Ken Westray PE, NPDP
PDMA-Certified and Approved Master Education Service Provider and Master Trainer

Ken Westray has extensive business experience in producing corporate profits demonstrated by his track record of leading major contributions in new products and developing new markets. Ken has successfully helped to develop and introduce over 60 commercially successful new products, in both domestic and international markets. In over 80% of these cases, new products not only achieved market leadership, but also maintained those positions for an average of 5 years, generating an average of 55% gross margins.

Ken's formal education and professional affiliations have prepared him exceptionally well to understand the technical considerations of new product development. Holding a Master's degree in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Missouri School of Mines, he is also registered as a professional engineer in the state of Michigan. Additionally, he has been a member of the Innovation Network, Product Development Management Association (PDMA), Commercial Development Association (CDA), Planning Forum and the Society of Competitive Intelligence (SCIP) and has given numerous presentations to top management on the complex organizational, technical and financial issues of successful new product development. The common thread of his measurable contribution in these organizations is his focus on perfecting the complex process of successful new product development as a corporate competitive advantage, beginning with developing the company's new product strategy, culminating in successful market launch and sustaining commercialization.

Ken is a certified New Product Development Professional (NPDP) from the PDMA. He holds a Master Education Service Provider licensed from PDMA allowing him to conduct the PDMA approved Certification Workshop and conduct certification testing. For the eighth year in a row Ken has conducted the certification training at the PDMA International Conference, receiving the highest marks and comments from the participates of any instructor. However, the proof is in the results, in the past 10 years more than 90% of his workshop candidates achieved certification.

William S. Little, Ph.D., NPDP

Dr. William S. Little has over 30 years of experience in marketing research, teaching, consulting, and program evaluation and planning. He began his career in 1972 on the faculty of Georgia State University, where he taught courses in demography and population issues and consulted with numerous state and local agencies. In 1978, he became an Associate Professor at Atlanta University where he developed and taught courses in research methods and statistics at the Master's and Ph.D. levels. He also served as Director of Academic Research and Director of Research for the Ph.D. program.

From 1987 through 1988, he served as Executive Director of Strategic Research Center, a full service marketing research firm in Atlanta, Georgia. He was responsible for project sales, client service and staff management as well as having research responsibilities that included all aspects of study design, data analysis, and report preparation and presentation.

Bill also has worked as a consultant with the National Park Service where he designed and directed research projects on facility planning, visitor values and preferences, visitor impact, and resource protection.

His work in marketing research includes studies on customer satisfaction, consumer attitudes, advertising and product concept testing, image studies, and feasibility studies. He has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative research including focus groups, sample design, mail and telephone surveys, personal interviewing, and secondary data analysis.
Bill founded Advantage Research in 1989 in order to provide clients with a higher level of personal service in their marketing research needs.

Dr. Little completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Texas at Austin. He did his graduate work at the Population Research Center, where his concentration was research methods. He also completed post-graduate work in marketing and general business at Georgia State University.

Frank Harris, MBA, NPDP

Frank Harris started his new product development career on the front lines as an application sales engineer for an industrial products company.   Working in this role and on a MBA degree, Frank was able to merge the academic with real business needs and launched a new product line.  With his degree in hand, the next stop was General Electric, ultimately as a product manager of new products for General Electric’s lighting business group.  During this period Frank was able to lead the launch of six new lighting and battery products as well as open the emerging warehouse club channel for lighting products.  Frank has developed new products for multiple markets - consumer package goods, original equipment manufacturers, retail stores, distributors and traditional business-to-business customers.

The next 20+ years were spent leading new product programs from developing business strategy to actual product launch for companies, including a start-up technology company.  His management roles included Vice President of engineering, Vice President of marketing, sales and licensing, and CEO and President.  During this period he led programs that in additional to starting new companies also included launching ten new products from power tools, cellular telephone battery chargers, and portable electronic accessory products for fortune 50 companies to food products.  In addition to developing new products, Frank is an entrepreneur who held senior management positions with a start-up battery technology company and who, with a partner, started a restaurant franchising company.

Frank is a certified New Product Development Professional (NPDP) from PDMA.  His education started at North Carolina State University where he received a BS in Engineering.  He also received a Masters of Business Administration in marketing from George Washington University, Washington, DC.