Deborah Salimi, Lean Sensei PMP

As a multi-lingual engineering and project management professional, Deborah has a proven track record in promoting continuous learning in culturally diverse work environments. She has had diversified roles in local and international enterprises such as Intel Corp, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, Honeywell, and in  not for profit  Health Care and higher education environments.

• a Bachelors in Engineering from Boston University,
• an MBA and
• a PhD in Management Information Systems.  

She has received numerous awards and distinctions, including attending the inauguration of Barak Obama and Joseph Biden  representing the state of  New Mexico in recognition for her contributions to the local and international community. 

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Lean Gulf Institute (www.leangulf.org) and as staff for Lingos (www.lingos.org ) promoting project management education for NGO’s worldwide.

She co-authored The Lean Project Manager’s Toolkit: Equipping Project Managers to Boost Len Transformations and is currently working on her next book title Kaizen for the Heart, Mind and Soul: (Re-) Igniting your Personal Passion to Make a Difference which is dedicated to those courageously rising to address the challenges facing modern healthcare.

Sattar "Sam" Salimi, Lean Sensei

Sattar “Sam” Salimi is a key contributor to the success of fast paced innovative business operations. He has a keen ability to define, implement and refine processes to establish Best Known Methods (BKM’s) in order to reduce waste and improve efficiencies and effectiveness.

On more than one occasion, Sam has been responsible for all aspects of enterprise start-up from site selection and construction through attainment of high volume production goals. For example, Sam  assembled investors for an unparalleled endeavor: setting up and overseeing the design, construction and operation of  a printing ink production facility located in the Hamriyah Free Zone of Sharjah, UAE The ambitious goal of this project was to reach 20 metric tons production per month by the end of the first year in operation. The time from conception to world-class production was unprecedented in the region and this production ramp attracted attention in the Gulf as well as internationally.

Sam also plays a key role in the Lean Gulf Institute, an organization dedicated to spreading Lean knowledge and application to enterprises throughout the Gulf region and beyond. He has also been principal of an international engineering consulting firm, a director of innovation for the NIST affiliated MEP network and held other corporate positions in USA fortune 500 companies such as Intel Corp., Hughes Aircraft/Boeing, Purex Industries and Honeywell Information Systems. 

Sam holds an Engineering degree from Boston University and has completed numerous post graduate courses, including the professional designation of Lean Sensei through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Association for Manufacturing Excellence, American Society for Quality and the Shingo Prize organizations.

Publications:

Most recently, Deborah and Sam co-authored The Lean Project Manager’s Toolkit: Boosting, with publication in English and Arabic.  They have also been instrumental in translating and localizing leading Lean books into Modern Arabic and Farsi as noted below: 

• Lean Lexicon, 4th edition in Arabic 
• Learning To See,  Arabic edition 
• Managing To Learn,  Arabic edition 
• Getting the Right Things Done,  Arabic edition
• Lean Hospital, Arabic edition
• Productivity Improvement in Construction, Arabic  edition
• Productivity Improvement in Construction, Farsi edition

Bana Zarrabian, Accounts Executive

Bana comes to Lean ProjectPros with more than 20 years of experience in sales, services and marketing in the technology hardware sector, with most of it gained at Toshiba America. She has an extensive background in forecasting sales projections across various channels as well as broad and established working relationships with major distributors and B2B channels. She is very efficient and provides timely assessment of pricing and demand for development of marketing programs and other sales stimulus initiatives to manage inventory and product life cycles.

Bana is known in the industry as a polished presenter with C-level sales experience. In the words of those who have worked iwth her: "Bana is a true sales professional. She has had success at multiple levels and willingly shares her experience and knowledge. She is focused in her approach, strategic in her methodology and highly motivated to succeed. Her warm personality and welcoming demeanor only add to an already formidable list of character traits. “Bana possesses the quality to accurately access a situation, provide suggestions and do it all with an exceptional attitude."

Among her many roles, she has managed over 20 product lines at a leading Industrial Distributorship. She was responsible for managing inventory, sales, and profit margins. Also she managed the affiliation with the various vendors and kept the sales organization updated on all new products and training. She was the recipient of the Presidents Club Award at Toshiba Digital Products Division in both2007 & 2008 for over quota achievement in both fiscal halves for laptop, projector and accessories sales.

Sarah Salimi

As a multi-lingual marketing project manager, Sarah has complimented her experience with a masters in Project Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Intercultural Communications.

Her Summary of Achievements include:

• Planning, directing, and managing designated marketing and sales focused projects.
• Ensuring that objectives are met in accordance with outlined priorities.
• Analyzing marketing and sales operations to discover more efficient ways to utilize resources and eliminate waste.
• Coordinating the successful simultaneous development of several “go live” web projects.
• Negotiation of contracts and strategic partnership