Dan Skinner is a Senior Consultant with strong dual leadership and analytical strengths, who has developed extensive expertise in performance coaching, strategic planning, forecasting, operations management, engineering, Lean/Six Sigma process improvement, supply chain management, program planning, and business process design. He has a passion for helping pursue Operational Excellence and working with teams to openly expose and explore their problems, collaborate on solutions, measure, and achieve higher performance, together creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Dan’s Lean journey extends over 20 years, working with organizations such as Baldrige Award-winning Corning Optical Fiber, IBM Global Business Services, and Booz Allen Hamilton. He has coached leaders in a variety of transformation efforts across numerous industries, Federal and State Government agencies, and multiple nonprofits. His most rewarding professional impact was his contribution to the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Effort, where he led the value stream mapping, root cause analysis, and redesign efforts for FEMA’s temporary housing program. The project reduced the average cycle time from over 30 to 5 days and increased daily units installed and occupied by 250% while eliminating waste and reducing both the number of lost applicants and government assets.
Dan has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and an MBA from Cornell University, where he focused on Innovation Strategy and Marketing. He is a Lean Practitioner and trained Black Belt who has personally taught Lean principles and methods to over 2,000 clients and consulting colleagues. When Dan is not helping leaders and their organizations, he enjoys improving his skills as both skipper and crew in sailboat regattas both in Portland and along the East Coast, as well as hiking and cross-country skiing with his fiancee in Maine’s mountains.
Testimonials about Dan:
- “I was fortunate to receive a month-long coaching engagement with Dan Skinner as part of ADEQ’s ongoing lean transformation. He emphasized lean leader behavior and leader standard work and coached me on structured problem solving. His unique analytical skills helped him understand our group’s alignment with the agency mission and seamlessly transitioned between coaching me on lean leadership, process improvement principles and personnel development. The coaching has truly helped me and my team advance our mission effectively.”
- “Dan’s mastery of Lean Sigma knowledge and his style of training were clearly evident when I began working with him. Dan also contributed greatly in developing the Lean Product Development training module and engagement plan here at IBM. Dan’s greatest attributes are: his calmness under pressure, his capabilities in developing strategic & tactical views of client’s problems/challenges and being easy to work with.”
