Eugene Lasky - Career Chronicle

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Technical Foundation (1988-1991)

Moore Products Company (now part of Siemens)

My professional journey began in the world of industrial automation at MPCo. This role allowed me to immerse myself more deeply in the world of computers, which had started to interest me as an undergrad. I was one of the few students at the time (~1985) who had their own PC and learned how to make custom hardware improvements to enhance performance. Working at MPCo was a natural segue—while my degree provided the engineering fundamentals and process understanding, what really captured my interest was applying computing power to solve complex automation challenges. Armed with a Chemical Engineering degree, I spent these years designing and implementing specialized digital process control systems for some of the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies—DuPont, BASF, and Johnson & Johnson (McNeil) among them.This engineering foundation taught me more than technical skills. It instilled a systems-thinking approach, an appreciation for precision, and the understanding that complex problems can have elegant solutions.


Business Education (1991-1993)

Columbia MBA

Recognizing that my interests extended beyond pure engineering, I made a pivotal decision to pursue an MBA at Columbia fulltime from 1991 to 1993. This wasn't just about adding credentials—it was about bridging the gap between technical expertise and business strategy. For an engineer used to definitive answers, learning to navigate ambiguity and make decisions with incomplete information was both challenging and essential.


Financial Services (1993-1995)

AIG Commercial Warranty (Electronic Equipment Maintenance Insurance)

My transition from engineering was cemented when I joined AIG's accelerated management training program. I was soon entrusted with P&L responsibility for a $35 million Commercial Warranty business unit. This unit primarily underwrote preventative and corrective maintenance coverage for high-value medical equipment—CAT scanners, MRIs, and similar technology. The work combined technical understanding with risk assessment, as we had to price coverage for complex equipment with significant downtime costs.The scope of our underwriting expanded unexpectedly when a prospect asked us to evaluate similar coverage for wind turbines—an entirely new domain that required quickly learning a new technology and its failure modes. This role provided comprehensive exposure to the full spectrum of business operations—sales, underwriting, claims, compliance, and systems development. It was here that I first experienced the weight and excitement of P&L responsibility and managing a team.


Strategy & Implementation Consulting (1995-1997)

New York Consulting Partners

New York Consulting Partners, a boutique firm founded by ex-McKinsey partners, became my post-graduate education in strategy and implementation consulting. The founders had recognized a gap in the market—while traditional firms excelled at recommendations, clients often struggled with execution. The firm's philosophy was to provide both strategic guidance and hands-on implementation support, ensuring recommendations actually delivered results. This approach resonated deeply with my engineering background—we diagnosed problems and stayed to help fix them.


Key Engagements

Pepperidge Farm (part of Campbell's): Our team meticulously analyzed production processes across multiple facilities, identifying and institutionalizing best practices that reduced ingredient waste and delivered $8 million in annual savings. This project taught me the power of data-driven decision making and the importance of making improvements sustainable through process change.For instance, we discovered the Cinnamon Raisin Bread line was producing 18oz loaves to meet a 16oz target—a 12.5% ingredient overage stemming from a well-intentioned fear of underweight products. To address this, I developed an Excel-based application that production supervisors could use to optimize their processes. They would input the target weight (16oz) and real-world statistics—mean and standard deviation gathered from the checkweigher—and the app would calculate optimal setpoints for ingredient inputs. This tool transformed how supervisors thought about quality: rather than "never go under," they could now confidently target true weight knowing they weren't violating FDA rules or consumer trust.Arrow Electronics: We developed a cutting-edge inventory management system that freed up $4 million in working capital while improving service levels.My contribution to this project crystallized the fundamental tension in inventory management between carrying costs and service levels—a classic operations management challenge that involves a trade-off between holding excess inventory (costly working capital) and experiencing stockouts (lost sales and customer dissatisfaction). By framing this as an optimization problem analogous to minimizing Type I and Type II errors in statistics, we could quantify the costs of overstocking versus understocking and find the optimal balance.Amoco (now part of BP): Our strategic assessment of Amoco's lubricants division catalyzed its sale to Chevron. This engagement taught me about the strategic value of portfolio optimization—helping companies capture full value from non-core assets while sharpening their operational focus on core competencies. These two years compressed decades of learning into an intensive period of growth, building a toolkit I would use throughout my career: analytical rigor, implementation focus, and the ability to quickly understand and solve complex business problems.


