Founding Principals
Eight equal principals.
280 combined years.
One argument.
The Capability Capital Institute was founded on June 20, 2026 by eight principals who ran the operations they now write about — plants, practices, and firms across manufacturing, engineering, accounting, and enterprise technology. Each holds an equal share of the argument.
Select a principal for the full biography
More than thirty years spanning the automotive C-suite, venture capital, and startups. At General Motors he was President of CAMI Automotive and then President and Managing Director in Argentina. He moved to Chrysler as Vice President of Assembly and Stamping Operations, spent a year as Daimler’s Vice President of Production Planning, then returned to Chrysler as Executive Vice President of Procurement and Supply and finally President of Global Parts and Service. He closed out the operating run as Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing at Case New Holland.
Since 2010 he has been Managing Partner of IncWell, and from 2020 to 2022 he served as Chief Technology Officer of Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. He invests through Band of Angels. In December 2021 he co-founded Aro Homes, building sustainable factory-built housing, where he leads under the title he chose for himself — Servant Leader.
- Education
- University of Toronto, B.A.Sc. Mechanical Engineering; Stanford Graduate School of Business.
- At the Institute
- Senior operating leadership across three global automakers, now applying lean manufacturing to housing. Simon has run plants in cultures where Western management orthodoxy does not apply, which is the test of whether the Institute’s argument is universal or merely American. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Construction Handbook (January 2029).
Responsible for all Honda automobile production operations in the United States, including manufacturing quality, production engineering, and power unit operations. He joined Honda in 1989 in the Vehicle Quality Department at the Marysville Auto Plant and spent the next twenty years across quality — complex analysis and new-model introductions. In 2010 he left quality to manage the Marysville Paint Department, his first primarily production-oriented assignment.
He returned to quality in 2013 and soon moved into New Model and Production Operations, including a stint leading the Performance Manufacturing Center — then the production location for the second-generation Acura NSX supercar — where he supported the introduction of the Acura PMC Edition models. From 2020 to 2025 he held plant leadership at the East Liberty Auto Plant, then Marysville as Vice President, then Honda Canada Manufacturing as Senior Vice President. He returned to Ohio in April 2025 to take up his current role.
- Education
- University of Pittsburgh, B.S. Electrical Engineering.
- At the Institute
- The living proof. Arjun holds the Honda Production System as lived practice rather than textbook abstraction, including waigaya — the structured open debate that dissolves hierarchy and lets the best idea win. It is the standard the Institute’s frameworks have to meet, and the cadence its own work runs on. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Manufacturing Handbook (January 2028).
Purchased Exeltech Consulting in 1998 and built it over twenty-six years into a multidisciplinary bridge, transportation, and civil-engineering practice working across Washington, Oregon, California, and Montana. At exit it carried roughly $9M in revenue, a $12M backlog, and 58 employees. He sold to Bowman Consulting (NASDAQ: BWMN) in 2024 and now serves as an Executive Vice President there, following Bowman’s acquisition of the firm.
Before Exeltech he spent a decade at HDR, latterly as Vice President. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and Structural Engineer in multiple states, and a certified Project Management Professional.
- Education
- Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, B.Sc. Civil Engineering (1981–85); Washington State University, M.S. and doctoral studies in Structural Engineering; Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
- At the Institute
- The built-environment anchor, and the one principal who has taken a professional-services firm the whole distance from purchase to exit — the institutional journey the Institute is beginning. With Venki and Sundar, one of the three BIT Mesra engineers whose conversations about deployed worker intelligence became CCI. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Construction Handbook (January 2029).
Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022 for contributions to robotics and automation in aerospace, automotive, and e-commerce. At General Motors he rose to Technical Executive and GM Fellow for Flexible Manufacturing Systems, shaping the company’s approach to programmable automotive manufacturing. He then led automation at General Electric’s global research organization and advanced robotics across Amazon’s fulfillment enterprise.
In 2021 Skyline Champion named him its first Vice President of Manufacturing Technology, directing robotics, advanced automation, applied process controls, and material-handling innovation across more than forty North American plants. He holds over one hundred patent filings and innovation awards from General Motors, General Electric, and NASA.
- Education
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ph.D. and M.S. Mechanical Engineering; Clarkson University, B.S. Mechanical Engineering.
- At the Institute
- The technical credibility. Roland built the automation the Institute examines. When CCI argues that automation alone fails without deployed intelligence, he is the person who can say precisely where and why it fails — and he has spent a career arguing that robotics should amplify human capability rather than substitute for it. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Construction Handbook (January 2029).
