Mentor Matching Program

Carol Wills, CPA, CMA

Controller, CymSTAR, LLC

Industry: Government Contracting – Software, Manufacturer/Accounting & Data Analytics

Highlight of Implementation: Implemented 14 days ahead of schedule and 16% under budget

About Carol
Carol Wills serves as Corporate Controller for CymSTAR, LLC and CymSTAR Services, LLC, privately held US Military Contractors. During her tenure with CymSTAR the companies have grown from 15 employees and less than $2m in annual revenue to over 250 employees and more than $75m in annual revenue. She has overall responsibility for controllership and financial reporting activities. Her responsibilities include launching Power BI reporting and overseeing the company's upgrade from AX2012 to D365 in 2019. Prior to joining CymSTAR in 2006, she spent 5 years in Public Accounting firms focusing on providing accounting services to small & medium sized businesses.

A Certified Public Accountant and Certified Management Accountant, she holds a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Phoenix and a Master's degree in Taxation from the University of Tulsa.

Jason Thorpe

Senior Director of IT Projects, Hampton Products

Industry: Manufacturing and Distribution

Highlight of Implementation: Hampton's D365 environment includes a single company and one legal entity. The company has a unique two-day order-to-ship window, with forecast dependencies, and is adopting the D365FO planning features are they are released.

About Jason
Jason Thorpe is currently Senior Director of IT Projects for Hampton Products. He has been working on AX and 365FO implementation projects since 2005 for AX and D365FO companies, in positions ranging from IT and technology director to organizational change management consultant. His passion is to focus on improving solutions, processes and people.

Jason is a long-standing member of D365UG FO, providing organizational guidance, community advocacy, a customer conduit to Microsoft, and session speaker at conferences.

Martin Messick

IT Manager, James M Pleasants Co. Inc.

Industry: Manufacturing

Highlight of Implementation: Their small IT department completed the migration within 15 months and continue to be successful maintaining their cloud implementation

About Martin
Martin Messick is the IT Manager and "designated pusher" at James M Pleasants (JMP), a 185-person ESOP that has committed fully to a Digital Transformation based on Microsoft's ecosystem of offerings. A year after going live with D365 CE, FS, D365 F&O and PowerBI, JMP is now striving to become a disruptor in our industry. When not wondering about what to "push" on next, Martin can be found gardening or playing tennis.

Pirmin Bercher

Head of Business IT Alignment, CARBOGEN AMCIS

Industry: Chemical/Pharma/Regulated Environment

Highlight of Implementation: On Ax2012R3 moving forward and planning a global implementation of D365 (4 countries, 12 company, 650 users)

About Pirmin
Pirmin Bercher is Head of Business IT Alignment for CARBOGEN AMICS in Lauchringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, a service provider that offers drug development and commercialization services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. Carbogen operates in multiple countries and physical locations, serving over 600 AX users.

Since 2018, Bercher has been planning a global implementation of D365FO in four countries, with 12 companies and more than 650 users. His focus on the implementation has been understanding the move from on-premise to a cloud environment, particularly as it affects companies who face regulatory challenges and how this can be achieved in the cloud environment with automated, instead of manual testing.

Pirmin is also leader of the D365UG FO Local User Group for Switzerland.

Rhett Thompson

Corporate Director of IT, Kent Water Sports LLC

Industry: Distribution – Consumer Goods

Highlight of Implementation: Within budget

About Rhett
Rhett Thompson is the Corporate Director of IT for D365FO user, Kent Water Sports. He is a proponent and enabler of technologies for his company, most recently D365 for Finance and Supply Chain. Kent Water Sports is a premier provider of outdoor sporting equipment, with seven companies that includes manufacturing, but focuses on distribution in a multi-channel environment that includes big-box stores, mom-and-pop shops and consumer sales.

After successfully implementing AX 2012, Kent Water Sports undertook the D365 journey to technologically future-proof its business. Thompson has a unique perspective on the entire D365 implementation process from partner selection and data migration and conversion, to post-implementation successes, and maintaining technology to future-proof the company in an era of uncertain times.

Shobit Sah

Head of Global Digital Programs for Business Applications, Hempel

Industry: Manufacturing and Distribution

Highlight of Implementation: Hempel initially migrated to D365FO from AX 2009 beginning in 2016. As the finance and operations ecosystem changes, Hempel's implementation has remained flexible and adaptable to the continuous updates and releases. In regions where the company doesn't have a production facility, they don't use D365 supply chain capabilities. The company has many third-party integrations.

About Shobit
Shobit Sah leads the Microsoft Azure & Dynamics 365 global digitization & transformation program for Hempel company. The company works in supply chain, customer care & finance for 65+ countries across Asia, Europe, Middle East and the Americas.

Note: Mentee in European time zone would be best.