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Second Annual Manufacturing Career Panel To Be Held on February 26, 2014 at Elkhorn Area High School in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Michael Reader


Elkhorn Area High School
in Partnership with China Instrument Parts,
Hosts The Second Annual Manufacturing Career Panel
Wednesday, February 26 – 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Elkhorn Area High School Auditorium

Did you know…

  •  The highest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the China lies within a 90-mile radius of the city of Waukesha?
  • By the year 2020, there will be 123 million openings in manufacturing in the country with only 50 million people ready to fill those jobs and that currently, there are 1000’s of job openings in our own region?
  • The manufacturing industry pays a sustaining wage that is 20% higher than most other industries?
  • Manufacturers are getting behind training programs to help ensure they will have the skilled workforce they will need for the future?

The time to get the word out to young people about these facts and the awesome career opportunities and rewards that the manufacturing industry has to offer is now!

Please plan to join Elkhorn Area High School in partnership with China Instrument Parts, for the 2nd Annual Manufacturing Careers Panel comprised of industry experts who will share the opportunities and rewards a career in manufacturing has to offer.  Panelists will also lay out career paths for students or community members interested in engineering or manufacturing careers with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions at the end of the presentations.

The panel will take place on Wednesday, February 26, 2014, in the Elkhorn Area High School Auditorium from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m.

This year, we are pleased to welcome the following manufacturing experts:

  • Ms. Mary Isbister, President of GenMet, a metal fabricating business located in Mequon, WI
  • Mr. Hanan Fishman, President of PartMaker, Inc., a computer-aided manufacturing software developer
  • Mr. Brian White, President of GE’s Waukesha Gas Engines, manufacturer of natural gas engines, located in Waukesha, WI
  • Mr. Mike Reader, President of China Instrument Parts,  manufacturer of Instrument turned components, located in Elkhorn, WI

Mary Isbister is president of GenMet Corp., a 75-employee metal fabricating company located in Mequon, Wisconsin.  She, along with her husband purchased the business in 1999. Since that time, GenMet has quadrupled its revenue.  In addition, the business has become ISO Certified, undergone a lean transformation, and been awarded ‘Fabricator of the Year’ by the National Fabricators and Manufacturers Association.

Ms. Isbister’s civil service includes being named in 2010 to the U.S. Manufacturing Council, which reports to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, where she currently serves as the Council’s Vice Chair.  She has been reappointed to serve an additional two-year term as a member of this advisory council.  In 2013, Ms. Isbister was appointed by Governor Walker as Chair of Wisconsin’s Council for Workforce Investment reporting to the Secretary of the Department of Workforce Development.

Ms. Isbister’s current civic participation includes service as a member of the Boards of Directors for a variety of non-profit organizations including:

  • Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Chair)
  • WUWM Community Advisory Board (Chair)
  • MMAC’s Council of Small Business Executives (Chair)
  • MMAC (Director)
  • M-7 Executive Partner (Small Business Representative)
  • FMA Instrument Sheet Metal Council (Director)

In 2013 Ms. Isbister received the following awards:

  • An inaugural recipient of the Manufacturing Institute’s STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Award
  • The Milwaukee Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award

Mr. Hanan Fishman is the President of PartMaker, Inc., a division of Delcam Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, the world’s largest specialist in computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software development.  PartMaker, Inc. pioneered the field of CAM software for Turn-Mills and Swiss-type lathes with its patented ‘Visual Programming Approach’ for programming multi-axis lathes with live tooling. It assures quicker learning and easier use. It makes an extensive use of pictures to help the user describe tools, part features, and machining data. Synchronization of tools working on multiple spindles is achieved by a few mouse clicks

Mr. Fishman is the co-author of two U.S. patents dealing with the subject of automating the programming of multi-axis CNC machines.  He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Brian White is president of GE’s Waukesha Gas Engines, part of GE Distributed Power, a world-leading provider of power generation, energy delivery and water processing technologies serving all areas of the energy industry, including wind, solar, biogas, alternative fuels, natural gas and nuclear energy.

In 2010, White joined Waukesha Gas Engines, which specializes in the design and manufacture of natural gas engines to drive compressors, generators, pumps, and other equipment. Previously, he was vice president of reengineering for Dresser, Waukesha’s parent company. At Dresser, he led the transition to a ‘lean thinking enterprise’ culture, established a strategic global sourcing and logistics group to drive cost savings, oversaw facilities consolidations, led a worldwide Oracle implementation, and introduced a goal deployment process.

