minds

Elizabeth Williams is an accomplished senior corporate executive with deep international experience across multiple industries. Over the years, she has led teams and initiatives that delivered tangible, sustained results for global corporations in corporate strategy and portfolio management, including managing the full M&A process, from overall strategy to sourcing, due diligence, deal structure and execution.

Before forming &Minds Partners, Elizabeth was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Tenneco, where she was instrumental in developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to enhance the firm’s profitability and growth trajectory. During her tenure, Tenneco significantly expanded its geographic footprint, product portfolio and customer base. She led the company’s largest M&A transaction in 20 years, the $5.4 billion acquisition of Federal Mogul, in 2018.

Prior to Tenneco and after a brief stint as an independent consultant to small-to-medium-sized U.S. businesses, she was Vice President and Head of Corporate Strategy for Copenhagen-based global transportation leader Maersk. While there, she built a strategic framework to assess and pursue short- and long-term growth strategies, including a capital allocation process aligned with strategic priorities.

Previously, Elizabeth served in senior corporate development executive positions at Zurich-based technology leader ABB and Hartford, CT-based United Technologies. As ABB’s Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Development, she spearheaded strategic planning and implementation of more than $20 billion in investments over four years, spanning R&D allocation, M&A and capital expenditure initiatives. While Director of Corporate Development at United Technologies, Elizabeth led a 20-member team with a mandate to continuously assess the company’s business portfolio to optimize shareholder value, focusing primarily on the company’s Carrier, Otis, UTC Fire & Security and renewable power generation divisions.

Earlier in her career, Elizabeth progressed rapidly through a variety of sales, audit and strategic planning roles in the industrial, investment banking, accounting and technology sectors for Johnson Controls, British Petroleum, Robinson-Humphrey, Coopers & Lybrand and IBM.

Elizabeth earned her B.A. in Economics at Stanford University and her MBA at University of Chicago.

CS Sukam is a seasoned senior executive whose expertise spans a very broad range of business functions, including strategy development and planning, business development, M&A, business restructuring and transformation, sales and marketing, product management and innovation, and operational excellence.

Prior to joining the &Minds team, CS was Vice President, Strategy, Business Development and Marketing with Tenneco, where he was involved in the acquisition and integration of Federal-Mogul, a leading global automotive and aftermarket supplier. While at Tenneco, he also led the evaluation of several Tenneco businesses and development of strategic plans for each, supporting creation of an enterprise-wide strategy across business units, regions and functions to prepare for separation of Tenneco into two independent businesses. His role at Tenneco included leading efforts to expand and grow through commercial excellence and focused sales teams.

Before Tenneco, CS was Senior Director, Strategy, M&A and Marketing/General Manager for Honeywell. At Honeywell, he led strategy and business development, M&A, and strategic marketing for multiple Honeywell business units, including Industrial Safety, Fire Safety, Security and Retail. His responsibilities encompassed identification/analysis of core and adjacent markets for expansion through organic and acquisition-driven growth strategies, as well as leading initiatives to expand the product portfolio, business segments and geographies. CS also had P&L responsibility for a multi-million-dollar global safety and footwear business, and restructuring leadership for a mid-size retail business.

CS was particularly active in the M&A function at Honeywell, building the pipeline, cultivating targets, leading deal origination and transaction activities including due diligence, and supporting smooth integration of the acquired businesses.

Prior to joining Honeywell, CS was Senior Director, Strategy, Business Development and Marketing for Harley-Davidson, where he was involved in a wide variety of functions, including companywide strategy, planning, business development, M&A, performance management, commercial excellence and competitive intelligence. CS was Director of Strategy, Business Development and Marketing for Cummins, Inc. before accepting the position at Harley-Davidson. While at Cummins, he led strategy, planning, business development, M&A and strategic marketing functions for the company’s distribution business, as well as the aftermarket, parts and service segment.

CS earned his MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has published 25+ peer-reviewed articles in science and engineering.

Gina Copeland is a senior corporate strategy executive with international experience across multiple industries. Her expertise includes strategic planning, business transformation, P&L oversight, M&A activities, product development, program and project management, and stakeholder relations. She has a track record of leading improved profitability, revenue growth and formation of strategic partnerships.

Gina comes to &Minds from Tenneco, where she was Executive Director, Business Planning and Development. While at Tenneco, she led business transformation strategy and execution with a focus on business model and capabilities evolution. Her Tenneco experience includes long-range global strategic planning, leadership of cross-functional strategic initiatives across multiple regions in the areas of sales, marketing, manufacturing, strategic sourcing and product management, and the design of a revenue management strategy to optimize revenue and profitability recognition.

Prior to Tenneco, Gina was SVP and Business Unit Lead for Haier Group, Air Quality Business Unit–America, where she led the turnaround of the company’s largest business unit. Her mandate included launching the start-up of two new businesses in the wholesale and retail air distribution spaces to support an overall strategy to expand into higher-margin adjacent markets. Gina oversaw operations, product management, marketing, finance and sales functions, successfully delivering strong brand awareness, revenue and profitability growth.

