Published on: October 4, 2019 by Blair Haas
As regular readers of our blog may remember, Bud Industries celebrated its 90th anniversary last year. We think it is a truly amazing milestone for a company that is in the tech industry and prides itself on products that serves such cutting edge markets as lighting, IoT, telecommunications, and especially industrial automation. We are still owned by the founder’s family and have enjoyed four generations of the family participating in the business. In the day-to-day business, we sometimes take a few minutes to thank those who have literally devoted their lives to our company and this year has been an especially notable one. In 2019, we have been blessed with 2 of our team who celebrated 45 years with us and 5 who reached 40 years. They populate all areas of the business and their efforts really tell our story.
On April 19th, George Helsius marked his 45th with Bud. George came to us at 19 and worked on various pieces of equipment in our factory before joining the office staff as an estimator. Today he is our Strategic Projects manager overseeing key aspects of our fast growing modified/custom business. Also at 45 years is Greg Haas, the grandson of our founder, Max Haas. Greg is VP of materials and also has held many slots within the company and today is responsible for both purchasing and production planning as well as his other leadership duties. He is our go-to guy to get things done and satisfy the customer’s needs.
At 40 years, the first is John Burbol. John is a welder and has helped us as we have evolved our technology through the years. His work on our large racks has helped make us a top producer of server racks. Debbie Swanson works in assembly and is our go-to person for insuring that the products receive that final check before they go into stock, often stopping production when products don’t meet her standards. Duane Berhent is in our drafting/engineering department and has been very involved in leading our drive into modified and custom business insuring that each product is properly developed for production. Gary Pesta has long worked in our shipping department and today is in charge of our cycle count and location systems. He makes sure that the products are ready to go when the customer needs them. Last, but not least, is Walt Rom who also has worked in a variety of areas and today operates our VMC which is a key piece of equipment in our five day modification program. He has also been actively involved as we add robotics to his area, evolving as we upgrade technology.
These people have lived their lives with us, some have met spouses here, some have had children join them on our team, and all have impacted and motivated those who work with them and are truly crucial to our success. We know you join us as we celebrate their careers so far and are delighted them several have told us their goal is to get to 50!