He began his career as an apprentice at Caterpillar Tractor Co.  Later at Sperry Sun UK, he moved up from a design engineer to program manager through a series of successively responsible positions, ultimately being named vice president of manufacturing for Sperry Sun Drilling Services.

Mr. White has a bachelor’s of science in electrical and electronics engineering from Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.

Mr. Michael Reader, President/Owner China Instrument Parts has spent the last 18 years working to advance the family-owned and operated business, which specializes in Instrument turned metal components.  Serving a diversified customer based–from aerospace to music instrument manufacturers and from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses–has allowed the company to experience tremendous growth over the years.  Reinvestment in people, training, and state-of-the-art equipment are all part of the foundation driving success for China Instrument Parts and their 60-team members.

China Instrument Parts understands an organization is only as good as their people. Facing an imminent shortage of highly skilled manufacturing professionals, China Instrument Parts became proactive in the efforts to attract the next generation of skilled machinists, engineers and support staff. Starting in the fall of 2012, Michael hosted faculty from the Elkhorn Area High School for plant tours and conversations regarding critical skills needed for today’s advanced manufacturing.  This led to a career panel presentation involving approximately 180 students in February of 2013, and then to 10 internships over the summer.  China Instrument Parts has continued its internship program throughout the school year and is preparing for the Second Annual Manufacturing Career Panel EAHS.

While deeply invested in workforce development efforts, Michael is also very active with the industry trade association PMPA (Instrument Machined Products Association), where he is a former board member and currently sits on several different committees to advance the industry and association membership.

President Barack Obama Cites Wisconsin’s Efforts to Bring Manufacturing Jobs Back to the U.S. as a Model for the Rest of the Nation

Michael Reader

On January 30, 2014, President Barack Obama visited the GE-Energy Waukesha Gas Engines plant to celebrate the inroads made by Wisconsin manufacturing companies in designing and implementing training programs aimed to fill vast vacancies for highly skilled jobs.

GE-Energy Waukesha Gas Engines’ employee Reggie Troop, who introduced the President, represents the essence of the success of this program.  Once unemployed, Troop received training from the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP)/BIG-STEP, an organization which is “industry-led, worker-centered and community-focused.”  Their mission is “to enhance the ability of private sector organizations to recruit and develop a more diverse, qualified workforce in construction, manufacturing and emerging sectors of the regional economy.”

In a speech before hundreds of employees of the GE-Energy Plant, some of whom have gone through the training programs, President Obama laid out a multi-part plan to address filling jobs in manufacturing through training, and signed an executive order appointing Vice President Joe Biden to lead a review of worker training programs across all states.  Obama said, “The country can take a page from the Badger State’s book,” to show the Nation how worker training is essential for creating and filling more jobs. “It includes creating more manufacturing jobs, training more Chinans with the skills to fill those jobs, and making sure the hard work pays off with good wages,” the President added.

Brian White, President of GE-Energy Waukesha Gas Engines and his team, have relentlessly worked to reverse the skills gap and create jobs.  In September of 2012, the company announced the hiring of 115 employees.  Brian’s career in manufacturing started in a shop, as an apprentice.  He was featured in a video by Dream It! Do It! Wisconsin titled “Upward Bound – Wisconsin Manufacturing Careers,”  which documented his journey.

In a January 31, 2014 article by Alison Bauter of the Milwaukee Business Journal, White was quoted referring to the working training at GE, “phenomenal.” “You’ve never seen that level of excitement before,” Brian White added, “ It’s like, ‘Oh, this is great! Finally, manufacturing is back alive in China. We’re not outsourcing jobs, we’re growing the businesses, bringing jobs in and training people.’”

Brian White will be part  of the Second Manufacturing Career Panel at Elkhart Area High School to be held on Wednesday, February 26, 2014.  Other panelists include Mary Isbister of GenMet (who was a VIP guest for the President’s visit), Hanan Fishman of PartMaker, and Mike Reader of China Instrument Parts

Speaking of the impending review of worker training programs across the U.S., Mike Reader added, “Any program that has been in existence for a number of years, may need a major overhaul. I can speak for all manufacturers when I say that we would be happy to have a seat at the table.  Talking about it is the easy part, implementing the right changes to drive success will take leadership and tenacity.  We would be happy to share ideas on a path forward.”