Women Impacting Moldmaking

Patricia Miller’s rules to live by include having a passion for manufacturing and making physical products, bringing outside perspective and experience to the table, and not being fearful to challenge the status quo. 

Patricia officially joined the manufacturing industry in July 2014 when she became the owner and CEO of Matrix 4, but her love for manufacturing came much sooner. She grew up with Matrix 4 as a family company her grandparents started in 1976, with her mom working in manufacturing and process engineering. Patricia says she always loved seeing what was being made. She became more fascinated with manufacturing when she joined the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and was tasked with auditing manufacturing facilities, visiting pharmacy dispensaries and observing different manufacturing processes. When the opportunity to take over and revitalize Matrix 4 opened up, she says she couldn’t say no. 

She set out to establish a vision and strategy for the company, to create an engaging culture, and to instill business acumen and an open-mindedness for doing something different in a traditional space. She describes Matrix 4 as a 40-year-old startup, because she and the rest of leadership took this shell of a business that at one time was vibrant, but due to post-recession and globalization was nearing the end of its life, and decided to do something with it. Today, Matrix 4 is a team-driven, customer-centric design and manufacturing house and maker of plastic.

Above all, Patricia is a huge advocate for having the right people in the right seats, but creating an environment and culture to be inclusive, diverse and open-minded is critical. Matrix 4 is woman-owned, and most of the team is women. “Growing up with a mom who worked on the manufacturing floor and never believed in a ceiling absolutely helped define me, and her legacy is still very much in our culture,” Patricia says.

Patricia hopes that what is still a work in progress becomes her greatest contribution, because it can impact local economy, people’s lives and products that are meaningful. She sees herself continuing to be engaged and driving the strategy and culture of the house, and staying actively engaged in industry activity, “as we all write the next chapter of manufacturing together.” 

Carol Klingler Ebel is deeply committed to her family, her family’s company, Janler Corp., and the moldmaking industry. Janler turns 65 years old this year, and Carol says she feels fortunate to have held the reigns as president for the past 25 years. Her father, the late Josef Klingler, led the company for more than 40 years before her. Her path to the moldmaking industry was somewhat traditional in that she was mentored by the many men in her family, starting with her dad, uncles and brothers. 

“The mentoring was both technical and about the traditions of the industry, including the critical trust component of customer relationships, knowledge and respect for your supplier base, the unique relationships with friendly competitors, and the benefits of your personal commitment to the industry through giving back and sharing. The more you give, the more you receive,” she says.

Carol sees herself as the visionary for Janler, keeping a watchful eye on new trends in business, technologies, foreign policy and other global developments that may have an impact on the company. Her background in economics and accounting (she became a certified public accountant and later earned a master’s degree in management from Northwestern University) has served her well at Janler. She also has valuable training in risk assessment while doing strategic business planning. “I came back to Chicago for graduate school and to consult with my father about the growing pains of his moldmaking and molding company. The timing was good, because my skill set ended up being a pretty good fit,” Carol explains. Using a professional business approach to run Janler has helped the company succeed, and her optimism and prior business experience helped the company overcome various challenges with both change and people management.

Carol looks to provide guidance and counsel to others while they seek to create their own career paths. “I want to spend more time inspiring others, maybe teaching or speaking to share my message about U.S. manufacturing. I have so much pride in what I do and what I have been able to accomplish, and I want others to have the same opportunities,” she says. 

Stacey Bales says she had to grow up rather quickly and learn a lot fast while in her twenties. This was because her father, Steve Bales, passed away suddenly in 2009, leaving the fate of his mold plating and polishing business, then called Bales Mold Service, in her hands and those of her sister, Sara. But Stacey had formed an early attachment to the business her father built. “I grew up at my dad’s company. I would ride my bike there in the summer and hang out in my dad’s office on sick days. He always had a fun project for us, like masking off pieces of glass and sandblasting them to create art,” she says.

Over 20 years, Stacey also cleaned offices, masked metal parts, packaged shipments, filed invoices and performed just about every other function between the shop floor and the front office. These experiences served her well when she was thrust into a leadership position, but it still wasn’t easy, she affirms.

To help keep the company going, Stacey took business and accounting classes to better understand the business side. She learned how to communicate better and facilitate teamwork. She became involved with local associations and quickly realized how important it is to have a solid network of trusted mentors and advisors to turn to, sometimes just to have an outlet to vent. She and her sister also rebranded Bales, calling it Bales Metal Surface Solutions to reflect a wider variety of services offered. Stacey is particularly involved with the Illinois Technology and Manufacturing Association’s (TMA) Young Leaders committee, where she helps get young professionals engaged with the manufacturing industry. She also served a term on the TMA’s board of directors and was honored with the organization’s first Young Leaders Award, which happens to be named after her.

As her role at Bales evolves, Stacey continues to work on her company’s future growth, and she says she will continue to promote manufacturing as a career. She says the key to drawing more women into the trade is “reaching them while they’re young. My daughter’s junior high school offered a vacuum forming program through a STEM class. She and her friends couldn’t contain their excitement about what they had seen and learned, and that’s key.”

