Michael Burkhardt

Michael Burkhardt: Earned a BA in International Studies then traveled to Taiwan independently to teach English. After returning joined the US Navy as an officer. Among other duty stations, served as the Air Operations Officer at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Crete Greece. Responsible for all air operations and support as well as liason with the Hellenic (Greek) Air Force. During that time my department made long term improvements to our operational infrastructure and significantly improved US / Greek relations making NSA Souda Bay the top Air Operations unit in Europe recognized for quality support. 

Following the Navy, worked as a production and packaging manager with Frito Lay working with my team to excede company goals through regular improvement of our processes. This is where I was first introduced to Lean.

Moved to northern Virginia and was hired by BearingPoint (later bought by Deloitte) as a PMO team member in the Federal Practice. During my time there I was sought out to document and promote continuity between business and IT among other duties. I was later hired by the Dept of Transportation, Office of Hazmat Safety (responsible for regulation of the transportation of hazmat in commerce) where, following indepth hazmat regulations training, I began my work to improve our program. By developing close partnerships accross DOT and within the agency I have worked to shorten work timelines and reduce staff workload so that we may be more efficient and focus more on our safety mission and less on administration.