IMEC’s team had award winners in 3 out of 10 categories while competing against 60 other centers for recognition. The Manufacturing Innovations Awards celebrate the achievements of outstanding individuals, teams, and organizations that have gone above and beyond to make significant impacts on U.S. manufacturing. The MEP Conference is a gathering of representatives from all of the MEP Centers in the nationwide network to collaborate and continue building a strong U.S. manufacturing sector.
Manufacturing Specialist Greg Thompson was named "Practitioner of the Year" for delivering effective solutions to a diverse group of Illinois manufacturers. His knowledge in continuous improvement, quick response manufacturing, and supply chain are cornerstones to exemplary client satisfaction ratings and impactful business outcomes.
Marketing Coordinator Amy Fitzgerald was named “Unsung Hero” for her efforts to market IMEC’s services and for providing small and mid-sized Illinois manufacturers with information, decision-support, and business intelligence. "Amy has almost singlehandedly grown IMEC's event marketing platform from a few select quarterly activities, to an extensive, diverse group of value added presentations," said Tucker Kennedy, formerly VP of Marketing for IMEC who nominated Fitzgerald for the award.. "She embodies the core MEP value of service; to the IMEC staff, and its manufacturing customers and stakeholders. She is very deserving of this national recognition."
Steve Parsons, Mary Hallock, Greg Thompson, Steve Barnhart, Don Shaner and Sherri Schulz were named “Innovator of the Year SK Hand Tool Project Team.” By taking on a challenging start-up project and exceeding the client’s expectations, this group has kept a U.S brand in circulation, kept the company in America, and created 40 high wage jobs.
IMEC has an extremely talented team of creative problem-solvers who greatly deserve this national recognition. It has been found that manufacturers assisted by IMEC achieve sales and cost saving benefits more than four times greater than firms that do not receive similar help. With these results being typical, IMEC is greatly anticipating next year’s MEP Innovation Conference.
