Manufacturing and supply chain solutions leadership on two continents.

Two regional presidents have been appointeed by Quickparts as part of a broader strategic initiative to accelerate growth, enhance customer responsiveness, and strengthen its global operations. 

Peter Jacobsen (top)
and Aidan O'Sullivan

Peter Jacobsen has been appointed President, EMEA, and Aidan O'Sullivan has been named President, Americas. Both executives bring extensive leadership experience in advanced manufacturing, operational excellence, and strategic business transformation, positioning Quickparts to meet the evolving needs of customers across industries.

“Quickparts has always been at the forefront of helping companies innovate and scale their manufacturing operations quickly and reliably,” said Avi Reichental, Chief Executive Officer of Quickparts. “With Aidan and Peter leading our regional organisations, we are empowering our teams to deliver faster decision-making, deeper customer partnerships, and greater operational agility. Their leadership will help drive the next phase of growth for Quickparts as we continue expanding our capabilities and market reach.”

• Peter Jacobsen, based in Denmark, brings over 15 years of experience managing complex operations, strategic growth initiatives, and business transformations across Europe and the United States. Before joining Quickparts, Jacobsen served as General Manager for Nexa3D’s EMEA operations and was previously Chief Operating Officer at Addifab. His deep expertise in advanced manufacturing technologies and operational leadership will be instrumental in driving Quickparts’ continued success across the EMEA region. 

“I am honoured to lead Quickparts' EMEA operations and help strengthen our global capabilities," he said. "Quickparts has a powerful reputation for innovation, customer service, and manufacturing excellence. I am eager to collaborate with our teams and customers across the region to unlock new opportunities and deliver exceptional value.”

• Aidan O'Sullivan, based in the United States, brings more than 20 years of manufacturing, operations, and commercial leadership experience. Most recently, O'Sullivan served as Quickparts’ Chief Transformation Officer, where he played a key role in optimising operations and spearheading strategic growth initiatives. Prior to Quickparts, he held senior roles at Shapeways, including General Manager of E-commerce and Enterprise Sales and Vice President of Operations. Earlier in his career, O’Sullivan held operational leadership positions at Kerry Group, the Irish food group, overseeing multiple manufacturing sites and driving significant operational improvements and acquisition integrations. 

“I am excited to lead Quickparts' Americas operations at a time when manufacturing innovation and supply chain agility are more critical than ever," he said. "Our customers are navigating rapidly changing market conditions, and Quickparts is uniquely positioned to help them succeed with speed, scale, and quality. I look forward to deepening our customer relationships and building on our legacy of excellence.”

This regional leadership structure strengthens Quickparts’ ability to deliver best-in-class solutions across the full product lifecycle — from rapid prototyping and tooling to full-scale production — and further reinforces its position as a trusted partner in a rapidly evolving manufacturing and supply chain environment.

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@QuickpartsMFG @mepaxIntPR #Manufacturing

Accelerating Innovation!

Early bird registration discount for user conference.

Registration for the premier annual event for users, Emerson Exchange Americas (EMREX), to be held May 19-22, 2025, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, (TX USA) is now open. Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the early bird registration rate of $1,550.00, available up to April 14, 2025. After this date, regular registration costs $2,050.00, with single-day passes priced at $700.00.

“Emerson Exchange is much more than a technical conference; it’s a platform for collaboration, inspiration and innovation,” said Ron Martin, president, Americas at Emerson. “This year’s theme underscores our continued focus on helping organisations navigate the challenges of today’s quickly-changing automation landscape and drive meaningful transformation across critical industries.”

With the theme ‘Accelerating Innovation’, Emerson Exchange 2025 will bring together over 3,100 professionals from 300+ companies and 50+ countries to share knowledge, explore new technologies and foster valuable industry connections. The conference will feature nearly 300 sessions, offering a rich agenda that includes product roadmaps, user case studies, ‘Meet the Experts’ forums, interactive workshops, and hands-on training opportunities.

Emerson’s portfolio of solutions and services will take centre stage, including its Boundless AutomationSM vision for next-generation automation architectures. Experts will also showcase the latest advancements in industrial AI tools, asset management systems, valve and final control innovations, enterprise software, measurement instrumentation and more, with a full schedule of technical presentations and round-tables.

