SVP and Chief Innovation Officer - Kelly Services
Rolf E. Kleiner is SVP and Chief Innovation Officer at Kelly Services. A veteran outsourcing professional, Mr. Kleiner is responsible for creating a new foundation of workforce solutions for the evolving workplace. Named to his current position in 2012, Mr. Kleiner previously served as SVP and General Manager of KellyOCG.
From 2001 to 2008, Mr. Kleiner was SVP and General Manager of Kelly’s International Division. He also served as SVP for the Science and Healthcare Group of Kelly Services.
Mr. Kleiner joined Kelly in 1995 and launched the Kelly Scientific Resources® business unit. This represented the first introduction of dedicated scientific staffing into traditional staffing services. Today, Kelly Scientific Resources employs more than 400 clinical research professionals and 4,500 scientists throughout more than 100 locations in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.
Prior to joining Kelly, Mr. Kleiner had 19 years of experience in providing innovative products and services to the scientific community. He was one of seven principles that pioneered the concept of providing temporary scientific professionals through the launch of Lab Support, Inc. in 1986. Mr. Kleiner holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in natural sciences from the Department of Natural Sciences’ Water Resources and Water Pollution Control Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland.
Is US Manufacturing making a come back?
21 February 2012 3:49 PM
Tightening margins, wage pressures and a culture that expects an endless supply of cheap, disposable goods have spelt the decline of light industrial and manufacturing in many developed economies. Commoditization has left us with a price-led consumer market—people want things cheap and they want them fast. And developing economies have fulfilled this wish list for some time now.
Increasingly, developed economies have accepted their inability to compete on cost in the manufacturing and light industrial space, and have turned their focus to more ‘strategic’ pursuits. Service, innovation and strategic management rather than production of goods has become the focus of companies with their roots in developed economies.
But, are signs emerging that the pendulum is now swinging back the other way? In the US at least, new ways to compete in this space are being found, and the value of a first-world approach to manufacturing is again being realized.
Amid the doom and gloom of the American economy, the light industrial space is a rare positive note. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate across the manufacturing industry as a whole dropping back to around 9% at the end of 2011, from a high of more than 12% in 2009. Throughout 2011, the statistics have been improving month-on-month, with both separations and mass layoff events decreasing steadily.
And there are four key trends that could spell more good news for the sector. Find out more in, Signs of Life: 4 Reasons U.S. Manufacturing is Making a Comeback.