Internal Consulting & Operations (1997-2007)

Wolters Kluwer: From HQ to Field Offices

Joining Wolters Kluwer, a $5 billion global information services company, I began by creating an internal consulting group as Director of Business Planning for CT Corporation. There I initially worked with the flagship business providing registered agent and compliance services that law firms and corporations rely on for critical legal support. We guided the implementation of Six Sigma across the organization, performed M&A due diligence, tested new technologies, and developed sophisticated sales quota and financial models. This role taught me how to be an effective change agent within a large corporation and how to build credibility through quick wins and measurable results.In 2000, I transitioned to operational leadership as VP of Operations for CT Lien Solutions, the unit providing time-sensitive UCC filing and lien search services that banks and law firms needed to complete secured transactions. Here I led our team through an aggressive transformation focused on workflow redesign and automation. By this time, after several bumpy attempts, I had internalized the essential difference between employee commitment and employee compliance. We invested heavily in employee engagement, conducting regular anonymous surveys to understand what our people needed to thrive. The results spoke volumes:• Boosted team productivity by 150% over five years through workflow redesign and automation
• Established a new industry standard with 99% same-day delivery
• Built a culture of continuous improvement that sustained these gains
This experience taught me that operational excellence isn't about rigidly adhering to process simply to maximize output. It's about granting teams the autonomy for intelligent experimentation, with the core belief that progress is forged by learning from setbacks, not just by avoiding them. CT Lien Solutions became known within Wolters Kluwer for having the highest employee engagement scores, creating a culture where people earnestly wanted to work.


P&L Leadership (2007-2013)

Wolters Kluwer: General Manager, CT Lien Solutions

Promoted to full P&L responsibility and eventually taking on CT Corporation's UCC operations as well, I executed strategies that transformed a $12 million kernel into a $117 million market leader. Throughout this growth, we maintained our focus on employee engagement as the foundation of sustainable success. Under my leadership, the team achieved:• Delivering a dominant e-commerce platform that revolutionized how customers interacted with us
• Successfully integrating eight acquisitions, a combination of tuck-ins and strategic value adds
• Increasing our Net Promoter Score by 25 points through relentless focus on customer experience
• Sustaining our position as a great place to work
This role was my MBA in real-world leadership—balancing growth with profitability, managing diverse stakeholder interests, and building teams that could execute ambitious visions.


Global Transformation (2013-2015)

Wolters Kluwer: VP of Global Service Delivery, Corporate Legal Services

For my final corporate role, I led the newly created Fulfillment Center of Excellence, Corporate Legal Services—an organization charged with transforming operations globally across three business units: CT Lien Solutions, CT Corporation, and CT Corsearch (trademark and brand protection services). With responsibility for teams across the USA, Europe, India, and the Philippines, I managed a $100+ million expense base while driving standardization and scale across diverse operations.This global role taught me about leading across cultures, time zones, and organizational boundaries. It reinforced that the principles of good leadership—clear communication, respect for local expertise, and focus on outcomes—are universal. Most importantly, I learned that employee commitment transcends geography: when people understand how their work contributes to larger success and feel valued for their contributions, excellence follows regardless of location.


Independent Practice (2015-Present)

Leaving the corporate world after a 25-year run marked a natural inflection point. My final role involved leading a global transformation, and upon its completion, I was ready for a new chapter. While open to other senior corporate roles, I began prioritizing opportunities that involved less extensive travel and a more direct application of my problem-solving skills outside of a traditional corporate structure. This led me to establish an independent practice, which has provided a platform to apply my experience in more focused and flexible ways.These have ranged from paid engagements—like developing a comprehensive system architecture and prototype for a complex mass tort and medical lien management platform—to pro-bono consulting for nonprofits and small businesses navigating operational challenges. This blend of compensated and volunteer advisory work has created a fulfilling mix of impact and continued learning. Throughout all these engagements, I continue to emphasize the same core principle that drove success at Wolters Kluwer: sustainable excellence comes from employee commitment, not compliance.

