Karen Martin
Karen Martin, Principal Consultant of Karen Martin & Associates specializes in applying Lean principles and tools in office, service, and technical environments. She has provided support to organizations in a broad range of industries, including: construction, distribution, education, engineering design, financial services, government/military, healthcare, information technology, insurance, manufacturing, oil and gas production, and publishing.
Karen’s quality and process orientation evolved from her early career as a scientist (B.S. Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University) and was further developed while serving as the Director of Quality for an organization that managed the healthcare for 22 million Americans. She also served as the Director of the Institute for Quality and Productivity at San Diego State University, where she oversaw the university’s Lean Enterprise and Quality Business Practices programs. Her passion for workforce development and implementing change led her to a graduate program in adult learning (M.A. Education, California State University, Bakersfield).
Karen is known for her keen diagnostic skills and ability to lead teams in generating aggressive and sustainable results. Her broad understanding of operations design, customer value, regulatory issues, and business management stems from her experience building the operational infrastructure for several start-up operations with triple-digit annual growth. She is an instructor for the University of California, San Diego’s Lean Enterprise program and San Diego State University's Advanced Lean program. Karen also serves as an Industry Advisor for the University of San Diego’s Industrial Engineering program and is licensed as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist. She is co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service, and Technical Environments (Productivity Press, 2007).
Mike Osterling
Mike Osterling is the President of Osterling Consulting, Inc. With more than 20 years of management experience, Mike has led and supported Lean implementations in the U.S., Mexico, Australia and Europe. A dynamic leader with proven team-building skills, his hands-on approach consistently delivers significant bottom-line results.
Prior to consulting, Mike played a key role in the Lean transformation at a number of Square D Company’s facilities. A founder of San Diego State University’s Lean Enterprise Certificate Program, he continues to teach in the program as well as SDSU’s Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Program.
Fluent in Spanish, Mike earned his MBA in International Business from San Diego State University and holds a BS in Production and Operations Management. He is a Certified Trainer for the Implementation of Lean Manufacturing through the University of Kentucky, is a Six Sigma Black Belt and is CPIM certified through APICS. Mike is the coauthor for the recently released book The Kaizen Event Planner: Achieving Rapid Improvement in Office, Service and Technical Environments from Productivity Press.
