Manufacturing Tomorrow

Stephanie Gaffney is the director of Additive Manufacturing Programs at the Youngstown Business Incubator, an internationally recognized program focused on the development of software and additive manufacturing companies in Ohio’s Mahoning Valley.

Stephanie Gaffney joined the YBI team in September of 2014 as an industry liaison for the precision printed parts network, and now works to integrate additive manufacturing into small to medium operations throughout Ohio. She has managed $20 million in unclassified R&D projects to address the joint operational needs of industry, military, academia and non-profits. Stephanie brings significant industry experience from several sectors of the economy, as well as management experience from owning her own company. She was named an America Makes ambassador in 2019 and is serving a two-year term on its executive committee.

Stephanie is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a minor in Mathematics.

Greg Kimmel, National Security Business Line Manager, and John Clay, Research Lead outline their leadership roles and the impact of the Critical Care Decontamination System™ (CCDS) developed and commercialized at Battelle, an international nonprofit research and development firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Beginning his career as a research scientist, Greg has served Battelle for 19 years. In addition to his work as general manager for Battelle’s CCDS, he spent a year as an industry fellow at The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. He also was president of Kimmel Engineering Solutions

John is a chemical engineer and research lead for the Battelle CCDS, where he directs research in support of field deployments, including due diligence testing and performance evaluation of N95 filtering facepiece respirators. He is also a clinical professor at The Ohio State University Department of Chemical Engineering, and a Project Management Professional.

Mary’beth Ramey, control systems engineer for the Delrin area of DuPont Transportation & Industrial talks to us about her career path in engineering and the innovative products she has worked on at the Washington Works Site in in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Dupont is a spinoff of the world’s fourth-largest chemical company, DowDupont, and is focused on speciality products that serve both industrial and consumer markets. Dupont polymers are used in everything from mobile phone components and insulin injector pens to electronics for autonomous vehicles, even roller blades.

Mary’beth has also worked as process engineer for DuPont’s Zytel product line. She is currently the membership chair and webmaster of the Columbus Chapter of the International Society of Automation, or ISA, and she serves on the ISA Standards Committee on Human-Machine Interfaces. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech.

Brandon Cornuke, vice president, and Alec Simon, director of Startup Services at the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) talk about this year’s MSPIRE pitch challenge, which has gone virtual this year.

Brandon leads the organization’s efforts to help innovators turn manufactured product ideas into viable businesses. He specializes in strategy development, business model design, and lean innovation. He also teaches MBA students as an Adjunct Professor of Design and Innovation at Case Western’s Weatherhead School of Management. His career includes time as director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at American Greetings, as well as co-founder of his own consumer products company, Joyce Labs. He directed Target’s consumer TV sales strategy and was an IT strategy consultant with Hitachi’s global consulting team. He received his MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Before serving as startup advisor at MAGNET, Alec served as a ventures associate at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Cleveland. He has worked as a retail transformation strategy analyst at Key Bank and senior business analyst at Capital One. He earned his MBA at Case Western’s Weatherhead School of Management and his bachelor’s degree in Operations Management at Ohio State.

Matt Garbarino, Director of Marketing Communication at Cincinnati Incorporated outlines his career at one of the oldest machine tool manufacturers in the U.S., producing press brakes, laser cutting systems, shears, PM presses, and additive equipment. Cincinnati was the first company to use Big Area Additive Manufacturing, or BAAM, technology to print the world’s first 3D printed car, the Strati from Local Motors then later, a Ford Cobra.

Matt manages all marketing, branding and communications initiatives for the company. Before his second term at Cincinnati Incorporated, he served as president and COO at MachineTools.com and founder and CEO of The FabZone.com, a B2B website that matches buyers and suppliers in the metal fabrication industry. He also worked as sales manager at SigmaTEK and as manufacturing engineer in the Delco Chassis Division at General Motors. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology at Purdue University and pursued an MBA at Wright State University.

Norman Jones, PhD, dean and director of The Ohio State University at Mansfield and Aimee Ulstad, associate professor in Integrated Systems Engineering at Ohio State, talk about the new Bachelor of Science in Engineering Program being offered at the regional campuses beginning this Autumn 2020. We discuss the workforce needs, the types of students, and the manufacturing partnerships that are factors in the program’s development.

Prior to his appointment as dean at Mansfield, Norman served for two years as the interim dean. Norman oversees an academic community of more than 1,000 students, 100 faculty and 60 staff members. He also assists with the management of shared services with North Central State College, Ohio State Mansfield’s co-located college. He joined Ohio State’s faculty in 2004 and has taught undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on American literature, the Bible and film. Norman earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Yale University, and a master’s degree and doctorate in English from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, Aimee was an industry professional and practicing engineer with more than 30-years’ experience in various fields. She began her career as a packaging equipment engineer at Procter & Gamble, then moved to Anheuser-Busch where she worked for 27 years as a project manager, engineering manager and finally as the resident engineer, managing all technical areas of the facility.

Aimee received her degrees in Mechanical Engineering and her MBA from The Ohio State University.

[[Full disclosure: I am heavily involved with the development of the BSET program]]

For 14 years, Joe Sullivan, co-founder of Gorilla 76, a St. Louis-based industrial marketing agency and his team have helped mid-sized B2B manufacturers identify, attract, engage and drive sales opportunities with customers. The company uses a combination of positioning, content marketing, search engine optimization, website development, and sales enablement, among others.

Prior to founding Gorilla 76, Joe worked as an art director for Schupp Company, whose clients include MillerCoors and Russell Stover. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Advertising Design and Business Marketing from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kelly Reo, Executive Director of the Center for Operational Excellence at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, joined the Center in 2018, bringing over 20 years of management and consulting experience with her.

She has served as a program and project manager on many strategic initiatives for large organizations across a variety of industries - finance, banking, manufacturing, retail, and higher education - from NiSource to L Brands. She has led teams in strategy development, business process improvement, technology implementation, and change facilitation.

Most recently, she spent 14 years at Navigator Management Partners, now Avaap, where she was Vice President of Operations and Marketing.

She has a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Ohio State and a Marketing Management Certification from the Harvard Extension School. Additionally, Kelly is currently enrolled in the Master of Business Operational Excellence program at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business.

Rosemary Coates is founder and executive director of the Reshoring Institute (https://reshoringinstitute.org), a nonprofit focused on expanding U.S. manufacturing supply chains.

As management consultant for 25 years and president of Blue Silk Consulting, she has helped over 80 global supply chain clients and works as an expert witness on legal cases involving global supply chains. She is an Amazon.com best-selling author with five supply chain books, including The Reshoring Guidebook and the Legal Blacksmith – How to Avoid and Defend Supply Chain Disputes.

Rosemary serves on the board of directors at the University of San Diego Supply Chain Management Institute and teaches Global Supply Chain Strategy at UC Berkeley. She earned an MBA from the University of San Diego and a bachelor’s degree in business logistics from Arizona State University.

Joe Lyden is president of Caster Connection, an Ohio-based manufacturer of casters and wheels with clients that include John Deere, Honda and BMW. The company’s mission is to develop innovative and optimal material handling solutions in order to deliver enhanced ergonomics, safety, and efficiency to their clients.

Joe has worked at Columbus Caster for almost 12 years. Before becoming president, he served in the roles of sales director and national and regional sales manager. He received a bachelor of business administration in marketing at the University of Toledo and also attended Ohio University.