Speakers will cover topics relevant to a wide range of industries, including alternative energy, chemicals, life sciences, oil and gas, food and beverage, metals and mining, and pulp and paper. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with Emerson experts, learn from real-world success stories, interact with live product demos and collaborate with their peers.

The technology exhibition – a highlight of the conference – will provide an up-close look at recent innovations from Emerson’s leading brands, such as DeltaV™, Rosemount™, Fisher™ and Micro Motion™, as well as solutions from strategic third-party partners.

Registration includes access to all conference sessions, certified training (eligible for continuing education units), meals, exhibitions and social events.

Visit Emerson.com/Exchange2025 to learn more and register today.

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@Emerson_News @EmersonExchange @EMR_Automation @HHC_Lewis #PAuto

Fixed and portable gas and flame detection leadership.

New Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Americas announced.

Gerald V. Sims brings a wealth of experience in gas utilities and a strong track record in sales leadership, both of which will help Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection to continue increasing its market share in this important geographic market.

Gerald V. Sims

Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection has been broadening its presence in the Americas over many decades. The company has a US manufacturing site in Cypress, Texas (Teledyne Detcon), which for the past 40+ years has been providing the gas detection market with product solutions that include industrial-grade gas detectors, control systems, analyzers, and wireless technologies.

“Gerald will use his expertise and deep industry knowledge to play a pivotal role in maximizing our growth potential and enhancing the presence of our product brands across the Americas,” says Thibault Fourlegnie, Vice President and General Manager, Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection. “We’re excited to see the gains that Gerald can provide, not just for Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection, but also for our customers. After all, an even stronger Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection is beneficial for stakeholders up and down the supply chain, including distributors and end users.”

Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection has brought together technological innovation from Detcon - along with those from Oldham Simtronics and GMI - to provide customers around the world with an extensive range of fixed-point and portable gas detection solutions. Every second of every day, the company’s hazardous gas detection devices protect both workers and assets at workplaces in a wide variety of industries, including oil and gas, utilities, water/wastewater, power generation, food and beverage, and firefighting. Gerald will leverage his know-how and market understanding to bolster Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection’s position as the preferred choice for these sectors.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Gerald is a recognized leader in the business community, serving as Chairman on several industry associations. His contributions to advancing industry standards and practices are notable, making him a welcome addition to the Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection team.

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@mepaxIntPR #TeledyneGFD #PAuto #Safety

Champion resellers and service partners!

Seeq Corporation has announced its 2021 Reseller and Service Partners of the Year. These partners have been selected for their excellence in providing value to customers, their continued investments in technical expertise with their Seeq-certified employees and training professionals, and for creating awareness of Seeq through collaboration in marketing activities and events.

Seeq enables engineers and scientists in process manufacturing organizations to rapidly analyze, predict, collaborate, and share insights to improve production outcomes. Seeq customers include companies in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, mining, food and beverage, and other process industries. Investors in Seeq include Insight Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Altira Group, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Cisco Investments.

In 2021, Seeq announced a $50 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partners, was recognized by Frost & Sullivan’s North American Technology Innovation Leadership Award for Seeq Data Lab, and expanded its products and capabilities, including support for machine learning innovation.

“We are pleased to select four companies as our 2021 Reseller and Service Partners of the Year,” said Will Knight, Head of Worldwide Partner Sales at Seeq. “These awards recognize the impact these partners have on empowering our customers to create advanced analytics insights, and the standards they have set for excellence in delivering the next generation of process manufacturing improvements.”

