Key Players
MIKE GEORGE SR.
OWNER Kessington Aerospace
BIO
During college Mike worked at North American Aviation, Atomics International, Lockheed, Northrop, and the U.S. Navy Electronics Lab. He received a B.A. in Physics from the University of California, and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Illinois.
Industry was then far ahead of Academia in micro-electronics. Hence he joined Texas Instruments in Dallas as an engineer on the Minuteman II Integrated Circuits program. After 5 years, Mike left TI to found International Power Machines, a manufacturer of digitally controlled Pulse Width Modulated Uninterruptible Power Supplies, which company he subsequently took public and then sold to a division of Rolls-Royce.
Mike’s general management career had been guided by the book “My Years with General Motors” by Alfred Sloan, so he was curious as to how upstart Toyota Motors had defeated General Motors. In 1986 he traveled to Japan to study the Toyota Production System. He then wrote the book “America Can Compete” showing how American companies can become internationally cost competitive.
To assist companies in this goal, he founded the George Group Consultants in 1987. Based on the experience at George Group, Mike wrote the book “Lean Six Sigma” in 2001. This was the first in a series of five books on the subject of waste reduction in every phase of business, all published by McGraw-Hill. The George Group sales grew to $120 Million per year, and was sold to Accenture in 2007. George Group also applied its’ expertise to private equity investments, earning a return of 180% per year. He is currently an investor in Blackland Group, a private equity firm founded by his son Michael to acquire companies and create value. Mike has been awarded U.S. Patents on the reduction of business entropy, cycle time and waste.
Mike and Jackie, his wife of 47 years, are members of the Highland Park United Methodist Church. Jackie has been a Board member of the Dallas Arboretum, the Dallas Symphony, and the Dallas Opera. Their family includes five children, ten grandchildren, and Eileen George, Mike’s 99 year old mother who plays bridge weekly.
(We are fortunate that the whole family resides in Dallas.)
