Grainger College of Engineering, All Events

Jim enrolled at the U of I in fall 1979 in the Department of General Engineering. The thought was that was the department to go to while he figured out what his major should be. Eventually, this became his major embracing the systems approach with the opportunity to select a secondary field of study, in his case, business.

Cut to today and since September 2019, Jim is the Sr. Vice President, America’s for ALD Thermal Treatment in Port Huron, MI, part of ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH which is part of AMG Critical Materials N.V. Jim has overall responsibility for two heat treatment services facilities, one in Port Huron, MI, the other is Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico.

Jim’s career began in Urbana where upon graduating with his B.S in 1983 amid an underwhelming job market, he accepted an offer from Professor Conry to continue with a graduate degree funded by the National Science Foundation. The best part of the Research Assistant position was not having to teach GE103! Drafting with T-Squares and triangles, can you imagine that today?

Jim accepted an Engineering position with Ford Motor Company in October 1984 as a part of Truck Operations Ford College Graduate program. His Master’s Thesis was finished later that year and in January, 1985 he was awarded his M.S. from the Department of General Engineering.

Jim’s roles at Ford were specific to Heavy Trucks where he rotated through assignments in Design Analysis, Engine Cooling Design and Vehicle Dynamics. Part of his last role included driving instrumented 18-wheelers to evaluate suspension improvements both subjectively and objectively.

Fall of 1987 brought about a change, moving to Eaton Corporation, Suspension Division where he was responsible for the design and development of all Ford RWD light trucks. Notable vehicles included a new model of the Econoline and the first generation of the Ford Explorer.

In 1989, Jim moved to Gabriel Ride Control Products, part of Arvin Industries. Here Jim was responsible for the design and development of shocks and struts for the Ranger, Explorer and Mustang. Later Jim led the team to launch the shocks and struts for the first-generation Windstar. In all Jim’s roles to date, he was a very hands-on engineer, even changing major suspension parts on the car in a suit & tie! Yup, that dress was normal and expected in the day!

In 1994 Jim moved to BorgWarner Automotive as the Sales Director for their TorqTransfer Systems group responsible for their Ford business. This included 4WD and AWD systems for Ford Explorer, Ranger, all F-Series and the new Expedition plus the manual transmission for Mustang. Jim helped create the role of Program Manager at BorgWarner several years before the PMBOK first edition was published. In 2002, Jim accepted an ExPat assignment to Germany with the task to build a team and win some business. Using existing BorgWarner facilities, the team grew and was fortunate to have won the AWD business on the first-generation Audi Q7 and the first electronic AWD system on the Porsche 997 Turbo.

The 2008/9 recession caused BorgWarner to pull ExPats back their home country. Later in 2009, Borg laid Jim off along with 25% of the Detroit tech center. Jim landed later that year in Toronto with Litens Automotive, a subsidiary of Magna Powertrain. At Litens Jim held various roles in Advanced development leading a team developing a flywheel-based start/stop system with Audi and later on an on-demand belt activated start stop system.

In 2014, Jim transferred to Magna Powertrain Driveline Systems in Troy, MI where he as first the Manager of Product Concepts and later the Sr. Manager for Engineering Project Management. Jim worked intimately on the newest generation of GM’s full and mid-size pick up trucks and SUV’s, Jeep Wrangler, Gladiator and Grand Cherokee, Nissan Frontier, Rogue and Titan. Jim also worked closely with Toyota on an advanced concept Lexus LS AWD vehicle.

Finally, in 2019, Jim learned of the opportunity for an executive leadership position at ALD Thermal Treatment and jumped at the opportunity. Coincidently, his boss at ALD used to work for him at BorgWarner Germany.