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Matt West
Profile
Matt West came to WVU thinking he would be a Chemical Engineer, but wasn’t really firm on this choice of major. His older brother was a student in the college and recommended that Matt look at Industrial Engineering. Matt made the change because he always thought of himself as an organized person. He was also impressed with IE’s job placement success.
As an undergraduate, Matt was helped to make a connection with an IE alumnus who worked for General Electric. He did both an internship and co-op with General Electric. These led to a full time job offer when he graduated.
Matt was selected for GE’s leadership development program in the energy sector of the business. He spent part of his time in South Carolina and was then asked to go to Hungary. As luck would have it, one of Matt’s colleagues in the leadership development program was Hungarian and taught Matt some basic conversational Hungarian.
During his time at General Electric, Matt moved seven times in seven years. When he and his wife had a child, they decided it was time to settle down. At the time, Matt was also pursuing an Executive MBA from Duke. This also helped Matt decide it was time for a change. He wanted to move to a job where he could use more of his analytical skills. Matt returned to West Virginia to work for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Development.
While at CESD, Matt had an opportunity to work for a variety of different organizations. “I got to see a lot of different organizational cultures,” says Matt. “This also helped me refine my soft skills.”
One of Matt’s clients was MVB Financial Corp. At MVB, Matt did a number of process improvement projects. Matt came to the realization that he really enjoyed the implementation of process change. When he received an offer from MVB to join their team as a senior executive, he accepted it.
MVB is very entrepreneurial and growth oriented. Matt wears many hats including entrepreneurial strategy, operations, project management, and data analytics. One new activity that Matt is working on that has him excited goes by the name of FinTech. FinTech is a new industry segment that applies technology to improve financial activities—for both financial services companies and their customers.
When asked about the opportunities for Industrial Engineers in the financial industry, Matt comments: “The financial industry is very process oriented, but it’s interesting that industrial engineering has not been a hiring priority as yet. I think that will change.”
Bio
Experience
Chief Strategy Officer
MVB Financial Corp (MVBF)
Apr 2018 – Present
Bridgeport, West Virginia
Senior Vice President of Operations
MVB Financial Corp (MVBF)
Jan 2017 – Apr 2018
Bridgeport, WV
Founder
Everything Wellness
Jan 2014 – Jan 2017
Founder and manager of Everything Wellness. We build affordable websites and digital health promotion tools for county health departments and community hospitals.
The websites integrate a number of online marketing tools including…
– Events calendar
– Population health data dashboard
– Resource directory
– Email newsletter
– Blog
Management Consultant
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Development, Inc.
Jul 2006 – Jan 2017
– Lead and support cross-functional project teams with a focus on collaborative planning and policy deployment, research and analysis, continuous improvement, analytics and decision modeling projects for 25+ clients in public and private sectors.
– Leading team with P&L responsibility for online career development courses
Adjunct Professor
West Virginia University
Aug 2007 – May 2016
– Taught an undergraduate Engineering Economy course in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources for a number of years and will begin co-teaching a graduate course in Worksite Wellness in the School of Public Health beginning next year.
– Served as a guest speaker on Six Sigma and analytics leadership at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Central European University Business School.
Operations Management
GE
Jul 2002 – Jul 2006
Led multiple supply chain, Six Sigma and Lean projects and teams in the U.S. and Europe as part of the Operations Management Leadership Program.
– Operations Leader – Supervised 30 hourly manufacturing, assembly and quality employees on $100M gas turbine product line.
– Production Facilitator – Provided production leadership for 3-shift, 30 employee operation with $30M annual sales.
– Lean Manufacturing Coordinator – Teamed with GM and Six Sigma Master Black Belt to develop strategy to effectively spread Lean Manufacturing concepts.
– Global Commodity Leader – Managed supplier relationships and sourcing strategy for critical gas turbine components.
– Preventive Maintenance Team Leader – Led hourly team responsible for creating and scheduling preventive maintenance plans for 2,000+ machines.
– Project Manager – Managed and implemented cross functional projects for $17M materials business.
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Education
Duke University – The Fuqua School of Business
MBA
2005 – 2007
West Virginia University
BS
Industrial Engineering
1998 – 2002