Mission-Driven Work

Malvern Health (2024-Present): Working with my friend Geoff Botak has connected me with true healthcare heroes—the clinicians and administrators who serve thousands struggling with substance abuse and related mental health issues. My personal mission became to "help the helpers," supporting these frontline professionals and senior leadership with operational expertise to enhance their ability to reduce suffering and deliver care.All Sober (2024-Present): Through my connection with Geoff, I serve as Operational Excellence Advisor to this startup, AllSober.com, developing a comprehensive technology platform designed to transform addiction treatment. The venture aims to enable integrated care for substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders by addressing systemic failures in treatment infrastructure. Underlying our approach is a core belief: technology can enhance and scale many things, but lasting recovery outcomes depend on compassionate caregivers who appreciate the lifetime recovery journey. My role involves applying decades of operational experience to help build enterprise software that empowers treatment professionals to deliver the personalized, integrated care that offers the best chance for sustained recovery.Chesapeake Seafood (Sold 2017): Co-owning and operating this venture at a local farmers market provided direct customer interaction, immediate feedback, and the satisfaction of providing quality products to the community.Semi-Professional Poker: My experience as a semi-professional poker player honed critical skills in real-time risk assessment, data-driven decision-making, and emotional control under pressure.

Investment Management Journey

A significant focus since 2015 has been developing expertise in investment management. My approach is grounded in the principles laid out by investing legends—Benjamin Graham's value investing philosophy, Philip Fisher's growth investing insights, Peter Lynch's practical stock-picking wisdom, and Warren Buffett's synthesis of value and quality.The learning curve, however, included plenty of mistakes, revealing that my initial "Mr. Market" mentality was a classic beginner's pitfall. Acknowledging this was key; sustained success only followed after a renewed commitment to the deep and disciplined application of these legends' core principles. This more seasoned approach has ultimately delivered strong long-term results, and I've found satisfaction in helping others gain financial literacy and build financial security through patient, principled investing.

Community Engagement

My volunteer work has included:SCORE (formerly known as Service Corps of Retired Executives): Mentored small business owners and entrepreneursPhiladelphia Futures (now Heights Philadelphia): Supported college readiness and success for inner-city studentsPhiladelhia Ronald McDonald House: Provided comfort and support to families with hospitalized childrenBig Brothers Big Sisters: Mentored youth in one-on-one relationshipsThese experiences have been personally enriching, offering perspective, purpose, and connection beyond the business world—always with the intention of providing something useful in return.I'm also an active member of the MontCo Library Saturday Book Club, which provides intellectual stimulation and community connection through shared literary exploration.

Skills Development

This period has been marked by deliberate expansion beyond technical capabilities:Philosophical Grounding: A deliberate study of business ethics, moral philosophy, critical thinking, and logical fallacies, focused on applying timeless wisdom to guide ethical decision-making in complex business environmentsPersonal Growth: Developing emotional intelligence and self-awareness through reflection and mindfulness practice


Education & Professional Development

Formal Degrees

Lafayette College (Easton, PA) - 1988
BS, Chemical Engineering
Columbia Business School, Columbia University (New York, NY) - 1993
MBA (Finance/Management)

Executive Education & Mid-Career Training

University of Michigan (online) - 1999
Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
Motorola University, Motorola Corporation (La Jolla, CA) - 2000
Six Sigma Black Belt Certification
Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Business (Evanston, IL) - 2006
Executive Program: e-Commerce and Marketing Strategy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Sloan (Cambridge, MA) - 2013
Big Data: Making Complex Things Simpler (Executive Program)

Recent Certifications

Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate - Coursera - 2023Cisco Python Essentials 1 - 2023
Cisco Python Essentials 2 - 2023
PCAP™ – Certified Associate Python Programmer (Python Institute) - 2023American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Certifications - via Malvern Health:
ASAM Multidimensional Assessment (Module 1) - 2024
ASAM From Assessment to Service Planning (Module 2) - 2024