(626) 390-1082 | Pasadena, CA | DukePhoto@me.com

Past Careers

General Manager of Manufacturing / Industrial Designer
Pearl Abrasive Co., City of Industry, CA | 1998 to 2001

Managed and created a start-up manufacturing facility with more than 50 employees including sourcing heavy equipment, assembly line design and construction.

  • Effectively managed all projects from concept to production; developing on-line processes, Trained all department heads.
  • Designed multiple high-end industry leading products for the abrasive industry using 3D CAD software.
  • Took the MRP system from nonfunctioning to online producing more than 12 products.
  • Redesigned 9 products for manufacturability saving the company $300,000 a year.
  • Sourced and negotiated long term vendor contracts in the US, Europe and Asia.
  • Headed design and development engineering teams of all new projects.
  • Organized in-house and outside user testing of products. Prepared testing reports, material documentation for Regulatory Compliance review (UL, CSA, etc.). Designed technical manuals.
  • Created, implemented, and maintained a multi-project schedule using Microsoft Project.
  • Oversee site testing, hosting, client support, and server configuration. Quickly resolve code issues and bugs.
  • Design, develop, research, install, and configure client blogs.
  • Produce photography and video. Provide photo retouching and editing.

Forman / Set Designer / IATSE 44
Blockbuster Film Armageddon, Van Nuys, CA | 1997 to 1998

Designed chassis and drive train of a 1/4 scale radio controlled (RC) model moon rover. Led machining and assembly teams of more than 25 people. Sourced and negotiated outside vendor contracts. Designed and supervised building of modern shuttlecraft models, including digitizing and 3D CAD modeling. Shuttlecraft models comprised of, 1 (1/3.5-scale 37 feet long) and 5 (1/15-scale) crash shuttles.

Forman / Set Designer / Heavy Equipment Operator / IATSE 44
Blockbuster Film Dante’s Peak, Culver City, CA | 1996 to 1997

Skillfully designed and Led a crew of 30 people in construction of a 30-foot high x 50-foot wide 1/4 scale breakaway dam hero-model. including 2 full breakaway-cores, and plenum for water manipulation of 650,000,000 gallons.

Production Designer / Lead
Cinnabar, Hollywood, CA | 1993 to 1996

Supervised post production / production teams for television shows and commercials. Design sets and lead crews of 25 or more. Took ownership of budgets of over $200,000, production schedules to insure delivery always on-time and under budget. Shot in locations in U.S. and Canada.

Project Manager / Tooling and Documentation Head
Pacific Fitness, Anaheim, CA | 1992 to 1993

Supervised product development from engineering through manufacturing. Project Management duties included; documentation, tooling and streamlining manufacturing processes. Developed tooling for production runs of over 100,000 units and reduced production cost by 10%.

Project Manager / Fabrication Lead
European Auto Restoration, Newport Beach, CA | 1991 to 1992

Managed restoration projects from beginning to end. Directed rebuilding of rare Ferrari and Porsche classic automobiles which saw increased values of 200% – 300%. Many restored vehicles appreciated value exceeded $1,000,000.00. Special Note: Restored very rare 1969 Ferrari 365 GTC Special, received “Best in Class” at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Manager of Engineering / Manufacturing / Research and Development
Vector Aeromotive, Long Beach, CA | 1987 to 1991

Head product development teams from engineering through manufacturing. Project Management duties included; documentation, tooling and streamlining manufacturing processes on all systems. Developed tooling for production runs of over 100,000 units and reduced production cost by 21%. took charge of documentation / engineering of over 10,000 parts. Led teams in conversion from hand-made one-off to full manufacturability. Reduced reworks from 35% down to 3%.