About Me

Hello, I am Shashank Saxena, currently based in Seattle, US. I have over eight years of management experience, including various leadership roles in the power and the manufacturing industry. I received my undergraduate degree in engineering from Delhi University and received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, specializing in strategy and finance. Currently, I am pursuing a Master’s of Science in Information Systems from Foster School of Business, University of Washington (U.W.), Seattle, and will be graduating in June 2021.

Having handled a gamut of roles from an engineering consultant to the CEO of a $35m manufacturing company with 1000+ employees, I am always looking to learn new things.

I’ve gained experience in business strategy, project management, digital transformation, thought leadership, and engineering consultancy throughout my professional career. With my current M.S. program, I am looking to learn new skills and leverage my existing transferable management skills into tech. I am also looking forward to further explore my areas of interest, such as data science, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and information systems management.

Besides my extensive management skills, I am also proficient in financial modeling, time-series business forecasting, integrated digital marketing, SQL, Tableau, and R programming. I hold certifications in AWS (Solutions Architect Associate), Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT Sloan School of management, in Data Science in R from DataCamp, in A.I. & Machine Learning from Columbia University (online), and Lean Six Sigma (Green Belt) from KPMG.

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Professional Experience

CEO and Managing Director Feb 2019 – Nov 2019

Lotus Texpark Ltd. (Associate of Trident Group) | Ludhiana, India

Managed the $35 million textile company comprising of two businesses (Bathrobe & Melange Yarn), having 1000+employees across three manufacturing units for bathrobes, fibre dyeing, and mélange yarn spinning in Punjab, India.

  • Brought down operational losses by 37% that led to a reduction in overall cost by $140k per month.

  • Increased productivity from 81% to 92% in Melange division and improved per person productivity by 29% in Bathrobes division.

  • Achieved zero downgrade in bathrobes business in May’19 for the first time ever in its 8 years history and maintained it since.

  • Improved the company’s cash flow position and kept all units cash positive while the textile industry in India was in a dire state.


Chief Digital Officer Dec 2018 – Jan 2019

Trident Group | Ludhiana, India

Created and lead a digital transformation plan for the $1 billion manufacturing company focused on integrating automation to improve the company’s operations and customer experience. Few initiatives/ pilots were:

  • Improve accuracy, planning, and workforce utilization by implementing material traceability using RFIDs.

  • Introduce a cybersecurity backbone with a SaaS solution. Furthermore, initiated privileged access management and single sign-on (SSO) to add security and reduce system logins by 80% across 2500 employees.

  • Create a supplier interaction and collaboration portal (SaaS) that included chatbots to allow self-servicing of information, streamline procurement process and automate account management for 500+ vendors.


Strategy Manager July 2018 – Nov 2018

Trident Group | Ludhiana, India

Defined business goals in-line with the company’s long-term vision and manage digital initiatives. Worked as a partner and a counsel to the business units to align with this strategic vision.

  • Implemented Balanced Scorecards (BSC) and conducted monthly BSC reviews for various business units to ensure that financial targets translate to correct customer perspective, processes, and organization capacity.

  • Prepared and led a proposal for an unprecedented all-women manufacturing unit and make CSR an integral part of business strategy. Gained internal buy-in for funding and onboarded external partners.

  • Performed market assessment of technical textiles segments to strategise Trident’s market entry in a suitable product category.


Technical Product Manager  Aug 2010 – Apr 2017

Tractebel Engineering Pvt. Ltd. | Gurgaon, India

Built large scale power plant control systems, including system iteration, for clients across Korea, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia and Thailand by collaborating with the client, multi-disciplinary teams and external partners.

  • Collaborated with the client and organization engineering teams to gather process requirements and then led the development of automation system for global power plants, such as a $2.6 billion thermal plant in Morocco.

  • Managed software implementation and UI design of control system by collaborating with vendors such as Emerson. Also conducted product functionality tests, user acceptance tests, and commissioning supervision as the product owner. 

  • Reduced cost of development for plant automation systems by more than 50% and minimized dependency between organizational entities by designing standardized frameworks, process documents and user guides. 



EDUCATION

  • University of Washington – Michael G. Foster School of Business | Seattle, USA

    Master of Science (Information Systems), June 2020 - June 2021

  • Indian Institute of Management Calcutta | Kolkata, India

    MBA (Strategy and Finance), Apr 2017 - Mar 2018

  • Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi University | New Delhi, India

    Bachelor of Engineering (Instrumentation & Control), Aug 2006 - May 2010


SKILLS & CERTIFICATIONS

(Note: click on the text to view credential)

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