Des Chesterfield
Senior Director, Research & Development, Information Technology, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics
Des Chesterfield is a seasoned professional in the deployment of Global Business Systems solutions with a proven track record in Product Development, Marketing, Quality systems and IOT. With a Systems Engineering mindset, Des likes to work closely with business partners to provide effective Enterprise business solutions. His extensive background with Product Engineering, Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering systems solutions (ERP/PLM/CAD/MES/QMS) coupled with complex IT Information systems (networks, storage, servers, data exchange) have helped Des to support broad technologies across Ortho’s extended Infrastructure business enterprise. Des’ hands-on management style and comfort with building and managing global teams to support globally oriented systems positions him at the forefront to engage directly with the business to deliver solution configuration and validation blueprints.
Des started his career as a Systems Engineer within the automotive industry with key assignments in Industrial, Manufacturing Systems and Automotive OEM vehicle systems development. Des was one of the pioneers in the deployment of Enterprise PLM solutions and he has experience with Enovia, Teamcenter and Windchill. After moving to the US from Britain, Des transitioned his career to focus on the Medical Devices industry, specializing in not just deployment, but in process re-engineering, building the systems support organization in alignment with the business as well as supporting the more subtle aspects of the industry including ERP Integrations and Master Data Strategy Alignment. This approach has been recognized as the foundation for the production digital twin and digital thread and has more recently supported the transition into loT with respect to connected medical devices.
Des has been extensively involved with helping to establish strategy and direction for modernizing supporting infrastructure from a traditional, on-premises relational database strategy to a fully cloud-based, serverless architecture. The first customer-facing applications have been developed and deployed mirroring this technology to a backdrop of ever-increasing demand. With this technology firmly in place, focus is now shifting to deployment of differentiating and potentially disruptive strategies as the company edges ever closer to a Lab 2.0 paradigm.
