Overview

Since 1960, Brooks International has specialized in delivering the design, acceleration and execution of our clients’ strategic imperatives that instill a culture of continuous improvement and achieve the required financial objectives. Because each client is unique, Brooks International works diligently to understand the people, processes, measurements and organizational culture in place. Applying more than a half-century of management leadership with precise and thorough in-depth analysis and comprehensive implementation, we create custom-tailored transformations – with measurable and sustainable step-change results.


Mission

Our mission is to deliver significantly enhanced profits and predictable business performance to our CEO clients.

We do so by creating and delivering Execution Excellence, linking financial and operational models, while dramatically enhancing all execution methods, competencies and capabilities. We deliver substantial and sustainable organizational, operational and financial improvements … specializing in execution performance capability … working across all industries. Insight. Execution. Results.


Vision

To be the sustaining partner of choice in all client relationships


Core Values

  • Integrity above all
  • Client-centric
  • All commitments achieved sustainably
  • Business results required
  • Respected, engaged and fulfilled employees

Principles

Brooks International has always leaned upon our principles to guide us. As clients can attest, these principles resonate deeply and help us in steering transformation initiatives for our clients. As we continue to move forward in the 21st century, our principles keep us tethered to traditional business values.

GOALS & EXPECTATIONS

Both must be clearly communicated and understood, company-wide.

MOTIVATION

Incentives and recognition are tied to performance and behavior.

CONSTRUCTIVE MANAGEMENT

Managers proactively address and foster performance success.

IMPROVEMENT

Sustainable, systematic improvement is the goal at every level.

Our principles provide a roadmap for all endeavors. They influence our search for meaningful insights, our approach to transformational processes and the results of our work.


History

Brooks International was founded in 1960, in New Jersey, by two General Electric executives with a wealth of business performance success. The early focus on direct business outcomes continues to differentiate us in the marketplace today. Before the end of the ’60s, the first international assignment led to a European office, and Brooks International was born.

During the 1980s, our European presence expanded to three offices and a new management group purchased Brooks International from the founder. In the 1990s, our company developed an integrated approach that balances process with organizational culture and behavioral change. Our current leadership bought the company back from the management group and led Brooks International into the new millennium.

Today, our Tactical Planning Methodology refines the Brooks International process including an in-depth assessment, complete implementation and execution of our executive clients’ strategic imperatives. Corresponding with our growth in a new world economy, Brooks International maintains five locations in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia.


Delivering Sustainable Value

Since our inception in 1960, Brooks International has specialized in helping corporate executives at industry-leading organizations in diverse industries around the world design and implement their strategic imperatives and instill a culture of continuous performance improvement.

We partner with our clients and are committed to their missions of achieving their strategic imperatives and reaching their desired future state together. We deliver tangible, sustainable, measurable value, including improved earnings, customer/market satisfaction, increased market share and improved bottom-line financial returns. Brooks International professionals are problem-solvers. Our employees are committed to ensuring exceptional quality in every detail. Our services and methods specifically address people, processes and technology utilization issues faced by most organizations.

Execution is a vital part of every initiative and our day-to-day operations. Simply stated, we deliver Execution Excellence. Our clients enthusiastically recommend Brooks International for that reason.

At the end of the day, we make a promise and keep it.

Lui Damasceno
CEO, Brooks International


7 Core Attributes

Brooks International’s seven core attributes set us apart and make us unique in the marketplace:

  1. We are value-driven. We’re highly mission- and action-biased, linking business outcomes to operational tactics with the implementation of transformational step changes.
  2. We start with the answer (i.e., the executive’s strategic imperative) and certify true performance potential and specific areas that will produce improved performance; then generate a specific tactical plan of execution and deliver the required outcome.
  3. We focus on delivering real measurable value, such as profitability, earnings, revenue and cash, with reconciliation of our benefits directly to the financial statement. Our impact will accrue within weeks and months versus months and years.
  4. Our comprehensive E-C-M (Expectations – Capabilities – Motivators) methodology blends behavioral and tactical considerations, which accelerate and sustain our clients’ targeted results.
  5. We are privately held and client-centric.
  6. Our employees are hand-picked, Brooks-certified, professional leaders. They specialize in the implementation of organizational and operational upgrades and results delivery.
  7. We are supported by a blue-chip International Advisory Board that supports shaping our industry perspectives and client-solution architecture.

Execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success and the cause of most of the disappointments that are mistakenly attributed to other causes. — Larry Bossidy, retired CEO and Author


Leadership

To provide a level of insight and leadership appropriate for Fortune 500 chief executives, Brooks International employs our own team of outstanding leaders. Each member of our leadership team owns an extraordinary array of resources, experiences and educational prowess. Working in collaboration with one another, it’s hard to imagine a business challenge capable of exceeding Brooks International’s capacity.


Lui Damasceno
Global Managing Partner
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Leadership Team

Kevin Belovsky
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Susan Schran Houghton
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Paul Kreis
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Mark Zeffiro
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Lui Damasceno
Global Managing Partner

Lui Damasceno is the Global Managing Partner of Brooks International. He has held that title since 1999. Mr. Damasceno began his career with the firm in 1984, and was both hired and mentored by Robert Lull, an ex-GE executive, who founded the firm in 1960. Mr. Damasceno started as an apprentice consultant, and over the span of his career, he has demonstrated uncommon and superior success at all key functions of the firm. Today’s primary areas of client oversight include engagement architecture and results delivery, business-wide analytics and new account development. In the 1990s, Brooks International was acquired and owned by Navigant Consulting, a $250 million publicly traded consultancy, during which time Mr. Damasceno was immediately promoted to run Navigant’s Value Delivery Practice. In 1999, Mr. Damasceno led a successful effort to once again privatize the Brooks organization. In the running of today’s practice, he personally oversees each and every commitment made to the firm’s clients. Beyond his more than 30 years of management consulting and business leadership experience, Mr. Damasceno’s specific consulting areas of expertise include supply chain, inventory management and logistics, sales force effectiveness, green-field launch and overall asset utilization and profitability performance. He is highly skilled in both the analytical and implementation aspects of the consulting field. He possesses a long-standing track record of success with clients in both North America and Europe. Throughout his career, Mr. Damasceno has led engagements that have generated dramatic improvements across many industries, including: pharmaceutical, chemical, transportation, energy, heavy and light manufacturing, aerospace, financial services and insurance, healthcare and distribution, to name a few. Mr. Damasceno has designed and implemented numerous engagements that have required advanced change-management expertise coupled with deep tactical knowledge of the clients’ operations. Many of the more complex initiatives were characterized as post-merger/acquisition efforts and every case required significant enhancement in business performance. All engagements have included major behavioral shifts culminating in greatly enhanced client cultures, as well as dramatic improvements in bottom-line profit performance. Mr. Damasceno resides in beautiful South Florida with his wife and six children. He enjoys spending time with his family and his hobbies are boating, golfing and reading.

Kevin Belovsky
Director of Assessment Quality

Kevin Belovsky is a highly experienced managing analyst and the Director of Assessment Quality with Brooks International. Mr. Belovsky has worked with some of the largest organizations in the world in the transportation, food and beverage, banking, insurance, retailing, healthcare, telecommunications, energy and manufacturing industries over the past 27 years as a consultant and analyst. His experience includes large-scale program management, asset management and utilization optimization, green field and brown field analysis and development, analysis of strategic logistics, supply chain and vertical integration, sales/revenue enhancement, customer service and quality improvement, M&A integration, performance improvement and business process design. Prior to Brooks International, Mr. Belovsky had more than eight years of experience in the automotive industry. His managerial responsibilities included operations, marketing, finance and personnel. Representative examples of Mr. Belovsky’s experience and accomplishments:

