Operations executive, enterprise transformation leader, and CI culture architect. Two decades building and teaching the belief that culture is designed, not accidental — from a Shingo Prize–winning plant floor to a 120,000-employee global deployment.
In 2005, Eric was a week into a backcountry trip in the Canadian Rockies when a phone call changed the direction of his career: a promotion into manufacturing operations, a field he had no formal background in. What followed was two engineers with no fixed way of doing things, discovering that a single principle — flow — could turn a struggling product line into the best-performing one in the business.
As Vice President of Operations at US Synthetic (2006–2020), Eric led the growth of a grassroots continuous improvement culture that took employee-driven improvements from about five a year to nearly 63,000, helped the company grow roughly tenfold, and earned the 2011 Shingo Prize for manufacturing excellence — recognition that specifically called out the organization's ability to engage and empower its people.
He went on to lead the ChampionX Way as Vice President (2020–2025), and currently serves as CI Integration Leader at SLB (2025–present), guiding continuous improvement culture across 120,000 employees, four business segments, and more than 100 countries. He founded Culture by Design Partners in 2014 to teach the same methodology to other leaders, so it doesn't take twenty years to learn.
Eric holds an MBA and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from BYU, is a registered U.S. Patent Agent, speaks Japanese, and is a frequent keynote speaker on lean culture transformation — including at the ASSEMBLY Show.
On stage at the ASSEMBLY Show.
Talks on building sustainable, powerful continuous improvement cultures.
PEX Week USA, 2016 — an excerpt from the show's highest-rated presentation, on the power of individuals in a work environment.
US Synthetic — the origin of the Culture by Design methodology.
US Synthetic — how a designed culture changes outcomes for the people inside it.
US Synthetic — the practical mechanics behind the culture.
US Synthetic — how culture change shows up in the numbers.
BTOES Insights — on deploying strategy and value from the top of an organization to the front line.
MPG Continuous Improvement, 2017 — a walkthrough of the belief-behavior-artifact culture pyramid.
US Synthetic, 2011 — the story behind manufacturing's top award for operational excellence.
Press coverage and firsthand writing on culture, leadership, and continuous improvement.
Eric is available for keynotes, workshops, and ongoing coaching engagements.
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