Date: Monday, October 7, 2024

Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.

Location: Van Leer, C240

Speaker: David Newman

Speaker’s Title: Retired engineer

Speaker’s Affiliation: The Coca-Cola Company

Seminar Title: New Product Innovation: The Development  Process

Abstract: Why do successful companies like 3M, Corning Glass, Exxon Chemical and Coca-Cola continue to churn out successful, innovative products? This talk will compare these successful companies with the average company, and highlight one cornerstone of their success — the product development process. David will talk about a model development process that the best companies are using in order to have quicker, more successful new product launches. He will blend in his talk helpful lessons he learned during his 35-year technical career.

Biographical Sketch of the Speaker: David Newman is a retired engineer from The Coca-Cola Company, where he held a number of positions including Freestyle Dispenser Software and Electronics Lead Engineer, Director of Program Management and Risk Management and Best Practice Lead.

He has had a 35+ year career in the arena of new product development. With a background in digital/ analog and embedded design, David has worked at 4 different companies in various capacities over his career. Starting out, David worked as a hardware designer/programmer on marine navigational equipment. He was also involved with new product development for the military in Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.

While at Coca-Cola for 22 years, he has worked as a project manager/technical lead on several new products in vending and fountain dispensing equipment. He was also actively involved with Project Freestyle from inception to launch. David obtained a BSEE from the University of Rhode Island and an MSEE from Georgia Tech.

David has received several awards during his career, and holds over 40 patents in the area of fountain dispensing equipment. He lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia.