided strategic and executive level Deployment Consulting in several chemical, manufacturing, bio-sciences and Health Care organizations, as well as project coaching and mentoring to Green, Black and Master Black Belts he has trained.

Al is passionate about applying innovation in all aspects of continuous improvement and product development, is a certified Herrmann Brain Dominance practitioner and a certified Black Belt who teaches and mentors Green, Black and Master Black Belts. He earned a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and has a number of awards, patents and publications.

Bob Jeske | VICE PRESIDENT

As Vice President, Bob’s focus is the support of our clients through their performance based Value Stream behavioral transformations. Over a more than 30-year career he has been a master scheduler, production supervisor and plant manager and has managed maintenance, tooling, industrial, and manufacturing engineering organizations.

His prior consulting experience covered a broad range from the development and implementation of manufacturing and office cells and focused factories to acquisition due diligence activities. While at SBTI over the past 12 years he has focused on instilling and harnessing Lean Six Sigma tools, methods and managerial techniques to drive essential change for our clients in electronics, semiconductor, chemical, healthcare, mining, distribution, fast moving consumer goods, and engineered to order capital-intensive industries.

Bob has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and an MBA from Northwestern, he’s also a Lean Leader and Black Belt. He’s affectionately known within the company as “honeybadger”.

Velinda Rodriguez | Director of Finance
Geneva Delgado | Receptionist
Mike McCallick | Education Coordinator
Steve Zinkgraf | Founder
Matthew Krauel | It Consulting & Support Services

SBTI Culture

SBTI’s culture is to focus on the client. The success of the clients is attributed to the people on the SBTI team and the knowledge and competence they can deliver to clients. The success of SBTI relies on the success of our customers.