About True North Advisory Group
We have both spent our careers as Smart Manufacturing executives, advisors, and industry leaders helping manufacturers translate strategy into execution, and technology into measurable business value. Our experience spans the full spectrum, from legacy environments to modern day shop floors, Fortune 50 enterprises to emerging/small manufacturers, and in hundreds of facilities across the globe.
We founded True North Advisory to bring practitioner-led, vendor-neutral guidance to manufacturing leaders navigating digital transformation, operational excellence, and the practical application of Smart Manufacturing, and to offer those services to organizations with a desire to get better, who want to spend judiciously, leverage the investments they have already made, and don’t know how to get started.
This practitioner-first perspective is the foundation of True North Advisory.
About Mark Besser
I have spent my career spanning manufacturing, enterprise software, and professional services, where I have consistently operated at the intersection of operations, technology, and leadership. I pride myself as being grounded in real-world execution—from the boardroom to the plant floor, focused on helping organizations make confident decisions that deliver promised results.
I am recognized as a Smart Manufacturing Evangelist and trusted advisor. My experience includes Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES/MOM), Industrial IoT, advanced analytics, and AI-enabled manufacturing—applied not as abstract concepts, but as tools to improve safety, quality, throughput, reliability, and profitability.
I have led global manufacturing technology deployments across 500+ plants, conducted business in 37 countries, and worked directly with operations, IT, engineering, quality, supply chain, and executive leadership teams to align people, process, and technology.
I also play an active role shaping the future of manufacturing at a national and global level, defining Smart Manufacturing strategies, standards, education and certification programs. I am currently serving on the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of CESMII – The Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, one of the key national Manufacturing USA Institutes.
I am published author and frequent speaker on Smart Manufacturing, digital transformation, and operational excellence and deeply committed to education, capability-building, and helping manufacturers develop internal leaders who can sustain transformation over time.
My collective experiences, problem-solving mindset, constant drive to make things better, manifest into creating unique solutions to challenging issues and consistently delivering outcomes that achieve promised results.
About Brad Rowen
I’ve built my career growing from hands on shop floor operations, multi site ERP and MES leadership, and the development of enterprise digital strategies and roadmaps. I bring a strategic mindset grounded in real operational insight, enabling me to connect long range vision with the practical realities of plant performance, through a deep understanding of operational realities, workforce dynamics, and the challenges teams face every day. This gives me a unique perspective that blends executive level strategic insight with practical, plant floor impact. Simply stated: success lies in finding the right balance between the pull of business value with the speed of change a manufacturing organization can safely absorb. My work focuses on delivering measurable performance improvements through disciplined execution, scalable systems, and solutions that sustain performance over time.
I help manufacturing executives align business and digital manufacturing strategies into measurable performance improvement roadmaps supporting the specific ROI needs of small, medium, and large manufacturing sites.
Organizations are under pressure to increase throughput, reduce costs, strengthen safety, and improve asset reliability—yet many struggle with aging, siloed systems and digital initiatives that stall without clear roadmaps, organizational alignment, or disciplined execution.
I work alongside Manufacturing Leaders to:
- Build pragmatic, multi-year Digital Manufacturing Strategy and Roadmaps
- Prioritize initiatives based on pull-of-business value and operational risk
- Mobilize Plant, Engineering, QA, Supply Chain, and IT around unified execution plan
- Deliver early operational wins while building scalable, sustainable foundations
- Enhance Continuous Improvement and Safety culture across organization
My approach anchors with business and operational realities — not technology hype! I focus on operational value, moving beyond stalled digital pilots, siloed/fragmented systems, and vendor-driven complexity toward a purpose-built, scalable ecosystem which simplifies the lives of manufacturers.
Why True North Advisory
True North Advisory reflects our belief that manufacturers don’t need more hype or generic frameworks—they need clarity, alignment, and execution support.
Clients work with us because we:
- Brings vendor-independent, objective guidance
- Understands manufacturing operations from firsthand experience
- Connects strategy to practical roadmaps and execution
- Has led transformations personally—not just advised on them
- Focuses relentlessly on business value and outcomes
We founded True North Advisory to help manufacturers navigate complexity, make confident decisions, and move forward with purpose—toward their true north.
When you work with True North Advisory, you’re not hiring a consultant. You’re partnering with practitioners who have been there, led it, done it, and delivered the promised results.