The start of a new year means fresh faces on our Executive Committee and Board of Directors. These influential professionals who are committed to driving innovation and growth in the manufacturing sector are of critical importance to the future of small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) in the 12-county southwestern Pennsylvania region.
As one of the largest Industrial Resource Centers in Pennsylvania and one of the country’s leading Manufacturing Extension Partnership Affiliates, we rely on our Executive Committee and Board members’ knowledge and experience to help us fulfill our mission of advancing the performance of manufacturing companies in southwestern Pennsylvania.
In 2022, the most recent year for which we have data, we worked with more than 200 companies that generated more than $15 million in sales and $12 million in cost savings, nearly 200 jobs created, and more than 500 jobs retained.
To help ensure that our consulting services continue to meet the needs of SMMs, we are proud to have these outstanding individuals on our Executive Committee and Board:
Tricia Breeger, Chair, has moved up from the Vice Chair position. She is CEO and President of Mitsubishi Electronic Power Products, Inc. (MEPPI) in Warrendale. In her two years of leading MEPPI, Breeger has been spearheading business strategy, growth, and development while transitioning the company toward digitization and decarbonization. She has held a variety of executive and management positions since joining MEPPI in 2000.
Breeger holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from Robert Morris University.
Assuming Breeger’s previous role is Doug Gudenburr, Chief Operating Officer of DMI Companies, a Charleroi-based leader in HVAC products, services, and design. He has been with DMI (the parent company of Ductmate Industries) for more than 40 years. During that time, he has been heavily involved with product development and has been named in seven U.S. and international patents. As a strong believer in workforce development, Gudenberr has been active implementing DMI’s workforce development programs.
Supporting Breeger and Gudenberr in their new leadership roles are George Dickos, Secretary, and Guy Natale, Treasurer, who continue their valuable service on the Committee. Dickos is a partner in the law firm of K&L Gates and Natale is a partner in the accounting firm of Baker Tilly.
Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors has six new members.
Emily Riggs Korn is president of Somerset (PA) Welding & Steel, which makes J&J Truck Bodies and Trailers. She also co-owns the parent company, Riggs Industries, a third-generation family business that specializes in the design, fabrication, construction, and maintenance of industrial facilities and equipment. Korn is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees.
Pete Morgan leads Benshaw’s North American operations. He has an engineering degree from the University of Pittsburgh and has spent his career involved in the motor control industry, including three years working in the United Kingdom. Although Morgan’s specialty is engineering and operations, he also has a strong background in customer service and supply chain management.
Patti-Ann Kanterman is CFO of Associated Ceramics & Technology, Inc. in Sarver, PA. The company engineers complex ceramic parts. She has been employed there since 1991 and ascended to her current position in 2010. Kanterman performs accounting and tax services for Associated and for Texas Technical Ceramics, a sister company in the Lone Star State. She also oversees HR and IT function for both companies and developed most of Associated Ceramics’ ERP system.
Kanterman graduated from CMU with a degree in Information and Decision Systems with High University Honor. When she decided that she wanted to add accounting to her skill set, she returned to LaRoche College, where she took the necessary classes to sit for and pass the CPA exam.
Her board experience includes Butler Health System, for which she just concluded a four-year stint as Board Chair. She has also served on the Endowment for Butler County board for more than 20 years and has been treasurer of her church for 15 years.
Suneil Mandava is the founder and CEO of Mobile Aspects, a global healthcare company that helps hospitals become safer and more efficient. Exposed early in his career to the potential for improving inefficient and time-consuming processes within the healthcare industry, Mandava founded the company to address those issues through radio frequency identification technology (RFID) data capture and tracking.
Today, Mobile Aspects, based on Pittsburgh’s South Side, collects and analyzes information to create innovative clinical and financial improvements that help healthcare providers optimize patient safety and deliver more efficient patient care. The top academic hospitals in the United States, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Penn Medicine, UPMC, and NYU use Mobile Aspects solutions.
Mandava holds 11 U. S. patents in RFID and healthcare. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a degree in Biomedical Engineering.
Victor Mroczkowski is Executive Vice President of Operations, Re:Build Manufacturing in New Kensington. He oversees a family of industrial businesses that combine innovative technologies, operational superiority, and strategic mergers and acquisitions to build America’s next generation industrial companies serving high-growth, innovation-driven industries such as energy, life sciences, robotics, electric mobility, satellite communication, and aerospace.
With extensive leadership experience in the military, and in the aviation and aerospace industry, he has a wealth of expertise in strategy, operations management, continuous improvement, manufacturing engineering, and logistics management.
John Tkach is Executive Director of Keystone Development Partners, a non-profit organization founded by the AFL-CIO nearly 20 years ago with a mission to create labor management and workforce development programs that serve local communities. He has substantial experience developing data-driven training programs and industry partnerships and leads initiatives that create new registered apprenticeship programs.
To see who else serves on our Board of Directors, visit this page
We are grateful to the individuals who give generously of their talents and time to serve on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. With their guidance, SMMs in southwestern Pennsylvania are heading toward a bright future.
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