Pilot Advisors Team

  • Rick Smith Partner Rick Smith brings over 35 years of senior HR leadership and deep organizational change expertise to our clients. He has served as a fractional executive coaching C-suite leaders, leading major transformations, and implementing change strategies that teams fully own after he steps back.

    Key wins include: executive HR leadership at Vail Resorts and Gerry Baby Products, plus decades building high-trust leadership teams and successful culture initiatives across industries.

    Why I Joined Pilot Advisors:
    "Joining Pilot was an easy decision given its proven track record of success across a diverse range of industries, including manufacturing, food service delivery, the Department of Defense, and hospitality. In each engagement, we have delivered measurable and sustainable improvements that make a lasting impact. Our approach to performance improvement is grounded in Prosci’s research-based change management best practices. By working collaboratively with an organization’s key leaders, we help drive meaningful results while ensuring that improvements are effectively adopted and sustained."

  • Mark A Coudray Partner Mark A Coudray brings over 50 years of entrepreneurial leadership and deep expertise in business growth strategy, innovation, and optimization to our clients. He has served in embedded advisory roles coaching CEOs, building scalable growth systems, and mentoring on pricing, digital transformation, and profitability that teams fully own after he steps back.

    Key wins include: bootstrapping multiple multi-million revenue companies from at age 19 from his parents’ garage, serving on the Cal Poly Graphic Communications Advisory Board, 25 Year of Advisory Board experience in the Specialty Graphics Association, and sharing practical insights across 500+ publications and hundreds of global conferences and exhibitions as a workshop and seminar presenter.

    Why I Joined Pilot Advisors:
    “I joined Profit Advisors after working with Andrew for several years on multiple projects. The Profit Advisor ethos aligns perfectly with Mark’s lifetime Mission of: “Finding a better way, and sharing it with others, for the Greater Good.”

  • Kim McCutcheon Partner Kim McCutcheon brings decades of leadership development and executive coaching expertise to our clients. She has served in embedded advisory roles coaching senior leaders, building high-performance teams, and delivering Leadership and personality profile programs that teams fully own after she steps back.

    Key wins include her service as a U.S. Army Chemical Corps Officer, founding Lorica Leadership LLC, and inspiring leaders through keynote speaking and training programs that drive lasting cultural and performance improvements.

    Why I Joined Pilot Advisors:
    “I’m a product of the product! I’m joining Pilot Advisors because I’ve personally experienced the impact of their work. When I was leading a struggling organization under a Cure Notice, their guidance helped us execute a turnaround to world-class performance, and now I’m honored to help other leaders achieve the same result.”

  • Steve Manuszak Partner Steve Manuszak brings decades of senior HR and executive leadership expertise to our clients. He has served in embedded advisory roles coaching C suite leaders, driving major transformations, and building high trust cultures that teams fully own after he steps back.

    Key wins include: his tenure in various HR leadership and CHRO roles across global food and distribution enterprises, including Groupe Danone, Dean Foods, Food Services of America, and US Foods. In these positions, he led people strategies through complex growth, mergers, and operational shifts, consistently aligning talent, culture, and execution to deliver measurable business outcomes.

    Why I Joined Pilot Advisors:
    “I chose to join Pilot Advisors because Andrew has built a firm that pairs disciplined operational rigor with the kind of strategic clarity most companies never manage to access on their own. His approach to advisory and fractional leadership is grounded, execution focused, and genuinely transformative for founders and CEOs who need more than slideware. Partnering with him was an easy decision because the firm’s ethos aligns perfectly with how I believe real impact gets made—through sharp thinking, honest guidance, and operational excellence that actually moves the needle."

  • James Vera Partner James Vera brings 40 years of industrial operations experience and deep Human & Organizational Performance expertise to Pilot Advisors. He has served in embedded advisory roles coaching senior leaders, building HOP programs, and designing Conduct of Operations systems that teams fully own after he steps back.

    Key wins include: the safest startup on record for a major chemical demilitarization facility (0.18 recordable injury rate), VPP Star status at two sites, and leading over 50 root cause analyses.

