The People on Your Project Have Run a Shop Floor.
You won't be handed generic ERP consultants. You'll work with practitioners who've managed materials, optimized operations, and lived inside SyteLine as end users — decades of combined experience, Six Sigma and Infor-certified, who understand your floor because they've stood on one.
The People Running the Operation
CEO
Chris Orr leads The Lake Companies as CEO with a mandate to transform one of the Midwest's most established SyteLine practices into an AI-first, outcomes-driven manufacturing partner — one that doesn't stop at go-live.
Before joining Lake, Chris spent five years at Epicor Software — one of SyteLine's primary competitors — leading a global business unit that served 20,000+ manufacturing customers across 150 countries. That experience gave him an inside view of where ERP implementations succeed, where they stall, and what manufacturers ultimately want: not software, but reliable outcomes on the shop floor. At Unisys, he led $250M+ in enterprise technology services delivery, building the operating discipline and customer success infrastructure that large-scale technology services require.
He joined The Lake Companies in February 2024 as COO and was appointed CEO in November 2024. Since then, he has led a company-wide transformation: restructuring the go-to-market model around buyer outcomes, standing up a formal channel partner program, embedding AI across product development, customer support, and sales operations, and building the leadership team and systems needed to compete at the next level.
Chris holds a BS in Computer Science from Lehigh University and an MBA, with distinction, from Keller Business School. He is a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt.
- At Lake Since: 2024 (COO → CEO)
- Education: BS, Computer Science — Lehigh University | MBA — Keller Business School
- Certifications: Six Sigma Green Belt
- Prior: Epicor Software — VP/GM, Global Manufacturing Services | Unisys — VP/GM
VP — Professional Services
Kate Mowry doesn't just understand manufacturing — she's lived it. Before her leadership role at The Lake Companies, Kate spent a decade on the plant floor and in the operations office: first as an Optimized Operations Engineer at 3M, then as Systems Manager, Materials Manager, and Performance Excellence Engineer at GMT Corporation, where she was a SyteLine end user herself. She knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an ERP implementation, and she brings that empathy to the team she leads today.
Her manufacturing roots run deep — precision CNC machining and metal fabrication (laser, drill/tap/bend/saw, tack/weld, blast and paint) serving agriculture, construction, defense, oil and gas, and wind energy.
Kate spent her first years at Lake as a hands-on consultant, accumulating more than 120 SyteLine and Infor projects — net-new implementations, upgrades, modifications, and optimization engagements — and logging nearly 7,000 billed hours with clients. Today, as VP of Professional Services, she channels that experience into developing the PS team and remains an extra brain for her consultants on the toughest challenges.
The outcomes her team focuses on are practical: linking order-to-cash so every department works from the same data, eliminating manual entry and spreadsheet workarounds, tightening inventory alignment, accelerating month-end close, and surfacing the costing detail that reveals where revenue is leaking. Underlying all of it is a conviction that data integrity is the foundation of everything — when users trust the system, they stop firefighting and start investing in the future of the business.
- At Lake Since: 2016
- Education: BS, Industrial Engineering — UW-Platteville
- Certifications: ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt | Infor-Certified Manufacturing Consultant
- Prior: GMT Corporation — Systems & Materials Manager (SyteLine end user) | 3M — Optimized Operations Engineer
- Experience: 120+ SyteLine implementations, upgrades & optimizations
VP — Product & Engineering
Jesse Brohinsky brings a rare combination of deep technical expertise and genuine curiosity about the manufacturers he serves. In nearly four years at The Lake Companies, he has become a trusted voice in ERP strategy and systems integration — drawing on a career spent inside some of the most demanding manufacturing environments in the country.
Before joining Lake, Jesse held engineering and IT leadership roles at JBT Corporation, Linemaster Switch Corporation, and Gunther International & Inc. Jet, giving him firsthand exposure to high-tech assembly, medical device manufacturing, industrial machinery, protein processing, and aviation support. That breadth translates directly into his ability to understand a client's operation — not just their software.
Jesse has contributed to two SyteLine upgrades and two full Infor LN implementations, and his hands-on work spans well beyond go-live. At JBT, he architected a cloud-native, serverless, Infor-cloud-compatible integrations platform that eliminated manual double-entry across nine separate systems — a single initiative that transformed data reliability across every business unit. His background in an ISO 13485 environment gives him a practitioner's understanding of the audit rigor and FDA compliance requirements that medical device manufacturers depend on. For several years he also ran sytelinepsa.com, a SyteLine development resource — evidence of a commitment to the user community that goes beyond the billable hour.
When a manufacturer works with Jesse, they get someone considerate of their needs who can put the latest technology to work on their bottom line.
- At Lake Since: 2022
- Build& Owns: Shop-Trak · Doc-Trak · Fact-Trak · APS-ME
- Prior: JBT Corporation — Manager, Integrations & Development | Linemaster Switch — IT Assistant Manager
- Experience: Two SyteLine upgrades + two full Infor LN implementations · ISO 13485 medical-device environment
VP — Sales & Customer Success
Matt Keffer has spent his career helping manufacturers find the right tools to run their businesses better — and making sure the path to get there is clear from day one. In his 2.5 years at The Lake Companies, he brings honesty and realistic expectation-setting to every conversation, whether a manufacturer is evaluating a new ERP system or working to get more out of the one they already have.
Before Lake, Matt held senior sales roles at The Logic Factory, Decision Resources, Inc. (DRI), and NetSuite, building a 25-year track record in ERP sales — matching complex manufacturing operations with solutions that actually deliver. His experience spans the full spectrum of discrete manufacturing — make-to-order, engineer-to-order, configure-to-order, and make-to-stock — across industrial equipment, metal fabrication, aerospace and defense, medical devices, and electronics.
What distinguishes Matt's approach is an insight that goes beyond software: the most valuable asset at a successful small manufacturer isn't its systems — it's its people and the institutional knowledge they carry. That tribal knowledge, embedded in a team's daily decisions and hard-won workarounds, is immensely powerful, and Matt believes one of the most important things a well-implemented business system can do is democratize it — making it accessible, consistent, and scalable across the organization.
When a manufacturer works with Matt, they get a straight answer — a realistic picture of what their project will look like and what it will take to succeed.
- At Lake Since: 2023
- Education: BS, Business Administration — Millersville University
- Prior: Decision Resources, Inc. (DRI) — Sr. Account Executive | NetSuite — Sr. Account Executive
- Experience: 25 years in discrete-manufacturing ERP sales | 15–20 net-new SyteLine implementations
Consultants Who've Worked in Plants
Every consultant at Lake Companies has direct manufacturing experience — not just ERP experience. Most joined Lake from roles inside manufacturing operations. That's not a coincidence; it's a hiring standard.