  • Major International Brewery – Developed and implemented a streamlined and more efficient export operations process, including guidelines and escalation protocols to synchronize export logistics with port of entry legal and regulatory requirements to minimize import processing times;
  • Large Regional U.S. Food Wholesaler – Redesigned warehousing, stocking and distribution operations to reduce costs and significantly improve on-time delivery of shipments to customers;
  • Major Class I Railroad – Designed and implemented an asset utilization program, which optimized power planning, terminal operations and customer on-time performance through improved planning horizons and terminal execution procedures, decision-making and escalation processes;
  • Leading U.S. Telecommunications Company – Managed projects to improve service, quality and productivity; Implemented new front-line managerial processes and tools that positioned the organization for development of technician cross-selling and up-selling of added features. This resulted in improved key performance indicators including improved service response time, increased wire-line infrastructure maintenance and lowered cost per fault repair;
  • Large U.K. Electricity Servicing Organization – Oversaw the development and implementation of new front-line managerial tools and habits for field service operations, which maintained power for London and Eastern England. The program increased crew utilization and reduced outsourcing/contracting costs through the redeployment of excess internal capacity. Results included a 40 percent reduction in labor costs, while reducing customer complaints by 50 percent;
  • Large, Regional Healthcare System – Identified and quantified critical areas limiting patient care and increasing cost of care; Established teams of physicians, clinical and non-clinical staff to map existing patient care processes, policies and procedures; Implemented new clinical pathways and patient-care procedures to improve quality of care and reduce cost of care; Realigned staffing schedules and levels to meet patient-care requirements; Reduced Operating Room labor and material costs; Reduced professional nursing staff costs by 24 percent.

Mr. Belovsky holds a B.S. from Marquette University, with degrees in Marketing and Management of Human Resources. He is also a graduate of the General Motors School of Management.

Susan Schran Houghton
Director of Organizational Development

Susan Schran Houghton is the Director of Organizational Development at Brooks International. Ms. Houghton has more than 30 years of international experience in organizational development, training and adult education. She has worked on and contributed to the implementation of organizational change and productivity improvement programs across a wide variety of industrial, commercial and service enterprises, including: manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, food processing, food service, agricultural production, chemical production, refining, forest products, mining, logistics, supermarkets, healthcare, hospitality, banking, financial services and insurance. She brings with her a proven track record in operational analysis, organizational and individual assessment, course/program development, training and coaching to ensure the application of learned concepts to the realities of the work environment. She is a skilled adult educator with a broad background in multiple modes of course delivery and assessment from online to traditional. Ms. Houghton also is recognized as an effective communicator, manager and key contributor to the implementation of organizational change that consistently leads to business success through transformational change and human resource development. Representative examples of Ms. Houghton’s experience and accomplishments:

  • Developed relationships with key stakeholders to ensure sponsorship of and participation in programs that aligned the mission with strategy, structure and culture to address operational and organizational requirements effectively;
  • Conducted interpersonal communications from the executive suite to the front line;
  • Assessed and analyzed organizational and individual needs to determine group and individual development requirements that supported the project mission and objectives;
  • Designed, delivered and implemented behavioral training programs that ensured acquisition and application of specific skills and competencies, resulting in measurable organizational improvements and ensuring achievement of mission goals;
  • Directed training and educational programs from concept to implementation, while delivering measureable, sustainable improvement and accountability;
  • Overcame objections and secured commitment and action needed to implement sustainable change;
  • Created and implemented work-group level solutions to address productivity, quality and customer service issues;
  • Guided staff in applying concepts to workplace realities, resulting in improved on-the-job performance;

Ms. Houghton has an M.B.A. in Management & Organizations from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Paul Kreis
Organizational Development Executive

Paul Kreis is an Organizational Development Executive at Brooks International. Paul is an executive leader with demonstrated history of achieving large scale consensus and transformational change outcomes, working in challenging, ambiguous and high-risk/reward environments. Mr. Kreis has built innovative, cross-functional teams, developed successful transformation outcomes for large organizations with multiple communities and improved public outreach. Mr. Kreis has experience leading organizations to improve performance, successfully leading and implementing change to gain efficiencies and achieve desired outputs, and advising, coaching, mentoring and relationship-building executives, senior leaders, peer leaders, staff and subordinate leaders. He has over 10 years of experience developing relationships with stakeholders to gain necessary consensus to implement sustainable change in strategic environments. He has worked in public and private sectors including military/defense industries, production and healthcare.

