Stephen Burnside

An enthusiastic yet empathetic change agent with a career history of delivering sustained results, fostering employee engagement, and helping organizations in complex, regulated settings advance to world-class performance.

With several decades experience leading technical support teams in the successful delivery of both creative strategy for & dependable tactical execution of certified management systems, business process improvements, root cause problem-solving, & new product development.

I am passionate about the development of people, processes, & systems within organizations to effectively prevent recurrence of past losses, while anticipating & proactively mitigating future risks.  With broad experience in applying both lean methods & six sigma data analysis techniques tightly aligned to achieving organizational goals, nurturing such competencies in others to scale business transformations is one of my strengths.

As a seasoned organizational excellence leader known for his thorough “Engage • Improve • Sustain” approach, I believe that systematically integrating methods for both external & internal customer focus lead to efficient value creation, and that it’s the purpose of all support functions within an organization to serve their “front line” individual contributors.

I value & utilize a process-oriented perspective because it provides an “anecdote” to inefficient functional “silos”, as most critical tasks/information/communications within organizations flow between functions on their way to consistently delivering desirable outcomes.

Process Improvement | Change Leadership | Team Building | Cross-functional Collaboration | Technical Training | Continuous Improvement | Data Analytics | Preventive Action | Root Cause Problem-Solving | Lean Six Sigma | Project Management | Product Development | Remote Team Leadership | Communication & Reporting

• Bachelor of Applied Science, Mechanical Engineering – University of Waterloo
• Registered Professional Engineer, License #6207500 – Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO)
• Certified Quality Manager (CQM) – American Society for Quality (ASQ)
• Six Sigma Green Belt - Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) – General Electric (GE)
• Career-long focus on developing transferrable skills in the following 8 areas:

Health and Safety   Leadership and Coaching         Lean      Six Sigma             Quality Management Systems Manufacturing Engineering       Product Development                Project Management