Management Profiles

Douglas Austin – President & CEO
Doug earned a B. A. in Business Administration from the College of St. Thomas, a Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) designation, and has over 30 years of line, staff and executive level experience in the airline, retail, manufacturing and service sectors. As founder of Performance Management Group, Doug focuses on the development of innovative purchasing and supply chain service offerings to a broad range of industry clients.

John Englund – Executive Vice President of Client Services
John holds both bachelors and Masters degrees from Drake University. He has over 30 years experience as a senior executive in both Information Services and Human Resources, working for such companies as General Electric, Target Stores, B Dalton Booksellers and the Dayton Hudson Corporation. Additionally John has been an international speaker for IBM.

John Villas – Chief Financial Officer
John came to PMG with extensive education and experience in financial management. Prior to PMG, John served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Entegris and had been the CFO of Fluorware.

James Williams – Vice President, Marketing
James earned his B.A. in Business Administration from St. Johns University and MBA from the University of St. Thomas. James brings 25+ years of executive level experience in developing Sales, Marketing and Business Development functions. He has Executive Coaching, Strategic Planning, Organizational Design, and Outsourcing experience in the IT, software, information management, healthcare, direct marketing, and benefits administration industries.

Wells Lifka, Director, Client Services, Central Region and Director of Sales
Wells held numerous positions over his 22 year tenure with the Ford Motor Company. During this time he worked to improve dealer operations serving in regional sales offices in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Denver, Cincinnati, Anaheim, Philadelphia and Memphis. After a brief stint with Aspen Marketing Services, Wells decided to leverage his management and leadership skills by managing the Central Region while contributing to new business development nationally. Wells earned a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Dayton

Mardy Cobb – Director, Client Services, West Region
Mardy earned a B. A. from Ambassador University, a Certified Purchasing Manager(C.P.M.) designation and has acquired over 20 years of line, staff and executive experience in Purchasing and Material Management. Mardy has a broad background in 3rd party sourcing, inventory management, planning and analysis.

Jerry Irvin – Director, Client Services, Midwest Region
Jerry has 25 years of purchasing experience for large major retailers and most recently for one of the largest retail automotive dealerships in Minnesota. His career and experience consists of MRO procurement, contract management, capital equipment, information technology and services, third party distribution, procurement systems integration implementations and a thorough Supply Chain Management background.

Janet Ahern – Director, Human Resources
Janet comes to PMG with HR and benefits administration experience in IT and finance services industries. Janet is responsible for administration of benefits, payroll, etc.

Peggy Austin – Manager, Finance

Scott Whitcomb – Manager, Sourcing Operations
Scott graduated from Metropolitan State University and has a very deep skill-set in Procurement, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, including supplier measurement and development. He has worked in numerous industries and has acquired years of Purchasing management experience. In this position Scott is responsible for three areas: Category Management, Sourcing Analysts and IC Sourcing Specialists.

Chris Austin – Manager, Client Support Services
Chris earned a Bachelors Degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota and has developed deep experience in spend analysis, supply base classification, data cleansing, and supplier sourcing for multi-unit service operations. Chris Austin has been promoted to take over the new combined Client Support and Assessment function. In this role, Chris will lead and manage the resources assigned to this group to accomplish the following: collection of assessment documents, and recommendations, generation of CRP’s, audit requests, invoice requests, manage implementations and recommendations.

Lon Wojtowicz – Manager, Auditing Services
Lon earned a B. A. in Business Administration from Metropolitan State University and has acquired over 25 years of management experience in the aviation and construction service sectors. Lon's Quality Assurance experienced has guided our audit services ensuring our clients realize hard dollar cost reductions.

Terri Foster – Manager, Marketing & Customer Relationships
Terri comes to PMG with 10 years of strategic marketing and communications experience in the software, utilities, architectural design and finance services industries. Terri is responsible for marketing and client communications, web development, graphic design and brand management. Terri has a BS in Business Marketing & Graphic Design and a Master of Arts in Business.

Sourcing, Assessment, Auditing and Client Support Specialists

Todd Palmer – Manager, Sourcing Assessments
Todd earned an A. A. degree in Technology and has acquired over 20 years of Operations and Purchasing management experience, including MRO, printed materials, packaging, financial services, office equipment, supplies and more.

Cindy Jerome – Category Manager
Cindy earned a bachelors degree in Applied Business from The University of Minnesota. She has over 12 years of print buying experience in the accounting and health care sectors with printing expertise in sheet fed, web presses, direct mail, postage regulations, and copy center management. She has negotiated contracts for various types of print productions as well as contractor services.

Linda Duenwald – Category Manager
Linda comes to PMG from Christopher and Banks, where she was the Corporate Purchasing Manager. In that role she was responsible for supporting 700 stores with equipment, packaging, office supplies, services, capital and lease items. Prior to this position, Linda was a Buyer for Wilson’s Leather for 9 years, again responsible for a broad group of stores, primarily working in Operations equipment, supplies and lighting for over 600 stores. Linda went to Wilsons from Honeywell where she was a buyer responsible for construction, facility supplies, services, chemicals and security equipment.

Jeff Sorenson – Lead Client Support Specialist
Jeff earned a Bachelor’s Degree at Gustavus Adolphus College and was self employed in the automotive industry for over 15 years. His experience includes business development and consulting as well as inside and outside sales with retail and various automotive related businesses.

