Evan West

As Managing Director of PICA, responsible for:

• Develop high-quality business strategies and plans ensuring their alignment with short-term and long-term objectives
• Lead and motivate direct reports to advance employee engagement and develop a high performing managerial team
• Oversee all operations and business activities to ensure they produce the desired results and are consistent with the overall strategy and mission
• Make high-quality investing decisions to advance the business and increase profits
• Enforce adherence to legal guidelines and in-house policies to maintain the company’s legality and business ethics
• Review financial and non-financial reports to devise solutions or improvements
• Build trust relations with key partners and stakeholders and act as a point of contact for important shareholders
• Analyze problematic situations and occurrences and provide solutions to ensure company survival and growth
• Maintain a deep knowledge of the markets and industry of the company
• Ensure clear internal and external communication of the company’s strategic direction and operational plans

Provide leadership, mentoring and guidance to 5 management reports (50 personnel) in the Platform Client Services Group of the Zedi SaaS SCADA Business Unit. Manage a $5.25M annual OPEX budget with full P&L and operational accountability for a service delivery and customer care group that directly generates $4.5M annual revenue and supports $15.5M of additional annual revenue.

Oversee 6 teams: SaaS SCADA Platform/Automation Engineering, Implementation & Commissioning Team; SaaS SCADA Project Delivery Team (projects, procurement, inventory, logistics); Automation Hardware Product Operations Team; Customer Care Team; Customer Success Team and Production Volume Measurement Services Team.

Formulate strategic/operational plans and contribute to corporate strategy, sales/marketing strategy and product management strategy as part of Executive Team.

Key Accomplishments

• Collaborated in creating a multi-year international expansion & market diversification strategy to expand from North America to a global mandate. This includes a lead role in establishing and scaling up infrastructure to support expansion globally.
• Following a long-term market contraction in our oil & gas client base, doubled a severely understaffed Customer Care Team at no extra cost by transitioning it from North America to Manila, Philippines. As a result, first call resolution increased from 28% to 85%. Partnered with Emerson’s Manila Centre of Excellence to implement recruitment, onboarding, training, metrics, best practices and remote work capabilities to achieve best-in-class service and to maintain business continuity during a global pandemic. 

• Expanded the Customer Success Team’s size, charter and mandate to manage all SaaS SCADA renewals and customer health assessments, leading to best-in-class customer retention (1% customer churn).
• Unified 6 silos in filling price/technology value gap with outstanding service using a holistic approach for project execution, customer care, root cause analysis and continuous improvement, achieved by fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, value creation, process redesign and employee engagement.
• Stabilized an Engineering Team by re-aligning compensation and hiring resources in India and Philippines, enabling the team to support global expansion.
• Alongside SaaS SCADA scope, oversee hardware fulfillment, supply chain, repairs, M2M and telco contracts for a proprietary legacy product to end of life ($1.5M hardware revenue and $1.5M COGS).

Directed 5 management reports (65 personnel) in the Zedi Automation Group and a $7.8M operating budget with annual revenues over $10M.

Oversaw the delivery of SaaS SCADA automation solution engineering, commissioning, SaaS SCADA hardware product management, automation project delivery, field services, inventory, procurement, logistics, TrueChart and electronic flow measurement processing services.

Led strategic and operational planning, OPEX budgeting, value creation, marketing strategy, operational effectiveness and P&L management for this group.

Key Accomplishments

• Following Emerson’s acquisition of 2 Zedi business lines, collaborated in establishing Emerson’s Zedi SaaS SCADA Business Unit, transitioning services and integrating operations, personnel and culture.
• Outsourced multiple services to channel partners to eliminate competition with Emerson’s Impact Partner Channel.

Led the Services Solutions Group in generating $34M annual revenue with full accountability for P&L performance, long/short-range strategic and operational planning and operational effectiveness for 3 business lines in U.S. and Canada.

Oversaw 6 directors, 2 managers, 230+ personnel, 15 service centres (13 in U.S., 2 in Canada) and a $12M operating budget. Directed SaaS solution engineering and commissioning, automation hardware product management, automation project delivery, field services, procurement, logistics, inventory management, artificial lift business, TrueChart, EFM processing, lab and measurement services business.

Reported to the President and collaborated with the Executive Team to drive corporate strategy, marketing strategy, customer acquisition, market management and strategic partnerships.

Key Accomplishments

• Restored profitability in an oil & gas downturn by leading significant cost reduction and restructuring.
• Led integration and problem solving in multiple locations following multiple corporate acquisitions.
• Introduced technology and automation to improve efficiency of field ticketing and safety programs.
• Supported due diligence for successful divestiture of 5 lines of business (2 were acquired by Emerson).

