Talking Industrial Automation

After 30 years of experience in industrial solution leadership -- ranging from greenfield design and engineering to custom specialized solutions -- Alex Pool launched Masked Owl Technologies.   As President of this SI startup, he uses his decades of experience in a diverse technology and automation landscape -- from the destruction of WWII-era chemical weapons to sequencing paper into NYC's local...

Can we be solving hard problems that make the economy work better? That make the world a more efficient place? Those are the questions that inspired Adam Gluck to leave his engineering job at Uber and found Copia Automation, which brings modern DevOps tooling to industrial automation, standardizing processes to drive quality, efficency, and uptime at scale. Hear all about the past, present and fut...

It's not often that an industrial autlomation podcast features a rockstar as a guest -- but it's happening today.  Sandy Gennaro -- former drummer for bands as diverse as The Monkees to Joan Jett to Cyndi Lauper -- is here to tell you about his lessons learned from life on the road and other musings. Full disclosure: He is also a keynote speaker for the upcoming CSIA Conference, where he will parl...

Meet Ken Hackett, who is Director of Business Development for General Control Systems. In this role, he uses his 30 years of expertise in engineering design, sales, service, and installation of process controls, instrumentation, and electrical systems to partner with clients in the life sciences, industrial, and food beverage sectors. In addition, for the past three years, he has served as Preside...

We are doing something a little different with this episode of Talking Industrial Automation because TIA host Lisa Richter was invited to be a guest on the Rivergate Marketing Podcast,  produced by Rivergate Marketing, a full-service digital marketing company and CSIA member. This episode touches on a little bit about a lot of things – from marketing to the CSIA Conference to the upcoming CSIA Mak...

Over the course of three decades, Dave Bader, who is Vice President of Business Development at Eurotech, has been involved in several automation revolutions including the evangelism of artificial intelligence at the edge, industrial IoT, and autonomous mobile robotics for industrial and warehouse applications. Serving as the Head of Sales, National Business Develop Manager, National Sales Manager,...

Finding a role that allowed her to advance her technical skills while also progessing her career was exactly what Karen Griffin was looking for when she landed at Hargrove Controls and Automations.  She went on to serve in various automation roles over the next 10 years such as engineering leader, main automation contractor program sponsor, senior program manager and controls and automation engine...

With more than 18 years of experience in industrial automation with a focus on Open Control, IIoT Industry 4.0, Networking and Cybersecurity, Ira Sharp, director of product marketing automation at Phoenix Contact USA, has seen a few things.  Based on this experience -- and his  active digital presence as a LinkedIn Content creator focused on automation -- Ira share's his thoughhts on where the ind...

Joining the company just one year after inception, Ben Durbin has climbed through the Cybertrol Engineering ranks to the top spot: CEO. Along the way he's gained on-the-job experience in every corner of the business -- from programming to sales. Hear about his career journey -- and his advice for newer folks -- in this episode of Talking Industrial Automation.

After decades of living in the same ecosystem, WIN-911 and SyTech merged to form SmartSights, blending the best of both and triggering a fresh look, brand and approach. Hear all about it in this episode of Talking Industrial Automation from SmartSights CEO Greg Jackson. Greg also reveals what he has learned from his experience as a strategic leader with a unique blend of 30 plus years' experience...

Frustrated with the lack of tools to reliably communicate among different process areas, Andrew Thomas decided to do something about it. So in 1995, he and a partner developed real-time communication software that resulted in a program called Cogent Real Time Systems. Over the following two-plus decades, he continued to reiterate eventually resulting in what is now called Skkynet -- a platform tha...

For many CSIA members, the Best Practices Manual is THE reason they joined the association -- and for good reason. The BP Manual  Best Practices Manual is the most comprehensive collection of best practices within a system integrators industry. This crowdsourced, comprehensive document -- written by integrators for integrators -- represented hundreds of hours of collective wisdom going back to the...