Liesle Roberts – Lead Client Support Specialist
Liesle joined PMG in September 2007. Her background includes over 9 years of purchasing, contract award development, fiscal operations and the administration of telecommunications for the CT State Department of Education. Liesle is a graduate of Northwestern Connecticut College.

Lori Fitzgerald – Client Support Specialist
Lori is a graduate of St. Cloud State with a B.A. in Speech Communications and a minor in Human Resources. Lori is currently employed by Norandex in Bloomington in Customer Service and Inside Sales. Her background includes over 5 years of Purchasing experience with Copy Duplicating Products or IKON Office Solutions as it is known today. In that role Lori was responsible for purchasing various MRO and service related items, and also had a role as a trainer and in Customer Service.

Kristin Rosvold – Client Support Specialist
Kristin's background lends well to this customer-focused position. Kristin has demonstrated her ability to be very conscientious and responsive to customers, while managing multiple projects in an organized and effective manner.

Sarah Austin– Sourcing Analyst
Sarah is currently working to complete her degree in Marketing and a minor in Management at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She is responsible for entering last price paid for assessment price comparisons, RFQ’s, and multiple preferred supplier categories. Sarah is eager to tackle any project and has a broad range of experience in sourcing.

Les Kehn – Sourcing Analyst

Rachel Conway – Auditor
Rachel joined PMG in December 2005. She has worked in the Automotive industry at the dealership level since 1994. She has a wide variety of dealership experience including HR, Cashier Management and Finance. Rachel works in the Auditing Department and she also assists with Assessments, data management and customer CSI surveys. Rachel is been eager to work on every project that has comes her way.

Client Services

Thomas Kuhne – Regional Manager, Client Services
Tom earned a B.S. Degree in Business from St. Cloud State University. With over 35 years of business experience Tom has extensive Market Research, Financial Analysis, Direct Marketing, Purchasing and Auditing experience.

Dan Georgiana – Regional Manager, Client Services
Dan comes to PMG with 24 years of progressive management experience with Lowes, as well as some other recent experience in the consumer lending market. Dan’s strong customer relationship skills, his deep management experience and his solid operations background is a real plus for clients in this rapidly developing region.

Cheryl Berklich – Regional Manager, Client Services
Cheryl was named in the top 20 Purchasing Executives by Home Builder Executive Magazine while working as Regional VP, Purchasing & Logistics for Richmond American Homes. Previous work experience included the role of National Director of Purchasing with Del Webb Corporation/Pulte Homes, Inc. Cheryl began her career with GM in 1984 where she held various positions in Finance and Procurement during her 16 year tenure. She received the GM President's Council Award in 1996 for strategic sourcing on the 2000 model year full size pickups. Cheryl holds a BA from Michigan State University and an MS in International Finance from Walsh College in Troy, Michigan.

Angela Nalipinski – Regional Manager, Client Services
Angela comes to us directly from the Automotive Industry. She offers more than 12 years experience in Sales, Finance and most recently as an Accounts Payable Manager for a 5 dealership group. Angela has brought PMG a unique perspective of the day to day operations within a dealership. In her capacity at PMG, Angela has been instrumental in nearly every department from Sourcing, Client Services and Process Improvement.

Tracey Traut – Regional Manager, Client Services
Tracey earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University. She has seven years of project management experience including quoting, contract negotiations, quality assurance, client relations, budget/cost control and contract award and development.

Steve Cline – Regional Manager, Client Services
Steve joined PMG as a Regional Client Services Manager in the North East. Steve received a BS in Marketing from Central Connecticut State University and spent the past 14 years with Penske Truck Leasing. While at Penske, Steve held and was successful in a number of diverse roles of which included Rental Representative, Assistant Rental Manager, District Rental Manager, Area Rental Manager, Consumer Rental Fleet Manager, Area Financial Manager, Quality Team Leader (Black Belt) and most recently Branch Manager. Steve’s operations and sales background in the Transportation Industry will benefit him in his role at PMG.

Rick Griffith – Client Services Manager

Ron Reber – Client Services Manager
Ron earned his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and MBA from University of Texas. Ron brings 25+ years of management and marketing experience in new aviation product development and market introductions. His experience covers Engineering Design, Sales, Marketing, Program Management and Business Development functions. His expertise is in dealing fairly and honestly with customers and understanding and addressing their business needs.

Sarah Alvarado– Client Services Manager
Sarah brings with her about 8 years of purchasing experience. Her previous position was as a purchasing manager for a manufacturing concern in the garment industry. Her background includes experience in buying, negotiation, and program management. Sarah is currently working to complete her degree in Business Administration at the University of La Verne.

Linda Boocher – Client Services Manager
Linda is a graduate of Valparaiso University with a degree in Sociology. Linda has an extensive Purchasing background with over 13 years in industries as diverse as hospitals, medical technology and manufacturing.

Mark Sayegh – Customer Service Manager
Mark came to us from First Data where he gained experience in customer relations, as well as many technical skills related to check and credit card processing. He earned his B.A. form the University of Texas at Austin, and has since worked in a broad spectrum of fields including purchasing, receiving and inventory management in both hospital and commercial settings.

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