Jeff Haagenstad has over 25 years’ experience in executive leadership, operations, project management, product development, negotiations, procurement, and new market development. He has worked with Private Equity companies on pre-acquisition due diligence and post-acquisition with the acquired companies to improve their operations. His negotiation experience has enabled companies to increase product development cadence and increase revenue. He has initiated and led New Product Development processes, re-factored organizations to become cross functional teams, and implemented and used metrics to guide strategy and tactics.

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Prior to working with The ProAction Group, Jeff started up EXOGAL, LLC, a high-end audio systems manufacturer that sold in more than 30 countries around the world. He has lived through the operating and financial challenges a company experiences. He and his team pioneered the use of robotic metals manufacturing to reduce their chassis costs by 80% which created margin space that allowed electronic and software innovation, which in turn allowed favorable pricing for their customers. He has been in the trenches of developing Business Plans and executing them.

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As Vice President of R&D and Operations, Jeff negotiated strategic sourcing and supply agreements with international vendors, contract manufacturers and strategic partners which shorted product development times by 50%. He negotiated stable pricing arrangements with suppliers when oil and commodity prices were rising rapidly. This kept unfavorable Purchase Price Variances to a minimum which protected margins in the challenging economic environment. He implemented a European warehouse for product sales, cutting delivery time to European customers by 75% (weeks to days), and was in charge of opening a Mexico production facility.

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As General Manager at Wadia Digital, Jeff was assigned to integrate operations of Wadia into ARC (acquiree), revitalize the Wadia product line by building a new Minnesota-based Engineering team, and develop a new roadmap to replace its legacy product line. While at Hawk Institute for Space Sciences, Jeff was responsible for developing the platforms used in low-cost, rapid deployment of satellite and UAV missions in a one-year-old startup.

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Jeff has a BA in Computer Science/Math from University of St. Thomas and also has 4 US Patents.

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