First published by Technology & Manufacturing Association in January 2016 CRYSTAL LAKE – When you drive safely from one place to another without problems with
LAKE ZURICH – When Wes Gardocki joined Termax Corporation in 2001, he was hired on as a quality manager. Soon after, he moved into production, and became production manager. He then moved up to director of operations, then vice-president, and as of January 2015, he is now the company’s president.
TMA has been training machine operators since its inception, but last year they offered their expertise to company leaders ready to take their businesses to a higher level. In December, TMA’s second series of Executive Leadership Institute classes will begin and enrollment is open now for interested participants.
CICERO – Figuring out how to fix 100 year old public water works equipment may be a rare project for most gear making companies, but for Circle Gear & Machine Company, it’s not all that unusual.
“Every day there’s something new around here, it’s never dull,” said Circle Gear’s corporate President Michael McKernin.
AURORA – Wayne Sikorcin’s father started Craftsman Tool & Mold in 1965, the same year he was born. One of four children, Wayne says that
ADDISON – When Guy Ockerlund’s grandfather – a Swedish bricklayer – came to America, he set up a contracting business. When his construction business slowed
BENSENVILLE – Although Eric Treiber has been president and CEO of Chicago White Metal Castings since 1990, he fondly remembers visiting the company with his father and sister when he was five or six years old.
“When my sister and I were children, on Saturday mornings my dad would take us with him while he worked for half a day to give mom a break,” Treiber said. “We’d go in his office while he worked, and then he’d walk us around, holding our hands.”
BENSENVILLE – Besides making customers happy and meeting deadlines with high quality products, at Ace Metal Crafts in Bensenville, “It’s all about the company culture,” says CEO Jean Pitzo.
“We’re culture people, we’re all about the people that work for us,” Pitzo said during a recent company visit. “We can talk about metal fabrication, or we can talk about our company culture, whichever you want.”
BOLINGBROOK – Ideal Carbide Die in Bolingbrook’s Victoria Van Bortel and Al Kasper “vice-president” the 61 year old company as a team.
Ideal Carbide, which started in 1953, hired Victoria’s father, Jay Hartz, in 1973. With a background as a metallurgical engineer with an MBA from the University of Chicago, he was hired with an option to obtain Ideal when the founder retired
CHICAGO – Progressive Coating is a Chicago company that CEO Stephen Walters bought eight years ago, and while the U.S. stats continue to bemoan a sluggish economy, Walters’ business has grown 35 percent in each of the last four years.
Having just added the company’s fourth production line, Walters has high hopes for expanding and turning Progressive Coating into a formidable enterprise.