Resellers of the Year Asia Pacific Nukon is Seeq’s 2021 Asia Pacific Partner of the Year. Nukon was selected among Seeq’s reselling partners for its focus on customer support and its tremendous growth in the Australian market, more than doubling its revenue over the previous year. The company provides a variety of OT and IT solutions and services to its clients in the consumer goods, infrastructure, utilities, and waste management industries.  “We’re honored to be selected as a Seeq Partner of the Year for the second year running,” says Alec Konynenburg, General Manager at Nukon. “Nukon prides itself on providing the best solutions for clients, and Seeq’s capability allows us to do this through their unique set of offerings. The Nukon and Seeq partnership is built on joint values and commitment to our customers, and we’re excited to continue to provide this value in 2022 and beyond.” Americas  Swan-Black is Seeq’s 2021 Americas Partner of the Year. Swan-Black was selected for its rapid growth in the Americas and globally, and its support for Seeq’s customers in the food and beverage and bioscience industries. Swan-Black has expertise in batch and continuous manufacturing processes, with a focus on applying advanced analytics to improve business outcomes.  “We are incredibly honored to be recognized by Seeq as Partner of the Year for the Americas,” says Joe Gardner, Practice Lead at Swan-Black. “The Seeq solution and the team’s support of our efforts empower us to deliver meaningful process data insights for our customers, leading to increased process efficiency and optimization. We look forward to our continued partnership with Seeq and the value it will bring our customers well into the future.” EMEA Crucial Solutions and Services (CSS) is Seeq’s 2021 EMEA Partner of the Year. CSS was selected for its support and leadership of Seeq’s customers in the Middle East, notably its collaboration on Saudi Aramco’s industrial digitalization initiatives. The company provides a variety of technology offerings to its clients in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and power and utilities industries.  “CSS is dedicated to providing customers with game-changing services and solutions that optimize their efficiency and enhance business growth,” says Sulaiman Alzuhair, Founder and CEO at CSS. “Seeq’s complementary products and capabilities enable CSS to achieve this mission and we are honored to be selected as the Seeq Partner of the Year for EMEA.” Service Partner of the Year BKO Services LLC is Seeq’s first Service Partner of the Year recipient. BKO was selected for its expertise in the oil and gas and power generation industries, its work on Shell’s upstream digital initiatives and Tranter’s use of advanced digital tools to manage its clients’ fleet of heat transfer equipment, and its investment in Seeq-certified employees. In 2021 alone, BKO added five certified partner analytics engineers and one certified instructor to its team. The company provides data engineering, machine learning, and OSIsoft application development services for the oil and gas, power, and other process manufacturing industries.  “As the true value of data analytics and machine learning become more apparent, technology must not only keep pace with the increasing availability of data, but effectively utilize it to improve operations and safety,” says Shaun Wright, CEO of BKO. “We are pleased and proud to be a Seeq partner and part of the radical mindset shift driving this rapidly emerging field of science and technology.”

Seeq’s worldwide growth is fueled in part by its partnerships and commitment to cloud-based computing. Seeq is available in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace, is an AWS Industrial and Energy Competency Partner, and supports many data storage services, including Amazon Redshift, S3, plus machine learning in SageMaker, and others.

On Microsoft Azure, Seeq has been available as a SaaS application in the Azure Marketplace since 2019, with support for many Azure cloud services including Synapse, Azure Data Lake, and Active Directory. Seeq also supports connectivity to Azure Data Explorer, Time Series Insights, and Power BI.

In addition to cloud partnerships, Seeq connects to an extensive set of data storage platforms from vendors including OSIsoft, Siemens, GE, Honeywell, Inductive Automation, AVEVA, AspenTech, Yokogawa, InfluxDB, Snowflake, and others.

@SeeqCorporation @BkoServices #PAuto 

Industrial communications leader appoints new head for the Americas.

Moxa has appointed Chad Chesney as president of Moxa Americas. Chesney has a diverse leadership background spanning nearly three decades leading cross-functional and strategic teams at NI (formerly National Instruments). He brings a wealth of operational and geographic experience to lead Moxa Americas and will focus on driving strategies and investments to achieve the company’s growth objectives, as well as serve customers’ needs in the region.

Chad Chesney

Chesney succeeds Frank Hou, who is taking on a new role at Moxa’s headquarters, focusing on propelling global channel management and excellence strategies for the company and its global partners.

“We are really excited and fortunate to have Chad on our team. His diverse skills and experiences in leading, transforming, and scaling operations will be key to Moxa’s growth and our customers’ continued success and experience,” said Michael Lin, president of the Regional Business Unit at Moxa. “I also would like to express gratitude, on behalf of the management team and the Board of Directors, to Frank for his contribution and successful leadership of Moxa Americas for the past five years, and champion his commitment to his new role of advancing Moxa’s global channel business.”

"Moxa is at the forefront of industrial communications and networking and delivers secure and reliable connectivity in our customer’s most rugged and critical environments,” said Chesney. “I’m proud to join Moxa’s diverse and talented team to create the connections for our customers that enable the Industrial Internet of Things.”

Before joining Moxa, he served as senior vice president and general manager of the Transportation Business Unit at NI, where he also held a variety of leadership roles in sales, marketing, and applications engineering, both in the US and Asia throughout his career. He received his degree in electrical engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he currently serves on the School of Engineering Committee of Visitors.

