Myrtle Consulting brings in Mike Atkinson as life sciences sector leader

Operational consultancy Myrtle Consulting Group has added Mike Atkinson as vice president and leader of its life sciences sector. Atkinson has deep expertise in operational strategy and transformation, with both industry and consulting sector experience.

Founded in 2012, Myrtle Consulting is an operations consultancy with offices throughout North America. With particular expertise in in manufacturing and distribution, the firm’s advisors support clients in the sustainable operational transformation of production, maintenance, sanitation, planning management systems, and material movement.

The consulting firm has deep expertise in the aerospace and automotive industries, and supports clients in chemicals, construction, oil and gas, and other key sectors involving heavy manufacturing. Based out of Houston, Myrtle also has offices in Toronto and Mexico City.

Myrtle last year acquired Kalium consulting, a mining- and oil-sector-focused operational consultancy. Myrtle later named Kalium's co-founder Lance Hartley the leader of its mining and metals sector. 

The firm has further bolstered its leadership group with addition of Atkinson. Atkinson has nearly two decades of experience in global operations and supply chain leadership, as well as extensive experience implementing operational improvement programs.

Before joining Myrtle, Atkinson was senior vice president of operations and supply chain at Essilor of America, a $3-billion business unit of global ophthalmic optics manufacturer Essilor Group, a role in which he led more than 4,000 manufacturing and supply chain employees.

He also served as global director of supply chain for healthcare firm Abbott's vision care and medical optics business unit, as well as senior director of Abbott’s manufacturing operations, during which time he implemented a two-year strategy across 14 plants and seven countries that delivered significant gross margin improvement.

Before his time at Abbott, Atkinson was a managing director at Germany-based consultancy Management Engineers, since acquired by Booz & Company. There, he helped leading manufacturers cut production costs, restructure plants and supply chains, and create market strategies for new products.

"Life sciences manufacturers today are seeking operations experts as partners to team up and improve their process efficiency,” Edwin Bosso, Myrtle founder and CEO, said. “Regulatory changes, manufacturing process effectiveness, condensed product lifecycles and the need to coordinate a smooth march toward an FDA approval create increasingly complex operational challenges that we will continue to help the industry address.

“Mike's experience and creative approach to helping market-leading organizations improve and sustain operational performance will be an incredible asset for our clients in life sciences," Bosso added.