Eric Gowland, P.Eng.

Eric Gowland, P.Eng., is General Manager at ABS Friction, joining the company in January 2015. At ABS, Eric is responsible for the strategy development, execution and management of all aspects of the company. He is also dedicated to building a culture that is positive, strong and focused on continuously improving the business for everyone – including customers, employees, vendors and the owners.

Eric has a proven track record in demonstrating exceptional leadership and delivering outstanding business results through an inclusive leadership style and the execution of rapid profit growth strategies. His experience has been earned in various industries and roles as a CEO, senior executive and business owner.

For more than 25 years, Eric has applied his talents to transform manufacturing and distribution companies into high performing organizations. He enjoys working in small to medium-sized businesses, typically family owned/managed that desire significant growth and require major change to deal with challenging market conditions. He also enjoys the challenge of helping good “doers” grow into excellent leaders - which, in his estimation, is one of the keys to sustaining major changes in an organization. Eric has extensive knowledge of change management, LEAN, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints concepts and practical experience with their implementation.

In his most recent experience as President of an international manufacturer and distributor of electronic access control products, Eric led the company to 4 successive years of outstanding record profit/sales. Key elements of his success included a focus on effective strategy execution, leadership development, accountability, and change management.

As co-creator of Constraints Management Systems (CMS), Eric focused on exponential profitable growth strategy development and execution using practical Theory of Constraints applications. CMS had sales offices in Detroit, Amsterdam and Dubai, his international consulting & software operation was recognized three times by Profit Magazine for exceptional growth, and Eric was nominated twice for E&Y`s Entrepreneur of the Year award.

He also developed and implemented supply chain strategies to compete with low cost countries, created new brand and brand management strategies, managed multiple new product launch improvement initiatives, and created/executed change management plans to deal with the human side of all these types of major change initiatives.

Eric holds a B.A.SC. in Mechanical Engineering with the University of Waterloo. He is a Professional Engineer (P.ENG.), Ontario, a Certified Management Consultation (CMC) and a Theory of Constraints (TOC) Expert in all 6 TOC Fields: Operations Management Distribution Management, Finance & Measures, Holistic Strategy, Project Management and TOC Thinking Processes.

Eric lives with his family in Guelph. He enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and cheering on the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

> Contact Eric Gowland: Eric@ABSfriction.com