ADVISORY COUNCIL
Dave Thomas
Dave was born in Warren, Ohio, and accepted a basketball scholarship to play basketball at Clemson University in 1967. He graduated from Clemson in 1971 with a degree in Economics. He began his business career at Packard Electric division of General Motors in May of 1971. At Packard, he held various management positions including manufacturing, quality and production control, as well as methods engineering and purchasing.
Dave left Packard in 1984 and joined Alphabet, Inc. (a privately held electrical harness company) in 1984 as a plant manager. His first assignment was to greenfield a manufacturing facility in Michigan to supply several GM assembly plants with a new electrical harness system utilizing a just-in-time, ship-to-vin sequence environment. After holding several other top management positions, he became President in 1989. He was responsible for all facets of the business including: operations, sales, marketing, P&L, asset management and strategic plan development. He also consolidated and re-balanced North American operations to meet customer price expectations and started facilities (via joint ventures with European companies) in Poland and Brazil to take advantage of opportunities with global companies.
In the early ’90s, Alphabet became the privately held harness division of Stoneridge, Inc. In 1997, Stoneridge went public. Dave remained the President of Alphabet and became a Vice President of Stoneridge Inc. until January 2000.
Dave then joined St. Clair Technologies in March of 2000 as Vice President of Manufacturing and a member of the Board of Directors. He became President in February 2001 and CEO in 2006. In his positions, he was responsible for all operations including P&L, financing, planning, and growth, as well as developing internal controls, business understanding and development of staff. He retired actively in December 2013, but remains on the Board of Directors and works for the President of St. Clair on special projects and participates in the continued development of key management.
Carolynne Hunter
Carolynne Hunter is an Advisory Council member of Jana Diversity Solutions.
Carolynne attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from the L’Universite D’Ottawa, and a MA from Western University. She started her career in Customs and Brokerage at the Bluewater Port, Sarnia, Ontario. Her career has included stints with Roadway Express in Sales and Training and at Partner Dedicated in Operations Management. In 2002, she joined St. Clair Technologies, Inc. as Manager of Logistics and Compliance. In 2004, she and her family relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and she took responsibility for the Tucson Distribution Center along with Corporate Compliance and Fulfillment. In 2011, she accepted the promotion to Director of Supply Chain and relocated to the St. Clair Technologies U.S. offices in Chandler, Arizona. In 2017, she accepted the role of VP of Supply Chain & Logistics with St. Clair Technologies. In January of 2020, Carolynne accepted the promotion to the role of President for St. Clair Technologies.
Carolynne has always been very involved in border and compliance issues, including contributing to committees and action groups including the Border Trade Alliance, the Arizona Sonora Commission, the BIA, Women in International Business, CITT and ACHB programs. She believes in supporting women who aspire to find their niche in non-traditional fields and industries and works to further the awareness of the contribution of women within the trade community.
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Carolynne now lives in Queen Creek, Arizona, with her husband. She has two adult sons who are pursuing their dreams in California and Arizona.
Kelly Cunningham
Kelly Cunningham sits on the Advisory Council at Jana Diversity Solutions. She earned both her MBA and Masters in Engineering (Operations Research/Industrial Engineering) degrees from Cornell University where she was a GM Fellow and a recipient of the Karla Scherer Grant for Women in Manufacturing. Kelly also has an undergraduate degree from John Carroll University for Chemistry with a minor in Physics. At John Carroll, she was in the honors program and a recipient of the American Values Scholarship.
She began her career at a division of GM, which eventually became Delphi Automotive Systems. She first worked as a Quality Engineer in the Packard Electric Division. After attaining her MBA, she returned as a General Supervisor for an injection molding plant and later became the General Supervisor of their warehouse in Ohio. After five years in operations, she moved to the sales team where she worked for the next 10 years as an Account Manager and eventually, a Global Account Manager with dozens of on- and off-highway customers.
After leaving Delphi in 2012, Kelly went to Amphenol as a Business Development Manager for the Off- Highway market. There she covered wiring and connection systems for various markets including construction, agriculture, class 8 truck, mining, xEV and material handling. Today, she is employed by Concentric AB as the Vice President of Sales NA. Kelly resides in Chicago, IL, with her family.