Ken Eakin

Ken is a Lean author, consultant, and coach.

His vision is to help leaders develop their people and work systems to create more value for customers– and themselves. He strives to help professionals understand and apply the principles of flow, scientific thinking, continuous improvement, and respect for people, even when their work is both intangible, digitized, and highly complex.

His strength in adapting Lean theory into its practical application in office workplaces was honed while he was a Senior Advisor of Operational Excellence at Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada's export credit agency providing financial services and exporting knowledge to Canadian exporters and their buyers around the world. In his tenure at EDC, he was a lean coach and advisor to leaders at all levels, including senior executives in the areas of Insurance, Financing, Accounting, Financial Operations, Procurement, and IT. He also facilitated improvement projects and taught lean concepts and methods to teams. Prior to that, Ken worked as a Process Improvement Manager in the operations and customer service areas of a large global container shipping firm.

He currently transforms office-based organizations in both the private and public sectors, in the roles of Lean coach, trainer and consultant.

His education includes an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, as well as a MA in Cinema Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He currently teaches a course on lean management to MBA students at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.