RIMES Team

With nearly 200 years of combined, front-line experience in manufacturing and business problem solving, RIMES can bring more to your factory floor and front office than any other single organization. We know the Rhode Island business landscape and are dedicated to helping local manufacturers compete on a local, national, and global scale.

Meet our team:

• Harsha Prakash, Interim Chief Executive Officer
• Eleanor Razza, Chief Financial Officer
  
• Don Nester, Project Manager
  
• Carl Dwinnells, Project Manager
• John Gilheeney, Project Manager

Harsha Prakash, Interim Chief Executive Officer

Harsha has worked closely with various small manufacturers in Rhode Island enabling them to navigate the meticulous process of government contracting.  He successfully launched a bid matching training program in the state of Florida which still progresses.  His team efforts in both of these states has resulted in over $30M in new revenue for manufacturers.  He continues to support the Rhode Island manufacturers as a facilitator of Lean initiatives.  He is also the national award recipient for Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Unsung Hero of the Year 2009.  Harsha has a BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Business Management from Temple University.  He also serves as the Vice-Chair for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Providence Section Board of Directors.

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Eleanor Razza, Chief Financial Officer

Eleanor Razza, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), has been working in the accounting field for over 20 years. While her professional life began in a private accounting firm, the focus of Eleanor’s career has been financial management for small 501(c)3 non-profit organizations; experience which has developed a unique blend of accounting expertise and knowledge relative to the fields of education and workforce development. Her experience includes management of finances and grant reporting for three of the five School-to-Work partnerships under the Rhode Island Regional Employment and Training Board (RETB), a program funded by the Federal Department of Education. When the RETB merged with the State Workforce Development Group, Eleanor became part of the Workforce Partnership of Rhode Island. Her experience managing State and Federal grant awards was further enhanced during her tenure with the Southern Rhode Island Collaborative (SORICO) where she was responsible for the accounting functions and grant reporting for nine school districts.

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Don Nester, Project Manager

Don has 23 years experience at Hoechst North America in Coventry RI including: Six years as Plant Manager responsible for all aspects of $100M output and $30M in capital assets, implementing cultural changes to turn around a company failing because of extreme foreign competition; six years as Quality Manager responsible for delivering quality dye products made by 900 employees in 5 business units; Quality Coordinator responsible for reducing hazardous wastes and wasteful use of water; Diagnostician for quality training and productivity improvements; Microprocessor Programming of chemical processes to optimize productivity and cycle times; and department foreman. Don is owner of Work Place Solutions, a firm providing consultant services to improve competitiveness in the areas of people, processes, performance and profits. He is a founder of the RI ISO-9000 Round Table, and Past President of RI Association for Quality and Participation. Skills include: strategic planning; expertise in all aspects of six-sigma, lean and other best manufacturing practices; motivational leadership and team builder training; and hazardous materials handling. He is the author of five publications on quality and pollution prevention. Don has a BS in Economics, with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry, URI; MS in Management, Anna Maria College. Other certificate training in Executive Strategies, Leadership, ISO-9000, Auditing Quality Systems, Experiment Design and Hazardous Material Handling.

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Carl Dwinnells, Project Manager

Over 25+ years of experience in manufacturing and distribution in the jewelry, electronics, plastics, boating and metal fabrication industries strongly complements his background in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. He has extensive experience in Lean facility design incorporating equipment, materials handling, and office planning for plant expansions, moves, new building design and consolidations. Also, design for logistics facilities including Automatic packaging, handling, RFID, and storage. Furthermore, he supports companies by developing real estate searches, contractor management and support of architect requirements including evacuation plans. He has extensive experience in  PC-based and mainframe computer systems, including teaching AutoCAD, Microsoft Project and utilizing MRP systems (SAP).  In large projects, he supplies Project Management expertise integrating Microsoft Project, AutoCAD and Microsoft Office into planned projects   Carl holds a Masters degree in Management Science/Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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John Gilheeney, Project Manager

John has over 35 years experience working with organizations throughout North America helping them to improve operations, productivity, quality, customer service, environmental, health and safety performance. He has 8 years experience working for DNV (Det Norske Veritas) Certification, Inc. as a Senior Lead Assessor auditing quality, environmental, health, safety and security management systems against the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, National Bio-solids Partnership (NBP) and Responsible Care® Standards and Technical Specifications. Some of the organizations he has worked with include, but are not limited to: Toyota, General Motors, Rohm and Haas, Alcoa, NASA, General Dynamics, Tyco Electronics, BP, Marathon Oil Company, Lucent Technologies, Caterpillar, City of Fort Worth and Rhode Island School of Design. Read more>

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