Kathy Thomson

About Kathy Thomson

Kathy is an accomplished executive with a proven track record of driving revenue growth…

Experience

1. Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

   Kimball Electronics

   Jun 2023 — Present

   Recruited to billion-dollar electronics manufacturer/contract manufacturer supporting the automotive, industrial, medical, and public safety markets. Charged with overseeing talent development, collaborating with executive decision makers within customer companies, steering industry diversification initiatives, and expanding the business. Grew company from $1B (2018) to nearly $2B (2023) by restructuring the sales organization to provide more efficiency, productivity, and sales growth impact. Solidified customer relationships through facilitation of meetings regarding strategic goals, resource planning, growth expectations, capital dollars, and more with C-level decision makers within customer accounts. Ensured account profitability by transitioning business managers (40) into customer account P&L stakeholders. Strengthened sales focus, customer engagement success, profitable vs. non-profitable business, and ROI return rate by creating playbooks for “hunters” and “farmers.” Deepened employee knowledge, expanded business understanding, promoted cross-functional collaboration, and fostered the sharing of best practices by hosting annual business development summits. Increased operating income from 3.9% in FY18 to 5% in FY21 by derisking business and introducing diversification strategies (vertical mix). Achieved capital recovery in quoted time by implementing volume pricing agreements for automotive customers. Improved pricing strategies key to delivering positive revenue gains year-over-year utilizing quote vs. actual tool. Protected margins using Value Add/Value Engineering concepts to offset pricing pressures. Conceptualized, created, and introduced new product introduction ramp up costs to customers; received positively across industry customers. Scaled business with very few additional resources (.7% of sales cost in 2018 to.5% in 2023) by developing team capable of taking on more business.

Education

• Lakeland University

  MBA, Business, Marketing, Economics

• Lakeland University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Business Administration