Michael Dempsey

About Michael Dempsey

As I reflect on my leadership journey, it looks more linear than it has felt. I’ve been in leadership positions since I was a little kid. Captain of soccer teams, different roles in Scouts, captain of the knowledge bowl team. Honestly, it didn’t always make sense to me then. I wasn’t seeking these out, and I wasn’t the loudest voice in the room. People were seeing a leadership style in me that I didn’t recognize. As a young adult I was asked to interview for a management position in a job I had done for two months. I knew I could work hard and that I could organize things, but seriously, there were a lot of technical things I didn’t understand yet. The hiring manager connected the dots for me; I didn’t need to know how to do everything, but he knew I would analyze those needs, get people to learn those skills, and assign the resources as appropriate for the different projects. He was right, I did a really excellent job problem solving and leading the team through challenges. Early in college I decided to focus on practical and traditional industry. I wasn’t interested in working in a research lab. I wanted to solve problems, make things, and work with people. I was willing to get dirty. That’s literally what I’ve done. I believe I’m drawn to operations and manufacturing because it takes a lot of functions working together well to get to a tangible result. There’s always a scoreboard, a metric, a physical product that lets you know how you’re doing. You know if you’re doing better than last week at the end of the week. “Doing better than last week” is really important to me. My career at Kohler has allowed me to do what I love – being a leader, driving continuous improvement in operations, using lean tools, and developing myself and others around me. As I look at my next step, I want to use my analytical, leadership, and coaching skills to drive results. I want to be a servant leader that will empower and create a high performing team. I want to help an organization define “winning”, and work to get them there.

Experience

1. Plant Manager

   Solenis

   Sep 2024 — Present · Milwaukee, WI, US

Education

• University of Rochester - Simon Business School

  MBA, Operations Management

  1997 — 2000

• Rutgers University–New Brunswick

  BS, Ceramic Engineering

  1989 — 1993

Skills

• Quality System
• Iso
• Manufacturing Operations Management
• Process Engineering
• Supply Chain
• Engineering
• Continuous Improvement
• Lean Manufacturing
• 5s
• Quality Management
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Process Improvement
• Manufacturing