Steve
Gearhart

Steve Gearhart is a Partner in Fortium Partners’ East region, where he primarily serves manufacturing companies.  His passion for operational excellence and continuous improvement fuels his focus on achieving exceptional value at the lowest cost.  He is comfortable working in globally competitive environments where cost reduction is an ongoing priority.  Steve leverages his engineering perspective as he strengthens IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, compliance and data governance.  His knowledge of supply chain management, including procurement processes and supplier relationships, sets a solid foundation for understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by manufacturing organizations.

As a CIO, Steve led global technology teams tackling complex, global challenges including ERP implementations, commissioning of data centers, offshoring strategy, and Lean initiatives.  He provided IT infrastructure for new manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania, the UK and the US.  Steve led deployment of hundreds of applications solutions that support execution of strategy at the corporate and business unit level.  He championed service level improvements and reached over 99.9% on core applications.  He also built an IT security team including a new Chief Information Security Officer role and then aligned the work to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.  Steve focuses the executive team on building their technology IQ, so that the enterprise stakes a position at the forefront of technology innovation.  He creates a positive and fulfilling work environment, so the team is able to adopt a solutions-oriented mindset and prioritize professional growth.  He has earned a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Steve graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Engineering from Marquette University.  He continued his studies at Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, where he earned a Master of Science, Industrial Administration.