Ara Cherchian
Ara A.
Cherchian is a corporate renewal professional with extensive experience in
general management, strategic planning, acquisitions, productivity improvement
and cost reduction. He has particular
strength in metal products manufacturing.
Ara owns Northland Stainless, Inc., a
$9 million manufacturer of stainless steel vessels. Northland stainless had lost money for the five years prior to
Ara’s purchase. Ara turned the company
around and has consistently earned 18% plus on assets. He is also a director and shareholder of
Northern Wire, Inc., a $17 million wire forming business. Northern Wire was marginally profitable when
purchased. Under Ara’s direction,
Northern Wire was revitalized and is now earning consistently 10-15% pretax
profit on sales.
Previously, Ara was the Vice President
of Planning for Cleaver-Brooks, an $80 million manufacturing division of
Aqua-Chem, where he was responsible for planning, acquisitions, and cost
structure improvements. Prior to
Aqua-Chem, Ara was Vice President of Operations of the $1 billion General Tire
Division of GenCorp where he was responsible for procurement, production
planning, distribution logistics, MIS and strategic planning. Ara directed 300 people in engineering the
turnaround of this unprofitable division. Upon determining the retail channel
distribution costs exceeded gross product margins, Ara eliminated 5 regional
warehouses in favor of opening one centralized distribution center, shut down
one of six manufacturing plants to improve capacity utilization, and focused on
improving retail product delivery service.
His action resulted in increased Operating profits of $34 million per
year.
Ara was also Vice President of the
Container Division of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company with full P&L
responsibility for 1800 people and annual sales of $350 million. Under Ara’s leadership, 4 new plants were
opened and the capacity of a 5th was doubled within five years; the
division produced an 18.3% annual after tax return over a 12-year period.
Ara was a consultant with Fry
Consultants. He was also a plant
manager for Continental Can Company.
Ara Cherchian holds an MBA in Finance
from the University of Chicago and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is
currently a board member of the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership
and the Wisconsin Workforce Development Board.
Ara is a past president of the Milwaukee Ballet Company.