From 1997 to 2008 he was Engineering Group Manager on the GM EV1 and the Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell, leading release of the EV1’s exterior subsystems — among the lowest-drag production cars of its era. From 2008 to 2025 he was Manager of New Business Development for Fuel Cell Technology at General Motors, working on partnerships, government relations, and new-energy initiatives.
Thirty-six years at one company spanning electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and energy policy, with working depth in business development, product design, people leadership, and public policy.
- Education
- Cornell University, Ph.D. Biological & Environmental Engineering; Union College, M.S. Mechanical Engineering; University of Vermont, B.S. Mechanical Engineering.
- At the Institute
- The energy-and-systems bridge. Joe has taken two landmark zero-emission vehicle programs from engineering release to the road, and has spent the second half of his career where product decisions meet policy — which is where the Institute’s manufacturing argument has to be able to speak. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Manufacturing Handbook (January 2028).
Joined Royal Enfield as Chief Operating Officer and left as Chief Executive four years later, taking annual production from roughly 50,000 to 113,000 units, profit up nineteen-fold at a sustainable 15% EBIT, and launching the Classic and the Thunderbird. Founding Chief Operating Officer of Ather Energy; Senior Vice President and CEO of Cyient DLM; Managing Director and CEO of EICL, where profits tripled in two years.
Earlier, Managing Director for South East Asia Global Sourcing at FCA, lean deployment across Daimler/Chrysler’s North American and Mercedes-Benz plants, and the launch of the CTS, SRX, and STS at General Motors Lansing Grand River — GM’s first lean greenfield inside a UAW plant.
- Education
- University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D. and M.S. Industrial Engineering / Engineering Management; Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering (1981–85).
- At the Institute
- The through-line. The Institute exists to write down what three continents taught him: that the intelligence American industry is spending billions trying to automate has already been paid for. Author of Built to Extract and Already Paid For (January 2027) and first author across the nine-book arc.
More than thirty-five years across academia, auditing, and consulting. After his doctorate at Ohio State he joined the accountancy faculty at the University of Illinois, then moved into practice: principal in Andersen’s Professional Standards Group, National SOX Advisor for EY, and corporate-governance partner at Grant Thornton, all in Chicago. He briefly led the governance, risk and compliance practice at Infogix before returning to academia, where he directed the Corporate Governance Center at Kennesaw State University.
He stays close to practice through two consulting firms — the Behavioral Forensics Group, where he is Managing Principal and Chief Executive and which works on fraud risk mitigation, detection and investigation, and GRC Metrix, where he is a principal, advising on internal audit, risk, compliance and governance. He is a member of all five COSO sponsoring organizations, a former trustee of the IIA and FEI research foundations, a former member of the PCAOB’s Standing Advisory Group, and currently a Financial Executives International Faculty Research Fellow.
He was on the authoring teams for the 2009 COSO guidance on monitoring internal control systems, the 2010 ISACA guidance, The Audit Committee Handbook, Internal Auditing: Assurance and Advisory Services, and A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics — the work on the psychology of fraud that has been presented to the FBI Academy, the World Bank, and the IMF. Sixty papers, fifteen books, and speaking engagements in sixteen countries.
- Education
- The Ohio State University, Ph.D. (quantitative psychology); B.Com., University of Bombay. ACA, CPA/CITP/CFF/CGMA, CIA, CFE, CFSA, CGAP, CGFM, CRMA, CRP, MAFF.
- At the Institute
- The measurement authority. Sridhar speaks the language of chief financial officers, audit committees, and boards, and brings the academic rigor the Institute’s standard needs to survive contact with them. Co-author of AFF: Accounting for Formation (January 2028). Without him HVAC is a metaphor; with him it is a measure.
Leads marketing for Oracle’s supply chain and manufacturing industries and applications, after running hotel, cruise, and casino industry marketing for Oracle Hospitality (2015–21) and travel and transportation industry marketing (2007–15). For more than ten years he has led the industry tracks for travel and transportation and for manufacturing at Oracle OpenWorld, CloudWorld, and AI World.
Before Oracle: Senior Program Manager at Electronic Data Systems across airlines, healthcare, freight, and logistics; Director of Cargo and Logistics at American Airlines Decision Technologies and Sabre Holdings; and a start on the shop floor as a manufacturing engineer at Tata Motors in Jamshedpur.
- Education
- Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, B.S. Mechanical Engineering (1981–85); University of Alabama, M.S. Industrial Engineering; Georgia Tech, M.S. Manufacturing Systems; SMU Cox School of Business, MBA.
- At the Institute
- The enterprise-technology bridge. Sundar sits where vendor AI roadmaps meet actual operations across manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, and healthcare — which is where the displacement question is really being settled, behind the consumer-facing noise. Co-author of the forthcoming Bloom Hospitality Handbook (January 2031).