    Why I Joined Pilot Advisors:
    "The reason I joined Pilot Advisors is my personal experiences, where pilot advisor teams have provided relevant, actionable guidance which resulted is significant organizational improvement. In both experiences the teams that came on site were very skillful and professional. These experiences caused me to want to be a party of this caliber of success."

REVIEW ★★★★★ “ I’ve known Andrew Bielat for over 30 years, going back to when we were young rising stars for Oregon Steel Mills.

He was in operations, me in finance. From the start, I witnessed his exceptional talent for simplifying complex operations into profitable strategies. Like I analyze financials, he spots bottlenecks early, unites teams on bold goals, and refines plans for reliable outcomes. Working together, I saw his precise, inclusive execution of operational strategies, fostering ownership across the board.

Later, as President of Columbia Sportswear during a critical phase of competing demands and channel harmony focused on consumers, I recruited Andrew to advise our senior team. I trusted his navigation skills completely. He partnered as a C-suite ally, aligning executives in marketing, finance, and operations. With sharp clarity, he dismantled outdated norms to prioritize essentials—delivering exactly the breakthrough we needed.

Over decades, Andrew has honed his Fractional COO and executive coaching model. I strongly advocate for him: he brings unmatched clarity, team alignment, and results-driven execution to any leadership group poised for growth. His impact is proven; I recommend him without reservation for driving organizational success.”

Bryan Timm, President
Columbia Sportswear

REVIEW ★★★★★ “I strongly advocate for Andrew Bielat in fractional CEO/COO positions, drawing from 20+ years of witnessing his advisory work across three firms.

Andrew excels at solving strategic hurdles through leadership growth, change, and ops transformation. Promotes accountability and alignment for sustainable wins.

First, at Dannon (Danone sub), supporting Supply Chain Chief, Andrew improved leader collaboration with coaching and assessments. He aligned visions, reduced GMP inefficiencies, kept best practices—driving yields, global interest, and promotions. Exemplifies his COO advocacy strengths.

At Dean Foods, HR Director for branded products, he redesigned sales for SVP: split teams, clarified roles, set talent and metrics systems—boosting growth and accounts. Highlights CEO turnaround skills.

Lately, at Food Services of America post-founder's loss, as HR SVP, I selected Andrew. He assessed, resolved issues, built mission/strategy/governance/development—stabilizing proactive leadership. Ideal for executive crises.

Andrew swiftly understands cultures, builds trust, instills accountability. I endorse him fully for strategic oversight.”

Steve Manuszak, SVP
CHRO Food Services of America (et al.)

REVIEW ★★★★★ “On Multiple occasions, I had the benefit of Andrew Bielat’s assistance to determine organizational issues with different organizations that I was assigned as the Director.

While working for Battelle Memorial Institute, I was assigned to the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility to fix the organization and repair customer relations with the URS corp and the US Army. Pilot advisors did a superior job of analyzing the problems and providing a roadmap to put corrective actions in place.

Pilot Advisors provided Battelle Memorial Institute with an analysis and recommendations that were so accurate and thorough that they allowed me, a turnaround manager, to almost immediately reverse our fortunes.

We instituted the plan and within a year, our organization of 205 laboratory and Air Monitoring staff went from worst to best of the six-operating site in the country. This resulted in an increase in award fee on contract that year of more than $500.000.

The Pilot Team provided ongoing support of the changes, such as 360 assessments and coaching; essential to our success in the culture change process. We intend to continue using Pilot Advisors because of the fantastic return on our investment which is why I recommend Andrew. His energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge were instrumental in our recovery of operational excellence.

Dr. Matthew Blais, Major US Army Special Ordinance (Ret.), Chief Scientist, Battelle Memorial Institute

REVIEW ★★★★★ “His leadership and critical involvement is sure to benefit your company greatly. Mr. Bielat has the unique ability to see through the ever present complexities of business and identify the key elements of practical, effective improvement plans. I believe he is able to do this as a result of his intelligence, the engineering discipline he gained as a mechanical engineer and his visionary, entrepreneurial, approach to business. I can assure you that Mr. Bielat has my full confidence and trust in his ability to develop strategic plans, analyze performance improvement programs, and communicate effectively with anyone. He is an exceptional coach at all levels of business, from the CEO and Board to the workforce, because he understands business and people so well.”