@MoxaInc @OConnell_PR #PAuto 

Catalogue of the year.

Mouser Electronics has received 2020 Americas e-Catalog Distributor of the Year, APS e-Catalog Distributor of the Year, and European e-Catalog Distributor of the Year honours from Molex. The global distributor has received the European award for three consecutive years and the Americas and APS (Asia-Pacific) awards for two years in a row.

Mouser received the e-Catalog Distributor of the Year awards for helping Molex achieve outstanding financial growth in e‑catalog sales, as well as for attaining significant customer growth for Molex in the regions.

“For several years, the Mouser team has exhibited consistently high performance, achieving exceptional sales growth and customer acquisition in every key region around the world,” said Fred Bell, Vice President of Global Distribution at Molex. “Mouser has played a key role in contributing to the overall success of Molex in key industries over the past year, and we look forward to continuing to build that momentum.”

“On behalf of Mouser, we are thrilled to win these prestigious awards. The strength and depth of our relationship with Molex has led to our mutual success, which is a testament to the exceptional hard work from our teams around the world,” said Jeff Newell, Senior Vice President of Products at Mouser Electronics. “Mouser continuously strives to offer our customers the widest selection of Molex products, and we’re proud to receive this award.”

• Mouser previously earned the Global e‑Catalog Distributor of the Year award in 2019, 2015, 2014, and 2013, the European and APS e-Catalog Distributor of the Year awards in 2019 and 2018, and the Americas e-Catalog Distributor of the Year award in 2019. Mouser Supplier Manager Tom Bila won the Molex MVP award for 2013 as well.

@MouserElecEU @MouserElec @MolexConnectors @Publitek #PAuto #Electrics

New VP for Industrial Process & Emissions.

Servomex has appointed Bob Heth as Vice President of Sales, Americas (Industrial Process & Emissions).

Bob Heth

Heth will report to Servomex’s Vice President for Global Sales, Luca Marinelli, who said: “Bob is a highly experienced sales expert with strong leadership skills, an impressive track record, and a customer-focused approach.

“His knowledge and understanding of the oil and gas markets and their challenges will inevitably benefit our clients. I’m delighted to welcome him to Servomex, and wish him continued success in the future.”

Based in Servomex’s US Business Center in Houston (TX USA), Heth will provide customers throughout the Americas region with the benefit of his expertise in key industrial markets. His leadership will support the delivery of effective sales solutions to client applications, through its network of representatives.

A graduate of Missouri State University, Heth also holds an MBA in Finance from Lindenwood University and has more than 30 years of sales experience in a range of positions from representative and manager, to sales operations and senior executive. He has worked in multiple industries, spending many years in the oil and gas markets, cultivating a reputation for innovation and success.

@Servomex  #PAuto #Americas

Automation group appoints a new CEO for America.

Shuji Mori, a company veteran who has been with Yokogawa for nearly three decades, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Yokogawa Corporation of America. In the role of CEO, He will be responsible for all day-to-day business operations in North America.

Shuji Mori

Mr. Mori began his career as an engineer, helping implement systems projects for Yokogawa customers all over the world. Over the years he has held a variety of roles throughout the company, most notably in global major account sales, and has acquired extensive experience in the global industrial automation market.

“The North American market is changing rapidly, and Yokogawa Corporation of America has huge growth potential in this strategically important region,” said Takashi Nishijima, President and CEO of Yokogawa Electric Corporation. “I am very confident that Yokogawa Corporation of America will become a stronger organization under his leadership and continue to focus on building a brighter future by creating value with our customers.”

“At the end of the day, all successful business is based on personal trust. We always aim to understand our customers first – their business goals, the challenges they face, and how their companies operate,” said Mr. Mori. “I will make every effort to ensure Yokogawa’s day-to-day operations in North America remain focused on generating new value with our customers and driving the growth of their businesses.”

@YokogawaIA  #PAuto 

Ultrasonic (US) sensors for the Americas!

The distributor for the America’s of  PIL’s new P53 Steel Head ultrasonic sensor, as well as other PIL sensor technologies is Hoffmann-Krippner.