Before joining Haier, Gina was Senior Director, Strategy and Planning at Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics. In her role there, she led formulation of a rapid business expansion, branding and market growth strategy, overseeing marketing, product management and strategic planning functions in successfully executing the strategy.

Gina was Director of Strategic Development for Office Depot prior to Mitsubishi. At Office Depot, she was responsible for development and successful implementation of new business concepts to support growth of the company’s Business Solutions division, encompassing organic, M&A and strategic partnership initiatives.

Earlier in her career, Gina was a Principal Strategy Consultant with PwC, leveraging her supply chain management and lean manufacturing expertise to help the firm's consumer packaged goods and automotive clients improve profitability and operational performance. Prior to that, she was recruited out of college by Ford Motor Company to help optimize production performance of 25 assembly plants across the United States and Mexico.

Gina earned a BS in Applied Mathematics & Physics at Spelman College, an MS in Industrial Engineering at Wayne State University and an MBA in Corporate Strategy & Finance at University of Michigan.

Ernie Mackey is an executive with a long track record of customer/client operations success through business transformation and strategy development across a broad range of functions. His experience spans strategy, finance, program management, M&A, change management, manufacturing, disaster recovery and operations P&L. He is skilled at assessing business processes to identify financial and operational gaps, then developing and overseeing execution of a plan to address them.

In addition to his role at & Minds, Ernie is COO and Managing Partner at M3 Innovative Solutions Group, a consultancy focused on creating value by optimizing client operations.

Prior to &Minds and M3, he was Chief Operations Officer at JNET Communications, a major provider of cable network installation, cable, fiber and cellular site construction, and call center services to support telecommunications industry leaders. While at JNET, he led the development and introduction of a new operational model that resulted in dramatically improved cost structure, service delivery performance and operations productivity. He also led M&A activities at JNET.

Previously, Ernie was Vice President (VP) of Operations, and then Executive Vice President (EVP) of Operations at Vitel Communications, a subsidiary of JNET. As VP of Operations, he led cable network installation and construction operations in key U.S regions, developing and leading the implementation of process enhancements that led to significant performance improvement in customer management, dispatch/install operations and cash flow. As EVP, Ernie was responsible for network installation fulfillment and construction operations across North America, developing a national operations strategy aimed at quality and productivity improvement, and business growth.

Before his time at JNET, Ernie was Director, Program Management of the BellSouth Customer team at Lucent Technologies before being promoted to Customer Operations Vice President at Lucent Worldwide Services. In his earlier role, he directed the program management and operations disciplines across the BellSouth Customer Program Team. As Customer Operations VP, Ernie led customer fulfillment operations in support of Lucent Worldwide’s AT&T and BellSouth accounts.

Ernie has a BA in Economics from Oberlin College, an MBA from Central Michigan University and a Master’s Certification in Program Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Onnie Barnes Jacque is an executive-level professional whose background as a general counsel and chief legal advisor brings extremely valuable legal and business advisory experience to the &Minds team. She has an impressive track record of working with management within consulting, higher education, corporate and government organizations to manage complex business transactions, corporate governance, regulatory compliance and many other critical functions.

Onnie joined &Minds after serving as General Counsel for Wayne County (MI) Airport Authority, where she was the chief legal officer responsible for all aspects of legal affairs and governance for the Authority, which includes Detroit Metropolitan and Willow Run Airports. In her role, Onnie led key negotiations, procurement procedural revisions, litigation and regulatory matter resolution, and tenant negotiations.

Prior to her position at Wayne County, she was in-house legal counsel at Precision Inventory Specialists, where she served as adviser to the firm’s senior leadership on all legal aspects of company operations. In this role, she led cross-functional teams in the review, planning and execution of complex transactions, as well as labor, employment, benefits and compliance-oriented legal functions.

Before Precision Inventory Specialists, Onnie was a Senior Associate in KMPG’s International Corporate Services practice. While there, she developed and executed protocols for tax and legal compliance analysis in addition to forecasting and planning to support KMPG clients, including cross-border and internal restructurings, M&A, international law risk analysis, due diligence, and tax planning, among other aspects of complex financial transactions.

Before KMPG, Onnie excelled in a number of positions, including, from most recent: Assistant General Counsel for Real Estate/Construction at University of Michigan, Supervising Attorney at the County of Wayne, MI, and Commercial Litigation Associate at the law firm Pepper Hamilton. In these roles, Onnie was involved in complex commercial transactions and other legal work across virtually every business function, including real estate, construction, benefit plans, technology licensing, environmental matters, financings, employment, litigation and others.

Onnie earned her BS degree in accounting at Syracuse University and her JD from State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law.