Held full P&L accountability for the Artificial Lift Services Group which offered artificial lift and SaaS SCADA automation solutions for oil and gas production optimization and gas well dewatering.

Provided leadership to the U.S. Operations Manager, Canadian Operations Manager and Product Manager (25 personnel) in Alberta and Bridgeport, Texas.

Led strategic and operational planning, budgeting, product development and product commercialization. Oversaw marketing, business development, estimating, client proposals, contract negotiations, installations, support and field services.

Key Accomplishments

• Grew artificial lift revenue from < $1M/year to $14M/year ($70M lifetime revenue).
• Led product development and redesign of original hydraulic rod pump to create an autonomous rod pumping product by adding rod rotation, new power pack designs & SaaS SCADA automation firmware.
• Created product commercialization strategies and successfully took 5 new products to market.
• Spearheaded diversification, entry and expansion into the oil industry in Canada (2011) and U.S. (2013) and scaled up the business to serve U.S. clients by setting up a new service centre in Texas.
• Sourced a new manufacturer to build a more technologically advanced artificial lift product.
• Led due diligence to support corporate acquisition and expansion across the U.S.
• Authored technical research papers and conducted presentations at multiple conferences.

Managed product development, marketing and sales of Well Optimization Products locally & internationally.

Key Accomplishments

• Increased product and service sales 30% year over year.
• Directed and drove overall business strategies, decisions and actions for line of business production optimization for the company. Translated customer critical business issues into requirements for all products within the line of business. Led the optimization “line of business” revenue and earnings.
• Spearheaded the integration of the gas well automation technology into Zedi SaaS SCADA solutions, incorporating cross-functional departments, teams and consultants overseeing planning and activation at the client base.
• Developed the international marketing strategy and positioned Zedi for growth in difficult markets with unique business requirements.

Directed a new technology start-up in the oil & gas services sector.

Key Accomplishments

• Developed and led the strategy, decisions and actions for the company as a whole, including SaaS software and RTU firmware design, development, marketing and sales efforts. This resulted in successfully building a private company with a good return for all shareholders upon company acquisition.
• Conceived all the human emulation software to automate and optimize gas wells as it relates to dewatering techniques and the SaaS SCADA platform functionality to work in conjunction with field RTU. Products were a suite of gas well lifecycle optimization software applications that offered a strategic approach to well management, from new well to abandonment, using a single technology platform.
• Spearheaded much of the private placement activity and positioning of Menex Technologies’ concepts to selected individuals in the investment arena that resulted in the successful financing of the company for over 5 years of development efforts.

Key Accomplishments

As Relationship Marketing Project Manager – General Motors of Canada (GMCL) and International Product Centre, GM World Headquarters, Detroit Michigan (NAO IPC):

• Spearheaded the development and implementation of a corporate strategic direction incorporating cross-functional GM and EDS teams and consultants overseeing planning and activation of GMCL’s relationship marketing initiatives; resulted in the highly successful implementation of GMCL’s marketing decision support environment and the evolution of relationship marketing as one of GMCL’s key strategies.

As a Member of EDS and GM Corporate Task Force (strategic development of Relationship Marketing for GM):

• Issued mandates outlining marketing activation plans or strategies resulting in the commitment of capital, expense and human resources for both long and short-term initiatives. Officially recognized and accredited as a key team member responsible for launching the corporation into global relationship cause marketing alliances.
• Conceived, developed and directed optimum medium and long-range fundamental strategies to meet growth and competitive demands. Held a pivotal role in the strategic development and implementation of relationship marketing for GM on an international scale: U.K., Germany and Puerto Rico.

As New Business Development Manager:

• Developed EDS Marketing Services organization from its inception with revenues exceeding $4.5M annually in less than 2.5 years. Assisted the EDS organization supporting GM Europe in overall strategy to develop a European EDS marketing services organization.

As GM Card Assistant Operations Manager:

• Coordinated cardholder acquisitions via direct mail and telemarketing programs (GM Card was the most successful credit card launch in Canadian history). Maintained cardholder communications, with respect to vehicle sales, resulting in the highly successful integration of the GM Card with divisional brand marketing initiatives.
• Led team of systems engineers responsible for the design, construction, testing and implementation and support of the GM Card/GM Dealership Redemption systems. Coordinated the development and activation of systems within 2 months to meet an aggressive GM Card launch schedule.

As Systems Engineer/Analyst and Project Leader:

• Maintained an active role in all phases of system development over a 2 year period, including requirement specifications, functional analysis and design, implementation and system support.
• Effectively reviewed and analyzed capacity of existing information technology; probed new and existing technologies for opportunities in new applications; activated modifications and enhancements; determined optimum IT growth for both revenue generation and expense reduction equipment.