Steve Zimmermann
President and Chief Executive Officer
Steve Zimmermann, CMP’s president and CEO, has spent much of his career searching for the “elusive zero,” the no-defect manufacturing system. He is an admitted perfectionist with little tolerance for ineptitude. He likes to say business is straightforward. “Keep customers happy, make quality products, keep looking ahead, make a profit,” he says.
At the age of 21, Steve dropped out of university to work with his father Hans, a former police officer and tinsmith, and his older brother at the family metal works. It had six employees and was on the brink. In a year the family pulled it together and turned the company around.
Today, more than 30 years later, CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions is a leading manufacturer of metal enclosures and is on the cutting edge of modern automated and computerized production. It has 400 employees in facilities in Chateauguay (a South Shore suburb of Montréal, QC), New York State and in a joint venture with Jabil Advanced Mechanical Solutions in Mexico. CMP remains a privately-held business where family plays a large part.
Steve is active in the community and reaches out through public speaking and philanthropy. His dedication to quality and innovation is matched by his zeal for community and ecology. His favourite toy, more dear than his skis and cross-country bicycle, is an all-electric Tesla automobile.
Steve Zimmermann spends long hours at the plant — he’s considered a mentor by many — but is careful to balance work with an active, healthy lifestyle and time with family.
John Soares
Executive Vice President
John Soares, CMP’s executive vice president provides strategic guidance and leads the corporation’s business development and engineering teams. He joined CMP in 1999 after co-founding CMP’s design organization and since then has held several key positions within the company. He is a member of the CMP AMS Group executive committee charged with expanding CMP’s North American footprint. He holds a DEC in Aerospace and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology.
He has spent more than 24 years in the world of product development focusing on emerging technology. John has worked for and acted as a consultant to a number of multinational corporations. He, like the rest of the CMP team, is dedicated to finding the most innovative ways to manufacture and to bring manufacturing back to North America from offshore.
Michel Labrecque
Vice President of Human Resources
With 25 years of expertise in human resources management, Michel Labrecque oversees all organizational initiatives that have a major impact on CMP’s shareholders, executives, managers, and employees. A strategic partner, Michel acts as a mediator for change management, with the goal of supporting the ongoing CMP structuring process.
Prior to joining CMP, Michel worked from 1994 to 1999 as the Vice President of Human Resources at food production company Culinar Canada. There, he oversaw a number of activities relevant to the company’s 3,000 employees. His initiatives included the conversion of the status of unionized employees to contractors, and the implementation of 50 autonomous teams grouping together executives, the union and employees. Michel also played a key role in a strategic negotiation process that concluded with the signing of five collective agreements for a period of five years.
From 1989 to 1994, Michel was Director of Human Resources at Labatt, representing 2,200 employees. At Labatt, Michel implemented a 60-person telemarketing network within a record timeframe of two months. He also played a major role in two mass reorganizations. Additionally, over a period of 30 months, he helped to reduce absenteeism by 50 percent.
As Director of Human Resources for Sico Inc. between 1979 and 1989, Michel’s strategic initiatives helped the company to win several IRIS Awards for its innovative Health & Safety, Excellence, and EAP programs.
Michel has a Bachelor in Industrial Relations from Laval University. He has been President of the Quebec Continuous Improvement Network since 1995, which has seen over 40 high profile manufacturing enterprises including Johnson & Johnson, Alcoa, and Alcan implement world class tools. He is also a member of the Organizational Development Network, an international learning community that develops and supports professionals in human organization and systems development.
Nathalie Brunet
General Manager (montreal)
Nathalie is a self-motivated senior manager recognized for her positive approach, vision and results orientation. She is a solid leader and communicator, both open and enthusiastic regarding the involvement and development of her team. Driven to take on challenges and make significant impacts through her work, Nathalie received the “CEO Leadership Award” in 2012. This award underlines an individual’s distinctive contribution relative to their leadership style and approach.
In working at CMP, Nathalie has acquired the tools necessary to successfully manage the workflow on the shop floor. More importantly, she is a leader who is always focused making the right decision for her staff and the company. Her people respect and trust her and she has been instrumental in creating a working environment where her employees felt so comfortable, that after being a unionized environment for over 40 years, they chose to de-certify because they trusted management, and no longer felt the need to have a 3rd party intervention. This was clearly due to Nathalie’s hand on, transparent management style.
Nathalie makes it her mission to not only make a difference in the workplace, but in her community as well. Her volunteer work with Centraide and Partage St-François show her dedication to her peers and her desire to create positive change around her.
damon snyder
General Manager (new york)
Damon leads operations in New York and manages the wide range of contracts supported by this facility.
Prior to CMP, Damon was SVP Operation of the largest and most technologically advanced direct-mail facility in the world, producing over 2.0 billion packages a year. From 1998-2005, Damon was President and SVP Operations at Lehigh Press where he led the company from a near-bankruptcy to a successful exit transition sale to KKR. In the 1990’s, Damon held several positions over 7 years with Quebecor Printing (USA) including Group VP Operations where he built a $250 million direct mail platform through both organic and acquisition growth.
Damon is focused on expanding CMP New York’s technology and innovations with a constant focus on exceeding customer’s expectations and building a culture of employee engagement.
