Astro-Med appoints director of operational excellence

WEST WARWICK – Astro-Med Inc., maker of specialty printers and data-acquisition systems, announced the appointment last week of Stephen J. Russo as the company’s director of operational excellence.
Gregory A. Woods, CEO of Astro-Med, said that Russo’s 20-year track record in implementing lean manufacturing practices at global companies such as Textron Inc., Avery Dennison Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Danaher Corp. made him an ideal choice for the position.
“Astro-Med is a dynamic organization with a 45-year history of successful product development and technology innovation, and it is with particular excitement that I begin this new opportunity,” said Russo in a statement.
Before joining Astro-Med, Russo acted for three years as the corporate director of lean enterprise for Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he was responsible for the lean transformation of six global divisions. From 2009 to 2011, he was director of global process transformation in the retail information services division at Avery Dennison, and before that he was “corporate lean sensei” at Textron from 2005 to 2009.
Russo served as a nuclear weapons specialist in the U.S. Air Force and received a bachelor’s degree in productivity management from Central Connecticut University and a master’s degree in operations management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.