Paula Zilka Colbert
Senior Advisor
Chicago
Senior Advisor
Chicago
Paula is a Senior Advisor, focused on Business Process Improvement initiatives for our clients. Her 12 years of practical experience at GE arms her with best practices in quality and continuous improvement. Her deep expertise in product and service life cycle management allows her to collaborate with clients to identify short, mid, and long term opportunities for process improvements. Clients include Patek Philippe USA, The ServiceMaster Company (e.g., TruGreen, Terminix, Merry Maids) and NCR.
Paula is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Quality Leader, trained by the creator of Six Sigma, Dr. Mikel Harry. She was one of the first people chosen to become certified and help GE kick off their Six Sigma Program in 1996. As the Quality Leader for GE Corporate Benefits, which involved primarily outsourced suppliers, for programs including the internal management of GE Travel, GE Healthcare, Expatriate Services and GE Credit Card Processing, Paula managed a team of 26 Master Black Belts and Black Belts with teams executing hundreds of projects simultaneously. This transactional type of business, with heavy reliance on suppliers required changes to the typical Six Sigma training which was manufacturing based at the time. Paula and her team created and conducted Supplier Six Sigma training for thousands of internal and supplier employees, specifically designed to address the unique issues of a transactional business. A corresponding scorecard was developed to measure the performance and productivity of the suppliers. Both the training and scorecard became recognized as GE best practices.
Paula began her career at GE on the Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP), a two year program for future IT leaders in the company. From there she joined the Corporate Audit Staff, a career path for 100 high potential employees involving Financial Verification and Year End Audits, Business Process Improvement Projects and Special Projects from the CEO’s of the GE Businesses. Paula participated on or led 11 audits at 9 GE businesses, representing both foreign and domestic locations. She moved to progressively more complex roles in Finance leading the Legal/EHS and Facility/Tooling/Maintenance teams, both with operational responsibilities including the Chemical Management Program, Equipment Liquidation Program and Final Assembly Physical Inventory at the Power Systems Business. Paula also had leadership positions in operations managing Market Research and Competitive Analysis, Strategy and Market Development, and Merger and Acquisition support. Paula participated on the GE Diversity Board and Supplier Quality Program championed by Jack Welch, the CEO of GE.
Paula has attended several executive development courses at GE’s Crotonville Management Development Facility including management development (MDC, NMDC) , advanced financial management (AFMC), Change Acceleration Program (CAP), Facilitation Skills and Process Consulting.
Paula graduated from Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY with a double major of Mathematics and Computer Science and a minor in Dance.
Paula is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Quality Leader, trained by the creator of Six Sigma, Dr. Mikel Harry. She was one of the first people chosen to become certified and help GE kick off their Six Sigma Program in 1996. As the Quality Leader for GE Corporate Benefits, which involved primarily outsourced suppliers, for programs including the internal management of GE Travel, GE Healthcare, Expatriate Services and GE Credit Card Processing, Paula managed a team of 26 Master Black Belts and Black Belts with teams executing hundreds of projects simultaneously. This transactional type of business, with heavy reliance on suppliers required changes to the typical Six Sigma training which was manufacturing based at the time. Paula and her team created and conducted Supplier Six Sigma training for thousands of internal and supplier employees, specifically designed to address the unique issues of a transactional business. A corresponding scorecard was developed to measure the performance and productivity of the suppliers. Both the training and scorecard became recognized as GE best practices.
Paula began her career at GE on the Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP), a two year program for future IT leaders in the company. From there she joined the Corporate Audit Staff, a career path for 100 high potential employees involving Financial Verification and Year End Audits, Business Process Improvement Projects and Special Projects from the CEO’s of the GE Businesses. Paula participated on or led 11 audits at 9 GE businesses, representing both foreign and domestic locations. She moved to progressively more complex roles in Finance leading the Legal/EHS and Facility/Tooling/Maintenance teams, both with operational responsibilities including the Chemical Management Program, Equipment Liquidation Program and Final Assembly Physical Inventory at the Power Systems Business. Paula also had leadership positions in operations managing Market Research and Competitive Analysis, Strategy and Market Development, and Merger and Acquisition support. Paula participated on the GE Diversity Board and Supplier Quality Program championed by Jack Welch, the CEO of GE.
Paula has attended several executive development courses at GE’s Crotonville Management Development Facility including management development (MDC, NMDC) , advanced financial management (AFMC), Change Acceleration Program (CAP), Facilitation Skills and Process Consulting.
Paula graduated from Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY with a double major of Mathematics and Computer Science and a minor in Dance.