Manufacturing and operations executive with 20+ years building and leading multi-site, high-mix, rapid-turn operations across the US, Mexico, China, Germany, India, and Canada.

Full P&L ownership across private, family-owned, and private equity-backed platforms spanning two PE funds.

Seeking CEO, COO, and Operating Partner mandates in lower to middle market PE-backed and family-owned manufacturing platforms: turnarounds, post-acquisition integration, and scale-out execution. Interim engagements considered.

Start a conversation See the track record
Travis Johanson Travis Johanson
$30MM
Direct P&L ownership, single business
$7MM → $24MM
EBITDA, distressed business
6
US patents
20,000+
Retail locations
5+
Countries
90 days
Full integration, zero disruption
01 / Core pillar

Manufacturing & Operations

Fluent from shop floor to boardroom across injection molding, vacuum forming, extrusion, sheet metal, CNC, laser, press brake, weld, and assembly; ran robotic welding cells.

Deploys Lean, 5S, SQDC, and Manufacturing Operating Systems.

OEE lifted
Hours per day, days per week operations
Facility leadership
Setup times cut
First-pass yield on laser operations
Manufacturing cost cut through layout redesign and vendor consolidation, no incremental capex
02 / Core pillar

Turnarounds

EBITDA from $7MM to $24MM on a distressed business through sales redesign, pricing, and cost structure.

Converted six unprofitable manufacturing units into sustainable operations.

Relocated on-site as interim CEO and took a 100-year-old agricultural equipment brand from four straight years of losses to profitable in seven months.

At Fooda, restored a $30MM underperforming division to profitability with 8 points of gross margin improvement.

03 / Core pillar

M&A & Integration

Negotiated and closed the acquisition of a central Illinois manufacturing campus, then led post-close integration: ran it 24 hours, 6 days a week and nearly doubled throughput while restarting engineering with two new product platforms.

At Fooda, led diligence and integration of a Midwestern competitor: full integration in 90 days, zero service disruption, 100% retention of key talent.

As founder, sold foodjunky to delivery.com in an all-cash acquisition.

Presented quarterly to family office principals and managed capital allocation through board approvals; experienced in PE portfolio reporting.

Further capability
AI in Manufacturing

Incubated a startup building a Large Engineering Model (LEM) designed to turn written requirements into production-ready CAD prints and compress engineer-to-order quoting from two months to one day; departed the group before launch. Applies AI today to compress engineer-to-order lead times.

Innovation & IP

Inventor on six US patents covering the Cascade Merchandising System and a gravity-feed display family; $26MM+ in licensing and product sales; displays deployed in 20,000+ retail locations driving $10B+ in lifetime incremental retail sales for clients. Served 26 of the top US advertisers, including Campbell's, Kraft, and Coca-Cola. In 2025, served as lead fact witness in a decade-long patent infringement case that secured a $17MM+ jury verdict. Also programmed robotic gluing cells at Gamon.

Global Supply Chain

Three-country direct manufacturing footprint plus contract partners in Asia and Europe; diversified sourcing from China to India to mitigate tariff and supply risk; rebuilt direct-import programs; ran a portfolio 3PL warehousing and shipping business with just-in-time delivery; rapidly scaled two manufacturing plants supporting Amazon's same-day-delivery supply chain build-out.

Board & Advisory

Board experience in family-owned and private equity-backed businesses; advisor to early-stage tech-enabled services and product companies.

Operations and product portfolio manufacturing, fabrication, and retail installs
Cascade Merchandising System: machined LH and RH decks
CNC machining center, in-house production
Sheet metal fabrication and agricultural equipment build
Same-day-delivery line, plant scale-up
Conveyor system commissioning, line in motion (press play)
Cascade system in aisle: Oak Lawn test store
Cascade system in aisle: store 8528, Westchester
Career timeline
2025–present · Highland Park

NTL CONSULTANTS — Principal

Advisory and interim operating engagements with manufacturing platforms.

2024 · Chicago

FOODA — Pantry & Acquisition Lead

Venture-backed; turnaround plus acquisition integration.

2020–2023 · Multi-state

PRIVATE FAMILY OFFICE — Interim CEO

$200MM, 76-company portfolio inside a $1B+ family office investing through two PE funds; de facto CEO of 2-4 entities at a time.

2011–2019

FOODJUNKY, INC. — Founder & CEO

Marketplace SaaS, 20,000+ restaurants, 12% MoM revenue growth, part of Dan Gilbert's Family of Companies; negotiated a national co-marketing and technology integration partnership with Yelp.com generating $1MM+ in incremental revenue; acquired by delivery.com.

1999–2011 · Chicago metro

GAMON INTERNATIONAL — Chief Operating Officer

POP/retail display manufacturer; promoted through six roles from Industrial/Graphic Designer to COO; grew the sales division from $4MM to $10MM+; mostly local contract manufacturing with direct oversight of limited in-house production.

Education

University of Colorado at Boulder

Communications and Business

Evaluating a manufacturing platform that needs an operator? Let's talk.

Highland Park, Illinois
Inquiries through the form or LinkedIn
LinkedIn