Shafi Keisler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the oldest child of Samuel, a NASA computer scientist, and Anisa, the first female Fulbright Scholar from Pakistan and cholera researcher. Growing up in Virginia, Shafi and his parents built their home, which taught him invaluable technical skills, along with tenacity and persistence that would serve him.

Shafi has led an impressive career in innovation across engineering, research and development, manufacturing, operations, and executive leadership. After serving an internship with NASA Langley working on the Space Shuttle project LITE, he entered the manufacturing industry with ALCOA Aluminum. He gained recognition for developing an improved coolant pH control system and published a technical paper within the Alcoa Tech Center.

His manufacturing career led him into the field of automotive engineering, where he worked for Japanese auto giant, DENSO, gaining experience in Toyota Production System, Kaizen, Lean Six Sigma, Manufacturing, and quality systems. In 1998, Shafi was awarded DENSO's top honor of Excellence in Innovation and Cost savings for developing an RFID data tag integration for high-speed manufacturing environments. Working for DENSO as engineering management under a Japanese senior leadership team provided a high level of structure and discipline, and afforded Shafi an excellent foundation for the years to come.

In 2000, Shafi's passion for cars led him to found a company designing and manufacturing custom-engineered transmission systems for classic cars and light trucks. His venture grew from a garage operation to a multi-faceted industrial operation with 46 employees and revenue in excess of $65 million by 2014. Shafi was featured in more than 50 well-known industry magazines and TV shows, including Speed Channel’s “Chop Cut Rebuild.” His firm won the Small Business Administration’s first Rising Star Award in 2005.

Continuing his passion for innovation and business, Shafi served as Vice President of Engineering through 2016 for ABLE Manufacturing and Assembly - the developer of the patented semi-truck "sleeper cab" - where he led a revitalization of the mass transit rail business, bringing the Washington DC WMATA (Kawasaki) train program to ABLE, then repeated the success with the Dallas TX TEXRAIL (Stadler) commuter rail, and winning back Siemens Wind Energy program.

It was time to 'sharpen the saw' as they say, and Shafi entered the accelerated one-year full time MBA program at College of Charleston, SC. While earning his MBA in Finance he received "Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year Award" from the School of Business in 2017 for initiating and developing the 'MBA Task Force' which engaged 17 cohort members in paid consulting projects for firms including Mercedes-Benz Vans, Robert Bosch, and other local firms. College of Charleston's Tate School of Business adopted his model of consulting-based work, and Shafi went on to form the MBA Task Force, a South Carolina corporation.

With the MBA Task Force underway, Shafi served as CEO or COO to several local firms in the technology space looking to grow and sell their business. Each business owner achieved their target outcome, with the most recent and largest sale of a medical insurance claims auditing technology firm at a reported $100 Million.

Shafi continues to provide innovation, engineering, and operational excellence through the MBA Task Force on a contract or full-time basis.

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP IN ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY, OPERATIONS

Product Realization > Innovation, R&D > Complex Technical Projects > Operations Leadership

Accomplished in leading product innovation, engineering, technology, project management, and manufacturing teams

to achieve business goals. Highly skilled in product development cycle from conceptualization, design, prototyping,

testing, release, and continuous improvement using Lean, Kaizen, Agile, and Waterfall practices. Well-honed

communications and servant, hands-on leadership skills to reach optimal outcomes with multidisciplinary teams,

customers, vendors, and diverse stakeholders. Notable success as an entrepreneur generating $65M in revenue.

Prototype and Product Development of Complex Electronic & Mechanical Devices| 8D Problem-Solving Process

Agile & Waterfall Project Management | Operations Streamlining | Budget Control/P&L | Patent & IP Development

Kaizen, LEAN Six Sigma | ISO Quality System | Software, Firmware, Electronics Hardware Development, IoT

PowerPoint, Word, Excel, SolidWorks | Contract Negotiation | Willing to Travel and Relocate as Required

Please drop Shafi a note and let him know how he may help your project or operation!