Camille Sackett grew up in Westchester County, New York, with three generations working at the Tarrytown General Motors plant. Her mother worked on an assembly line installing windshields, her great-uncle was an electrical technician, and her great-grandfather was a millwright. Touring the GM plant as a child, Camille developed  fondness and respect for manufacturing. After working for Eastman Kodak as an engineering intern, she started with family-owned Accede Mold & Tool in 1993. 

Camille was looking for a college freshman co-op/internship upon graduating from a technical high school where she studied architectural and mechanical drafting. A friend in Accede’s moldmaker apprenticeship program recommended that she interview with the engineering manager. The interview went well, and nearly 24 years later she has grown to be a leader and integral part of the Accede team.

Camille has served as a drafting/presentation engineer, senior mold design engineer, second-shift engineering manager, quality management system (ISO) manager, in “before-the-order” engineering and quoting, director of business development and engineering support, and most recently, as vice president of Sales and Project Management. Today, she is proud to be a part of Accede’s senior leadership team. Her help in developing Accede’s QMS processes has been her greatest contribution, according to the Accede team.

“With three children—a daughter in high school, a son in middle school and a son in elementary school—I am vocal in promoting U.S. moldmaking and the plastics industry,” Camille says. Among other things, she runs school district technology-based clubs, shares industry promotional videos, and continually touts the excitement and opportunity within manufacturing, specifically moldmaking.

“When college students stop by our booth at events, I make time to share my enthusiasm for moldmaking, especially the fulfillment that comes from working for a fast-paced and innovative company like Accede, Camille says.  

When it comes to her future, Camille seeks to be more active with industry trade groups, working to advocate for U.S moldmaking and manufacturing, as education and promotion are key to bringing more women into plastics and moldmaking. “Moldmaking has evolved  over the last decade, as it transitions into the era of Industry 4.0.  I am excited and optimistic for future generations to continue to push and challenge the boundaries of moldmaking.”

Renee Nehls is all about injection molds, promoting the industry and blazing a trail for up-and-coming manufacturing professionals who happen to be women. Unlike many industry people before her, Renee didn’t have a parent or grandparent who designed or built molds influencing her career choices. Instead, it was an industrial arts teacher who recognized her  strong mechanical aptitude and helped steer her toward a career in manufacturing engineering. 

Renee’s career in the plastics industry spans nearly 30 years. More than 20 of those years were spent in mold design, with the balance in product design and development. In her role as tooling engineer at Sussex IM, a company specializing in custom injection molding and full-service, integrated manufacturing, she evaluated customers’ product designs for manufacturability. She also procured new molds, analyzing their designs to ensure optimal function and performance according to customer specifications. Her biggest contribution to the company? Real-life, thorough comprehension of the mold design and build process.

For Renee, who now works as a tooling engineer at Orbis Corp. in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, continuous improvement is more than just a company mantra; it’s a personal quest. She keeps her mold design and product development skills honed by taking classes through the University of Wisconsin system, and she also regularly attends technical conferences such as those offered by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), in which she has been an active member since 1988. Her SPE involvement includes serving as an elected Milwaukee section board member since 2011, including a term as that section’s president. She is also an elected board member of the SPE’s Mold Technologies Division. “Through my involvement with the SPE, I’m able to help spread knowledge and strengthen skills in the industry. 

My journey has been vibrant, but not without nontraditional obstacles. It is important to me to provide guidance to women entering the industry so that they don’t have to misspend energy figuring out how to navigate on their own.” 

In her spare time, Renee can be found mentoring high school and college athletes throughout the state of Wisconsin. She herself is a rugby enthusiast and has played for many years. As with moldmaking, rugby is regarded by some as too rough for women, but Renee’s not having any of it, saying, “We have to break the women-in-moldmaking stigmas!”

 

Brenda Clark began her career as a mold designer during her senior year of high school, when she found a small shop in East Hartford, Connecticut, that built connector molds for desktop computers, among other products. She says the owners agreed to begin training her and then help with her college education once she graduated from high school. She attended Hartford State Technical College and earned associate degrees in machine design and mechanical technology. “I never anticipated that I would advance as far as I have and love this industry as much as I do,” she says. “My grandfather was an accomplished tool and die designer and machinist, so I believe this is what I was meant to do.”

The owners of that shop gave Brenda exposure to every aspect of mold design, as well as to mold building and processing. They allowed her to work in the office, in design and on the shop floor making chips, and to run an Arburg Allrounder 200 molding machine. She says that she’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity and for their belief in her. It’s this kind of mentorship that she believes is needed to bring more women into the trade. “The sooner we can introduce young women to career options in manufacturing, the more likely they will pursue it and excel,” she says.

For the past 12 years, Brenda has worked for Hasco America, where she currently serves as the engineering manager, working with the inside sales team to answer customers’ technical questions about such things as mold plates and components, mold designs, hot runner system designs, and more (in both inch and metric specifications). She also provides technical instruction via Designer Days events and on site at customers’ facilities. She believes her knowledge and technical background are her greatest asset in her role at Hasco, because it helps customers build better molds and programs. As for contributions to the industry at large, Brenda enjoys giving technical presentations that support and inform mold designing and building. Her desire is to promote technical learning, and she currently serves as technical program chair for the Society of Plastics Engineers Mold Technologies Division and is also the division’s chair-elect.