Symphony Consulting: About Us

Importance of Supply Chain, Manufacturing Outsourcing, and Procurement: The Reason for Our Existence

Supply chain solutions are a means towards reaching an end goal. That end goal is to provide value to customers while enabling success in key financial metrics such as earnings and shareholder value. Whether it is helping a company develop an outsourcing strategy, select a capable contract manufacturer or supplier, address the root causes of inventory build-up, mitigate contractual risks, or reduce total cost of ownership, we take a practical, bottom-line oriented approach toward devising solutions that we recommend to and implement for our clients.

Why Symphony?

We pride ourselves in the depth and breadth of experience we offer our clients, drawing on “best practices” from years of industry experience. We are seasoned professionals who have worked with small, medium, and large OEM companies, Contract Manufacturers, and component suppliers. We are not tied to any legacy systems or software solution providers and can provide our clients with an objective assessment throughout our consulting engagement.

Symphony Consulting will provide you with professional resources to devise programs that address your concerns. We do not “consult” in the traditional sense of only providing research and a recommendations. Symphony believes in getting results. We do that by working together with various functions in your company to implement effective solutions.

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Management Team

	John Holton Co-founder and Senior Consultant John has more than 20 years of experience in strategic procurement and supplier management. He started his career at Hewlett-Packard, where John spent eight years in a variety of management positions. He worked in various HP business units and had responsibilities that spanned the globe and included key supplier relationships. John joined Trimble Navigation Ltd. in 1995, where he held two senior roles in supply management, and helped Trimble successfully outsource core functions. John holds a BS in Operations Management and an MBA from the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is a skilled negotiator and has a strong background in developing and implementing supplier based initiatives that bring demonstrated value to a company’s P&L He is involved in industry groups and teaches, writes, and speaks extensively on issues involving suppliers and negotiations.
	Bijan Dastmalchi Co-founder and Senior Consultant Bijan has over 20 years of experience in outsourcing, strategic procurement, and supply chain management, with extensive experience in strategic sourcing and contract negotiations. Bijan spent seven years at Hewlett-Packard in a number of management and leadership roles in procurement and supply chain. He has also worked at Trimble Navigation, two start-ups, and, prior to starting Symphony Consulting, was Director of Semiconductor Procurement at Solectron Corporation's Global Supply Management, overseeing an organization responsible for over $1B in annual purchases. Bijan holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Santa Clara University. He regularly speaks at industry events and has published several articles and white papers. He has served as an expert witness in supply chain and contract litigation. Bijan has a strong background in negotiations and helping companies with their due diligence in sourcing.
	Danny Feng General Manager, Far East Operations Danny has approximately 10 years of experience in the electronics industry. He started his career at Raltron Electronics and assumed the role of regional sales executive, managing relationships with rapidly growing and demanding customers in the disk drive industry. In 1998, Danny relocated to Silicon Valley and joined Oak Frequency Control as its West Coast Regional manager, where he helped establish and grow the relationship with major telecom equipment suppliers. He also helped the company launch its sales operations in Shanghai. In 2001, Danny relocated to South East Asia, where he established a sales representative operation in the region. Danny holds a BS in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from University of Miami, Florida. In addition to fluency in both English and Chinese, he has clear understanding of both the American and Asian business culture having conducted business in both regions. Danny is skilled at helping US companies work effectively with their Asian counterparts throughout the region.
	John Unland Senior Consultant John has more than 25 years of experience in strategic procurement, materials and supply chain management in both manufacturing and distribution companies. He most recently held an executive position with PNY Technologies, an industry-leading supplier of consumer memory modules, graphics cards and flash memory products; where he was responsible for global supply management. John provided the leadership and management for sourcing, contract manufacturing, supply chain and cost reduction initiatives. He led the efforts in selecting and opening PNY’s first Asian operation, an international procurement office in Taiwan. Prior to PNY, John worked at Hewlett-Packard in multiple business units and organizations where he held a variety of management positions, including his last position as Director of Strategic Alliances for the Personal Computer Group. In the challenging consumer Printer and PC Server market space, John’s organization was responsible for an annual purchase commitment in excess of $1.5B, supporting regional manufacturing and configuration sites around the world. His organization also provided procurement leadership and material acquisition in support of new product introduction through remote factories. John has conducted business throughout Asia establishing a substantial network of contacts. He is skilled in leading supplier negotiations and in managing remote teams, complex supply chains and executive level supplier relationships in a global marketplace. John has a BS in Business Management from San Jose State University and is APICS certified.
	Thomas Ellison Senior Consultant Tom brings a wealth of experience to Environmental Compliance tasks through 30 years of experience in manufacturing, quality, and failure analysis. Prior to joining Symphony he worked at Finisar Corporation, where he managed the company’s transition towards compliance with a series of applicable environmental directives. He previously worked at Trimble Navigation and Air Products and Chemicals. Tom’s experience includes serving on the IPC Halogen Free Standards committee and the IEC TC111 committee developing the analytical standards for the RoHS testing. He has authored several articles on the costs, manufacturing and reliability challenges of Lead free soldering and RoHS conversion for both Conformity magazine and the IPC Lead Free Conference. Tom is an industry recognized expert and has spoken at forums such as the IEEE and Embedded Conference on the practical steps towards world wide environmental compliance. Tom also brings to the task of RoHS and REACH compliance a detailed understanding of the chemistry and materials structure of electronic components as well as an understanding of the chemical lab testing required to validate supplier information. Tom has a B.S. in Chemistry from Missouri University of Science and Technology and an M.S. in Materials Science – Metallurgy from Iowa State University. Tom holds four patents in chemical, metallurgical and optical assembly process technology. His vast engineering experience includes automated electronic assembly, laser and photodiode assembly processes, failure analysis of electronic components, and various manufacturing processes for steel, aluminum, ceramics and copper alloys. Tom is skilled in reviewing product bills-of-materials and understanding the impact of environmental directives on electronic products.