Robert A. Simon
JSW Steel USA (et al.)

REVIEW ★★★★★ ”When you work with Andrew, you are going to get high quality consulting and leadership packaged in a personable, patient, and empowering manner. Andrew approaches things with a systematic and knowledgeable set of skills and experience. He evaluates the strengths and areas of growth and helps the team set goals. Andrew's style is collaborative and warm as he builds teams and invites all to participate meaningfully. He brings appropriate tools and resources to use in the process. I learned a great deal working alongside him as he led our team towards problem-solving and profit-making. ”

Vicky Dillon
Director of Finance & Accounting
Romano Venture Capital

REVIEW ★★★★★ ”Andrew has an incredible ability to develop and foster relationships based on trust I worked with Andrew for over 20 years as a Partner in his consulting firm. As a consultant when I asked him to come in to companies where I ran Human Resources. Andrew has an incredible ability to develop and foster relationships based on trust and a unique ability to enter an organization, accurately assess areas for improvement and then develop practical strategies on both the technical and cultural aspects that drive improvement in performance whether it was in manufacturing, distribution, sales or consumer products organizations. Andrew’s coaching and leadership style is one which people easily gravity to from line level staff to the C-suite as he create clear alignment on key goals and the provides a structured process that drives accountability and execution. ”

Rick Smith
Executive Instructor & Team Consultant, Prosci, Colorado

REVIEW ★★★★★ “"I've engaged dozens of advisory and consulting firms over my 35-year career in the steel industry. None compare to Andrew's Pilot Advisors. Andrew Bielat delivered the most effective, comprehensive services we've ever experienced, truly worth every investment. A prime example: In 2004, we achieved a record 1,000,000 tons of prime steel for specialty rod and rail products. Pilot Advisors played a pivotal role through targeted training, expert problem-solving, and process control enhancements, driving a 25% production boost and 30% quality improvement over four years. I wholeheartedly recommend Pilot Advisors to any organization committed to elevating performance—their impact is transformative and undeniable." ”

David W. Ellis
Manager: Melting and Casting
Rocky Mountain Steel Mills

REVIEW ★★★★★ “Andrew is an energetic visionary with strong strategic planning and leadership. I highly recommend Andrew Bielat for any company looking for an energetic visionary with strong strategic planning and leadership. He is a talented advisor and experienced coach to individuals or companies at all levels of business. Andrew has a unique ability to determine the root cause of business challenges, along with the skills and determination to implement creative changes towards continued improvement. Andrew successfully coached, consulted, and advised me, transforming me into a true leader. He helped mold our operation team into a focused and dynamic group, outperforming expectations. I continue to use the skills and strategies taught by Andrew today. These tools have enabled me to be an effective leader with the confidence to turn around struggling companies and enable fast growth.”

Tim M. Gray
V.P. Finance & Operations
D.R. Horton, Inc., Portland, OR

REVIEW ★★★★★ “Andrew is intelligent, high energy and very committed to his endeavors. He's worked for us extensively over the years as a member of my management team, and as an outside advisor for other OSM executives and myself. Accompanied me on many board presentations, planning sessions, meetings and designs of various corporate management programs. Performed professionally and confidently, offering us valuable insight to our strategic challenges and opportunities. His understand complex issues at a strategic level which helped us execute to achieve desired goals. I've witnessed Andrew addressing sophisticated issues in the financial, cultural, technological and commercial arenas. He remains very objective, is willing to accept absolute accountability and is tenacious in his pursuit of the truth and success.. Andrew is intelligent, high energy and very committed to his endeavors. I recommend him to help you with yours. ”

Joe Corvin
President, CEO
Oregon Steel Mills, Portland, OR