Lynn Yanyo

Lynn is the founder of De Novo Ground, a business consultancy that focuses on Startups and ReSt arting Businesses. Through structured, clearly defined, problem identification supported by technology and market research, De Novo Ground resets a company’s foundation for profitable growth and establishes clear, actionable metrics for tracking and adjustment to maintain momentum.  

Lynn’s technical background includes both broad and deep science and engineering experience including degrees in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University  and a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Akron as well as 15 years of  fundamental research and product development including 8 US patents and foreign equivalents.  

Lynn transitioned from technology to business management in 1997 as she managed the long-term,  multi-disciplinary research and product/process development of magneto-rheological (MR) fluids,  eventually becoming the Sales and Marketing Manager for magnetorheological (MR) technology. This  new, proprietary material technology was successfully commercialized in steering systems and  automotive suspensions and engine mounts for major OEMS (including Cadillac, Buick, Audi and  Porsche) and created entirely new businesses and markets for LORD Corporation.  

While at LORD, Lynn led several other businesses including electronics materials, where she had  responsibility for creating and marketing the high technology materials solutions for tomorrow’s smaller,  faster and hotter chips and packages.  

From 2008 to 2013, Lynn was the Customer Engagement Process Owner for LORD, responsible for all  marketing and customer facing processes and training. Under her leadership, LORD implemented a  state-of-the-art customer inquiry phone system integrated with a new CRM system for issue and lead  management. Customer after-sale support was improved with a reorganization of the customer service  team, enabling LORD to anticipate customer needs and become less reactionary to customer special  requests. Co-planning efforts with customers led to the highest levels of on-time delivery ever achieved  in the 90-year history of LORD. Sales Excellence and Marketing Excellence updated their training  programs that delivered immediate results to strategy and execution. New, forward-looking metrics  were developed including 12-month rolling sales forecasts (at >90% accuracy), sales pipeline revenue  and customer satisfaction/loyalty. Additionally Lynn led an innovative initiative with Brand Integrity to  incorporate, deliver and measure the LORD Brand Personality through all employee functions, tying  this to employee engagement and business metrics.  

Lynn has published numerous articles on materials development, modeling, new business  development, branding and customer engagement; received numerous awards for her publications,  presentations and marketing communications; and holds 8 US Patents and their foreign equivalents.  She serves on several university and corporate advisory boards. Outside of work, she is active in the  United Way, FIRST Robotics, The Center for Hope and Healing, and she regularly volunteers to teach  or speak to student groups from K-12 and universities.