Speaker Bio

Nicholas Kunesh

Nicholas Kunesh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Logistics

 

Department of the Navy Lean Six Sigma – Way Ahead
Nicholas Kunesh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Logistics, shares insights, experiences and results of the US Navy’s Lean Six Sigma program.

Nicholas Kunesh became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Logistics on July 14, 2003.  He is the principal executive to the Secretary of the Navy, and is accountable for the creation and implementation of strategic direction and foundational capacity for the institutionalization of Lean Six Sigma across the Navy and Marine Corps.  He is also the focal point in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, & Acquisition) for Acquisition Logistics.  He is responsible for the formulation of Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) policies, and is the process owner of the Independent Logistics Assessment of all acquisition programs.  Mr. Kunesh also serves as the Department of the Navy Standardization Executive.      

Prior to his appointment to this position, Mr. Kunesh was a Senior Director of Supply Chain Management for the Broadband Communications Sector of Motorola. He was accountable for revenue output, asset management and total costs for the design, development, production, and distribution of digital set top boxes, cable modems, wireless LAN and transmission products.  Mr. Kunesh also served as Director of Materials at Sperry Marine where he led the supply chain activities that were instrumental in the development, launch and production of the first COTS “Smart Ship” Integrated Bridge Systems and the Ring Laser Gyro WSN-7 platforms.

Mr. Kunesh was a Naval Reservist with the rank of Commander.  Until recently, he was with the Patrol Squadron (VP-64) located at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, and flew as a Naval Flight Officer (NFO) in numerous missions throughout the world and on Homeland Defense surveillance missions in support of NORTHCOM. 

Mr. Kunesh holds a BS in marine transportation (1985) from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and an MBA in International Business from George Washington University (1991).  He is also conversant in business Japanese.