Developed for use in demanding medical, pharmaceutical, food processing and industrial applications, the P53 Steelhead meets the guidelines of the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) and ensures optimum hygiene in applications where frequent cleaning processes are required. Typical applications are the food and beverage industry, the medical and pharmaceutical industry, the chemical and the filling and packaging industry. Steelhead Ultrasonic sensors are also used for detecting filling levels of bulk solids, paste or liquid, as well as for recognition and counting of objects.

Incorporating a robust, fully encapsulated stainless steel housing with gapless transitions, the PIL P53 Steel Head provides IP68 / IP69K protection. Impervious to water vapor, moisture and dust, Steel Head sensors can withstand high pressure and steam jet cleaning. Their resistance to aggressive chemical cleaning agents is certified to Ecolab standards. The P53 provides a choice of output options – a standard analog 0-10V / 4-20mA output or two switching outputs. In addition to these fixed settings, the P53 series can be programmed for various other custom settings.

Ultrasonic distance sensors are often used in harsh, industrial environments because they are independent of the material and the color of the object to be measured and are not affected by light, dust and fog. They function very precisely and linearly with background suppression. Ultrasonic sensors use an ultrasonic transducer to send and receive sound waves. Specially coded ultrasonic signals are transmitted in a set pattern, and, after being reflected from the object to be measured, the signals are received by the sensor and decoded. The recorded time of flight is temperature compensated and converted to distance data. 

“PIL’s Steelhead Ultrasonic sensor is the most durable and hygienic ultrasonic sensor on the market due to its completely encapsulated gap free housing and its ultra smooth surface,” says Jens Kautzor, CEO of Hoffmann Krippner US.  “We are proud to represent PIL in the Americas as PIL, with  over 25 years of experience, offers the industry’s highest quality and most accurate ultrasonic sensors for a diverse range of real world applications.”

Control system integrator industry’s digital marketing performance.

Authentia has published an important and comprehensive study of the control system integrator industry’s digital marketing performance. Many industrial/manufacturing industries lag behind in their adoption of modern digital marketing practices, largely due to target demographics that have been slow to embrace social media and mobile computing. This has especially been the case in the control system integrator industry. However, with digital trends accelerating and workforce demographics rapidly changing, businesses are being forced to adapt quickly.

Click image to download report

Authentia randomly selected 100 North American control system integrators and assessed their digital marketing effectiveness against 32 separate criteria. The results indicate areas of opportunity for control system integrators to take advantage of industry-wide latencies. Owners, business developers, and marketing professionals will find this information valuable in assessing their own efforts and opportunities against their peers and competitors.

Is Industrial Automation and Manufacturing Behind the Digital Marketing Curve? Article on International Society of Automation's Interchange blog where Joel Don talks about this report. (8th June 2015)

“With my background in industrial controls and leadership positions in the International Society of Automation (ISA), control system integrators are near and dear to my heart,” said Authentia Strategic Marketing Consultant Jon DiPietro. “I have many friends and colleagues who work in that industry. Over the past few years, I’ve conducted dozens of digital marketing assessments for control system integrators and other automation companies. I thought it would be interesting to conduct an industry-wide assessment and see how the industry as a whole is adapting to digital marketing trends.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Websites are outdated in terms of messaging and technology:
• 79% of CSI websites we analyzed make site visits from a mobile device difficult or impossible, alienating nearly half of their web visitors.
• 48% of the website cannot easily change site content or even enable blogging, as they do not use a Content Management System (CMS).
• 45% of all sites studied make no attempt to establish trust with site visitors through the use of social proof, such as testimonials, awards, certifications, memberships, etc.

Search engine marketing is nearly non-existent in the industry:

• 3% of websites surveyed were determined to be paying for advertisements on search engines.
• 85% of CSI websites had a Domain Authority below 40, which is a measure of how much clout a website carries with search engines.
• 42% of websites did not have any analytics operating which track their performance.

The industry has not yet adopted content marketing as a strategy:

• 67% of those studied do not list or promote social media accounts, such as Facebook or LinkedIn
• 65% of websites have no blog or news feed.
• 12% had a blog and published industry-focused content (as opposed to company news).
• 88% of websites surveyed did not incorporate social sharing buttons, making their content difficult to find and share.

There are very few mechanisms in place to interact with prospects:

• 2% of websites were connected to a marketing automation tool.
• 84% of websites surveyed did not utilize visible call-to-action buttons.
• 95% of websites failed to use landing pages, which contain an offer designed to collect information from prospects.