"People are like an unstable PID loop," jokes Keith Mandachit of Huffman Engineering in this episode of Talking Industrial Automation. Hear what else he and his fellow panelists Andrew Palmberg (Technical Systems Inc) and Becca Johnson (Gray Solutions) share about growing into a leadership role during the encore presentation. (This content originally appeared on the  www.controlsys.org website as...

Dino Busalachi is CTO and Co-Founder of Velta Technology, a company that provides digital safety as a service. Dino has close to 4 decades of global experience across information technology, engineering, and industrial control systems with multiple globally-recognized brands including Rockwell Automation, Anheuser-Busch, American Standard, and General Motors.   

Drawing on her experience as a certified speaking professional and best selling author, Lisa Ryan offers some advice for companies that want to retain talent and build a company culture that makes employees  want to stay. Along the way, she also gives some tips on public speaking, networking and navigating social awkwardness.  If you want to hear more from Lisa, she will be one of the CSIA Executi...

Since April 2019, Stratus has completely revamped its partner ecosystem and the programs that support it, providing greater benefits to the partners while driving double digit growth for Stratus reports Mike Bradshaw, Senior Director - Global Channels and Partner Ecosystem. He explains why in this episode as well as revealing why his kids think he is a spy!

A former colleague once called Theresa Benson "corporate spackle" because she comes in and fills in the gaps quickly, diagnosing issues and moving people forward in the face of ambiguity. As a product storyteller and strategist with over 20 years of experience in high tech, Thersa is currently helping her clients understands what makes something valuable and then helps them tell their story in the...

A former colleague once called Theresa Benson "corporate spackle" because she comes in and fills in the gaps quickly, diagnosing issues and moving people forward in the face of ambiguity. As a product storyteller and strategist with over 20 years of experience in high tech, Thersa is currently helping her clients understands what makes something valuable and then helps them tell their story in the...

As hosts of Automation Ladies -- the only podcast -- that we know of -- where women (mostly) talk about Industrial Automation, Alicia Gilpin (Ali G.) and Nikki Gonzales provide a unique perspective on the industrial automation industry. For their day jobs, Ali G. is owner of Process and Controls Engineering LLC. while Nikki is is building an online marketplace and workflow automation platform for...

As hosts of Automation Ladies -- the only podcast -- that we know of -- where women (mostly) talk about Industrial Automation, Alicia Gilpin (Ali G.) and Nikki Gonzales provide a unique perspective on the industrial automation industry. For their day jobs, Ali G. is owner of Process and Controls Engineering LLC. while Nikki is is building an online marketplace and workflow automation platform for...

In this episode, we're talking industrial automation as usual but instead of hearing from one or two guests, you're going to get to hear from a lot of them – hot mike style-ish because I grabbed random 2022 Rockwell Automation Fair attendees as they stopped by the CSIA booth and hit record. So what you are about to listen to is a series of micro-interviews from people in all kinds of roles from ar...

Daren Dieleman parlayed a background in accounting and finance into a 10-year career with a worldwide system integration firm, Interstates. He spent most of that time leading the automation delivery teams, but recently he transitioned to a senior leadership role driving company strategy and strategic partnerships.  Hear more about Daren -- including his dream job -- in this episode of Talking Indu...

Fresh out of college, Dan Barrera had three offers -- including his dream job. But he turned it down for one with an automation company. And he's never looked back. Today is is a product manager at Bosch Rexroth where he is product manager for one of the company's latest controls platform: ctrlX AUTOMATION. Hear about his journey and why he is so passionate about the industry in this episode of Ta...

Technology enthusiast and entrepreneur Shawn Tierney took two decades of experience as an automation specialist and turned it into content development and training business with more than  75,000 followers across his blog, podcast and YouTube platforms. Hear how and why he built this whole new career in industrial automation in this episode.

After moving their family out of state to start Huffman Engineering based on a PO, Wendy and Howard Huffman were handed a piece of paper that said the project they left everythy for was cancelled. But despite that setback -- and early Hot Stove Lession -- the Huffmans went on to spend the next three decades building a business they can feel proud of.  Hear about their journey, core values and succ...