Our Team

John Coates

John M. Coates, is a graduate of Middlebury College with post graduate studies at Roosevelt and Northwestern Universities in Illinois. After entering the freight industry in New York City, he moved to Chicago via Los Angeles, where he has spent the last forty years enabling excellent companies attain truly exceptional results. Whether building an assembly plant from the ground up, restructuring material and assembly procedural flow, or warehouse optimization there are few industry areas where John and his team have not experienced success.

The Fennimore Group was founded in response to a growing need for unlocking the concealed value inside your business without creating chaos among daily operations. By using a methodology developed with repeated success, Fennimore consistently embraces flawless execution delivering streamlined and simplified operational work flows.

Our staff averages 25 years of cross-functional end-to-end manufacturing, retail, and third-party experience including purchasing, planning, finance, distribution, sales, customs and government regulatory compliance, and global supply chain operations. We've earned advanced degrees, managed corporate responsibility, and confronted business decisions head on ensuring the right decisions are supported with sustained delivery.

John is active in NITL, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), Institute for Supply Management (ISM), and the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He has been a contributing author to various publications and a frequent speaker before many supply chain, business chain, retail distribution and industry automotive groups. In addition, he is a recognized member and authority among many global industry advisory councils.

Jay Hirst

Jay has managed complex client implementations in strategic sourcing, network / fleet rationalization, B2B integration, and facility outsourcing and conversion. Results from his activities on behalf of our clients have ranged from 28% inventory flow improvement, $47MM in transportation cost reductions, to $400MM in overall distribution cost reductions. His activity in network redesign and facility reorganization / consolidation resulted in a net savings for one client of over 18% while increasing their speed to market by nearly 40%.

Before joining The Fennimore Group in 2001, he was a Senior Practice Leader and one of the principal architects in building Ernst & Young’s (later Cap Gemini Ernst & Young) Global Supply Chain Practice, where he led the successful redesign of the Supply Chain systems and operational IT applications for one of the leading Retail Businesses in the world generating a $325MM annual cost savings in inventory reduction and distribution.

Jay has a Master’s Degree in Statistic Theory from San Jose State University and is a pioneer in Six Sigma applications to business. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Intermodal Association of North America. He is currently a member with the Council of Logistics Management and holds certification as a Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) from the Council of Supply Chain Management.

Mark Terril

Mark Terril has led an impressive career as the CFO for some of the largest market movers in today's economy. He has designed and implemented entire financial reporting structures for companies in the $50mm revenue category. He specializes in reducing audit costs, implementing on boarding and training procedures that reduce head count and overhead on average of 25%, and revamping legal structures that reduce tax liabilities by 23%. His ability to improve cash flow, reduce costs, and create strong teams makes him a rare and invaluable asset to The Fennimore Team.

Prior to joining The Fennimore Group, Mark spent decades in the commodities market, as well as Conagra. He is responsible for creating many of the Systems that are still in practice today. Mark creates a strong and solid foundation for any new implementations at your organization, while reducing costs and maximizing profitability. He has a degree in Finance from Kansas State, with post graduate studies at DePaul University.

Mark is a Certified Internal Auditor, has his Series 3 and Series 30 Licenses, is a

Canadian NRD Registered Representative, Canadian NRD Registered Options Principal, and a Canadian NRD Registered Options Supervisor.

Mark Irrig

Mark Irrig is Director of Global Operations for the Fennimore Group. He is a key systems integration, business process and project management team leader. He combines over 25 years of successful senior level global distribution leadership with an extensive background in planning systems, information systems, and critical technology applications and integration. His change management capabilities, skills, and talents transcend horizontal corporate structures with particular strength among Business Process Reengineering and Systems Integration inside retail and global manufacturing and distribution industry sectors. Mark has been critically successful within Greenfield and new facility / new product launch activities.

Prior to Fennimore, Mark held critical management, senior management and corporate officer positions with some of the worlds leading retail and distribution organizations; among them Kmart and Sears Holdings as well as various regional corporations. Throughout his career, Mark has been active within most systems, process and quality oriented organizations including JDA ProSpace (defining industry development requirements & standards), while a frequent speaker and presenter at various inventory management symposiums (Intactix/JDA).