Consumer Product Retail Compliance Expert Witness

Expert is a consumer product (non-food) safety, regulatory and retail compliance, quality assurance and control, 3rd party lab testing / inspection / auditing, CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) consultant and expert. He is on-call 24/7 and speaks Chinese fluently.

Expert has over 20 years of experience in the consumer products industry, most recently for the Product Safety & Compliance division at Walmart Stores, Inc.  He was responsible for managing the regulatory compliance testing and auditing programs / policies / procedures / protocols / processes for general merchandise (non-food) items offered for sale in the Walmart, Walmart.com, Sam’s Club, samsclub.com, and Puerto Rico formats. This included direct import, domestic, private label, supplier and national brand items in 20+ departments/categories.

In addition to being employed with the world’s largest retailer (and company), Expert was also previously employed with Intertek, a global 3rd party test lab and QA/QC service provider and various consumer product companies and manufacturers.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

June 15 – Present Consultants – Bentonville, AR
Principal Consultant – Founder
Providing consumer product safety, retail and regulatory compliance and quality assurance and control consulting services for consumer product companies, importers, manufacturers and retailers.

Mar 11 – June 15 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. – Bentonville, AR
Testing Manager II, Product Safety & Compliance

• Responsible for regulatory compliance testing programs in 20+ departments (sporting goods, toys/children’s, jewelry, crafts, electronics, outdoor, hardware, small appliances, HBA/cosmetics, impulse/checkouts, etc.) for 6 retail formats (Walmart, Sam’s Club, walmart.com, samsclub.com, Puerto Rico). Includes all national/supplier brand, direct import, domestic and private label items.
• Demonstrated strong technical knowledge and influence best practices.
• Leveraged and strengthened relationships with various approved test labs.
• Engaged supplier development by providing continual technical support, failure resolution and supplier education on the program requirements.
• Recognized and capitalized on continuous improvement opportunities (i.e. identified process gaps in the testing program, advised lack of/or misinterpreted criteria on test protocols, aligned testing procedures with labs, investigated questionable test reports, etc.)
• Partnered with internal support teams to resolve testing issues and develop actionable resolutions to ensure an improvement plan is communicated and executed in a timely manner.
• Monitored the iCiX program to ensure suppliers and labs are regularly maintaining their requests. Played large role in the early development and continuous improvement stages of iCiX.
• Notable projects: bb/air soft gun risk assessment, fuel gel/pots investigation, expanded in-store testing, poncho investigation, lab benchmark projects, planned annual lab conferences, XRF/HDXRF study, lab proficiency studies, testing cost studies, and various monitoring programs.

Verification Manager II, Product Safety & Compliance

• Demonstrated the ability to quickly adapt and understand the associated risks and impact to the business in a constant changing & demanding environment.
• Collaborated with internal parties to develop process maps and share best practices to design and maintain an effective monitoring program.
• Identified deficiencies by utilizing root cause analysis and created corrective action plans to guarantee compliance moving forward.
• Published monitoring reports and monthly/quarterly summaries to communicate progress and program development plans to leadership.
• Notable monitoring programs: Undue Influence training, CA VOC noncompliant items & in-store audits, CA Pesticides registration, EPA Pesticides claims in-store audits, CARB Composite Wood, E- waste state registration, Drop Ship Vendor- GCC/CPC, Lacey Act, Lead Document Acceptance.

Jan 09 – Feb 11 Readerlink Distribution Services (formerly Baker & Taylor) – San Diego, CA
Quality Assurance Manager

• Responsible for 1500+ children’s SKUs spread through 3 juvenile divisions.
• Developed and enforced a standardized testing process that complies with US & International toy/children’s standards and customer requirements (Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, BJ’s, Target, Barnes & Noble, Lakeshore Learning Materials, Michaels, The TJX Companies, etc.).
• Enhanced the product risk and integrity assessment process for new products.
• Evaluated and approved products to meet regulatory, quality and customer requirements through comprehensive reviews of component, pre-production, production test reports.
• Developed Oracle-linked database to house test results with reporting tools for trend analysis.
• Developed procedures to comply with the CPSIA’s certification of conformity requirements.
• Built GCC/CPC website and database tool to auto-generate required regulatory certification.
• Provided expert guidance on cost effective testing to global supply chain.

Aug 07 – Oct 08 Intertek Testing Services (ITS) – El Segundo, CA
Account Manager, Business Development

• 100+ key accounts; managed $2.0M USD in annual sales.
• Specialized in toys/children’s product testing and QA inspection; knowledge in soft lines and hardlines products (furniture, soft home, sporting goods, housewares, electrical, consumables, etc.).
• Proficient in other quality assurance fields, such as social compliance audits, product risk assessment, import trade security, factory audits, certifications, etc.
• Provided innovative solutions and total cost modeling for bundled services.
• Executed short-term and long-term strategies to expand business for our clients.
• Recommended necessary lab tests, based on the client’s product, wants/ needs, turnaround time, budget, sample location, lab testing capabilities, etc.

Nov 05 – Aug 07 Jada Toys, Inc. – City of Industry, CA
Chief Assistant to General Manager

• Responsible for Marketing and Consumer Services department.
• Defective product testing and analysis reporting.
• Composed and executed toy promotional marketing campaigns.
• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system implementation.
• Trademark and copyright maintenance.

Jul 02 – Aug 05 Cerwin Fortune Int’l Corp. – Los Angeles, CA (Downtown Toy District)
General Manager

• Supervised staff of 10 employees and reported directly to President.
• Managed $3.0M USD in annual sales for toy, children’s product and sporting good products.

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Keller Graduate School of Management (2006)

Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems (BS)
DeVry University (2002)

Certificate in Product Risk Assessment / Certificate in Product Safety Analysis
St. Louis University (2013, 2012)

Certificate in Product Safety Analysis
St. Louis University (2012)

ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate
American Society for Quality (2009)

International Consumer Product Health & Safety Organization (ICPHSO) member

MEMBERSHIP:   American Society for Testing and Standards (ASTM)

LANGUAGES

Fluent in Chinese (Mandarin) and English