Prior to joining Brooks International, Mr. Kreis has worked at the Pentagon, integrating multiple cross-functional teams for all Army equipping readiness efforts. He improved staff coordination processes to assess potential Foreign Military Sales, specifically Excess Defense Articles and Grant Transfers. He trained and led a multi-functional organization of 900 Operations Officers and Technical Managers across the Southeastern United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to train customers (Army National Guard and Army Reserve forces), and assess their individual and organizational readiness. Mr. Kreis served as the Senior Advisor to the Afghan Minister of Defense. He has worked with senior US, NATO and Afghan political leaders, as well as managed relationships with 250+ advisors from 41 nation, to build the necessary consensus to develop the strategy and policies to accomplish the common desired outcome – long-term sustainability of the Ministry of Defense.

Representative examples of Mr. Kreis’ experience and accomplishments:

  • Adjustment of $490 million in programming and procurement; Created improved visibility and the greatest sustained improvement in equipping accomplished in over a decade; Accomplished this by establishing common purpose and improving communication successfully by creating and integrating cross-functional teams from multiple operations, logistics, procurement, and budget teams; Led the group to monitor future structure investment in equipment to ensure investments matched intended growth; Coordinated all activities to monitor expenditure and workload within a special $1.9 billion budget required to return significantly damaged equipment to useful conditions;
  • Trained and reorganized a 1,300 employee organization during downsizing of 3 large operating facilities over a 6 month period; The organization continued to improve operations throughout the very complex process, reinvesting $21 million into the security, operations and modernization of an oil refinery; The successful results were through establishment of clear expectations, as well as clearly defined roles and responsibilities, that were linked to redefined outcomes;
  • Improved 810 employee organization from underperforming to recognition as #1 with an 80% reduction in workplace safety issues; Accomplished this through aligning leaders with his vision and goals, enforcing standard practices, linking performance reviews to recognition, and improving communication.

Mr. Kreis has a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York and a Master of Arts with a focus in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and son. He enjoys writing, outdoor activities and rugby.

Mark Zeffiro
Managing Partner

Mark Zeffiro is a Managing Partner at Brooks International. Mr. Zeffiro has more than 25 years in finance, operations and varied end markets. He is a fact-based, process-oriented decision maker, willing to take on and deliver the biggest challenges. Mr. Zeffiro has been recognized for his passionate, pragmatic approach to enterprise development through culture and people transformation.

Representative examples of Mr. Zeffiro’s experience and accomplishments:

  • Spearheaded growth of multi-million designer, manufacturer and distributor of towing, trailering and cargo management company to nearly $1 billion at 7% operating profit within first 3 years; Launched the $500 million and 4% operating profit business as a public company on the NYSE with an independent board, a corporate staff, a location in place, and a capital structure to support the business; Developed new operating model and restructured the business into 3 regional operating units; Restructured the North American enterprise to reduce costs by 30% and inventory levels by 25%;
  • Improved operating profit of global manufacturer and provider of products in the consumer products, aerospace and industrial end markets by $250 million from a loss of $120 million; Reduced the breakeven point of business with $35 million in cost reductions; Led the finance operations and strategic reviews for the U.S. and international business of approximately 300; Drove improved operational performance across the portfolio, leading the company through a turnaround and stock appreciation from $1/share to > $40/share, creating for shareholders $1 billion in value; Partnered with the CEO to initiate and build a strategic planning process for the business and ran the efforts to create a global sourcing and continuous improvement focused organization; Addressed debt levels, focusing the teams to generate cash flow and work the capital structure of the business to provide flexibility, and enacted debt retirement;
  • Doubled the profitability of operations and improved the cash flow by more than 100% at paper and forest products company; Directed financial activities, including funding, bank relationships and external audit; Drove efforts to raise the public debt of $250 million to support the new paper-based business by reducing the reporting cycle to 2 days from weeks and institutionalized controls for procurement to payment, allowing management and ownership to focus on value-added activities;
  • Delivered $800 million in operating profit and reduced operating costs by $15.8 million at 10% at healthcare company; Directed financial activities of the $3 billion imaging division; Created strategic vision and tactics for implementing Oracle ERP across Latin America, Canada, and the United States, that improved customer order fulfillment by $36 million.

Mr. Zeffiro has an Associate of Science in Management and a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Analysis from Bentley University in Waltham, MA. He serves as a Board and Executive Committee Member and Audit Committee Chair at Atkore International, a Board Member and Finance Committee Chair at the Detroit Institute of the Arts and a Board Member and Academic Committee Member at Walsh College.

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