30 Under 30 Bonus: Highlighting Additional Next-Generation Moldmaking Professionals

Edro Specialty Steels (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania)

Michael Muthoka, Project Engineer

Michael Muthoka has shown outstanding leadership potential, excellent communication skills and the ability to apply himself impressively to the tasks and responsibilities he has fulfilled during his four years with Edro.

After graduating from Penn State University with a degree in metallurgy, Michael joined Edro as an apprentice and immediately received an introduction to the fundamentals of the specialty steel industry. In his early days of employment, Michael contributed to the company in a meaningful way, focusing on his main apprenticeship project—machining evaluation of plastic mold steels.

Today, Michael’s main responsibility is plate production, including conversion and heat treatment. He has quickly become the company’s main contact at our major supply chain partner steel plate mills, converting mold steel ingots to plate. He is also responsible for production scheduling to support the company’s global material distribution business and plate conversion scheduling.

Michael possesses ambition for future growth, development, innovation, a strong work ethic, enthusiasm and determination.

Westminster Tool (Plainfield, Connecticut)

Micheal Belmont, Account Manager

Micheal Belmont has been at Westminster Tool since 2015 after receiving his degree in business administration from Sacred Heart University. He has contributed to our sales department's growth and increased his technical sales knowledge to better understand our customers' needs.

As the lead for quoting at Westminster Tool, Micheal is preparing 40 quotes on average each month and identifying potential projects. He has implemented major improvements to existing processes to deliver quotes to customers faster and begin projects sooner. For example, he developed a formal quoting checklist with a process-proven list of questions and parameters to address upfront with the customer.

He also developed “mini-processing” jobs, a practice that simulates all the production steps before any processing is performed, which reduced potential production delays and rework in the design phase and improved customer communication. Mini-processing goes through each step in the manufacturing process to predict production needs and mitigate potential risks.  He has also been instrumental in improving the training and documentation for his role and our sales assistant position.  

Micheal understands the importance of building relationships and takes personal accountability for every project he works on by prioritizing customer collaboration. He is constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve. As a result, he has emerged as an effective leader in the sales department and made a lasting impact on how our company builds, maintains and grows customer relationships.

Victoria Rooke, EDM Specialist

Victoria joined Westminster Tool in 2016 while still attending Windham Technical High School as part of a work-based learning initiative. After completing high school, she joined Westminster Tool full-time in the production department.

Victoria demonstrated a great deal of passion and enthusiasm for her work early on, so the company encouraged her to enroll part-time in the Advanced Manufacturing Program at Quinebaug Valley Community College. As part of our company’s “Learn While You Earn” initiative, Victoria continued to excel in the production department while taking classes part-time. After graduating from the Advanced Manufacturing program, Victoria moved from production to our EDM department, where she immediately made an impact.

In her current role as EDM specialist, Victoria is not just an asset in her role but a major contributor to our entire CNC line. She is constantly updating and improving our current EDM procedures. She has created countless training documents to maintain consistency in training and set the entire team up for success.

Outside of her EDM role, Victoria has become a key member of our safety team and one of our continuous improvement (CI) champions. Victoria is also intimately familiar with our in-house training program, Westminster Academy, and takes a proactive approach to train others. Her affinity for documentation and innovation has impacted her work's quality and efficiency and has established a strong foundation of learning for those who train with her.

Because of her experience, Victoria has become essential to our shop tours. Her ease with explaining an EDM operator's role makes her very accessible for all ages and skill levels. As a young woman in a traditionally male-dominated area of manufacturing, she also serves as a model for other young women interested in pursuing a STEM career.

KTM Industries (Richfield, Wisconsin)

Johnathon Ohser, Toolmaker

Johnathon graduated from Moraine Park Technical College and completed his MoldMaker Apprenticeship. He has packed a great deal of experience in a short amount of time by working within various production environments, including machine assembly, inventory management, CNC programming and setup, scheduling, project management and toolmaking.

Jonathon makes it a point to engage with senior team members, receiving invaluable mentoring and practical advice. Executive leadership is pleased to see that he accepts responsibility and accountability while showing consistent progress and aptitude with each task he undertakes.

Customers appreciate Jonathon’s swift progress as a problem-solver for both build and repair projects. He is also concentrating on his design and engineering development and is a significant contributor to design reviews and build strategies.

MGS MFG Group (Germantown, Wisconsin)

Jalen Weyker, Journeyman Toolmaker

Jalen came to MGS in 2014 while still in technical school. He worked after school in the graphite cutting cell, wire drilling cell and CNC milling department. He excelled in each position and was able to pass down his knowledge to his younger co-workers.

Jalen started his apprenticeship in 2016 under the lead toolmaker’s guidance. As an apprentice, he was extremely eager to learn and had a positive attitude. Within the first couple of years of his apprenticeship, his leadership role started to blossom, and he became one of our apprenticeship group leaders.

As his apprenticeship continued, Jalen gained the team’s respect with his work ethic and trade knowledge. He now builds his tools, including high-end multi-cavity tools, unscrewing tools and several two-shot tools.

Jalen became a journeyman toolmaker after finishing his apprenticeship in March 2020. Since then, he has continued to hone his skills as a toolmaker and leader. He is an asset to MGS, and he has a bright future ahead.

YakAttack LLC (Farmville, Virginia)

Patrick D-Antonio, Manufacturing Engineer

Seven years ago, Patrick was about to graduate high school and was looking for a summer job. YakAttack was small and in need of some extra help, so Patrick was hired. He quickly developed an affinity (and knack) for manufacturing, which has turned into an impressive career at the company.

After graduating high school, Ben pursued his four-year degree in mechanical engineering during which he split time between Old Dominion University and the shop floor. He earned his degree while spending the summers working on the manufacturing floor, and later as an intern in our the shop.

During his early years at YakAttack, Patrick loaded parts onto CNC routers and then learned programming. He started using various fixtures, then learned to design and build them. He helped to design and evolve the company’s manufacturing process.

Shortly after college graduation, Patrick went full-time at YakAttack, managing and streamlining the CNC routing operation. A year later, he turned his focus toward injection molding and moldmaking. Patrick helped to transform the company’s tooling art into a tooling process. Using his unique blend of creative and disciplined thinking, he refined and documented the company’s toolmaking process, making it comprehensible for a novice. He is currently training a young employee using the process that he was instrumental in creating.

Today, Patrick designs most of the molds and manages the tooling operation.

PepCorp (Windsor, Ontario, Canada))

Parker Drouillard, Owner

Parker started with four 3D printers in his parent’s garage at 17 years old. He took computer science at the University of Windsor while building a small customer base to provide plastic-printed parts and worked as an injection tool designer at Aalbers Tool & Mold (Ontario, Canada) to gain more knowledge.

The decision was made to leave the tool shop to focus more on his business. Now located at his current building with more than 30 printers, he focuses on new customers with high-volume production requirements. His next goal is to triple the number of 3D printers while designing and building his own 3D printers.

Engineered Medical Systems (Indianapolis Indiana)

Fred Boyer Jr., Moldmaker

Seven years ago, Fred came into moldmaking with very little shop experience. However, his many hours of schooling and shop training along with his attitude and work ethic have given the company confidence that he can run the tool room in absence of the tool room manager.

Fred is reliable and always looking to improve and produce quality tooling and repairs. He also embraces technology. From sweeping floors to running the EDMs, CNC mills and welding equipment to purchasing, delegating work, managing the production floor, Fred is truly appreciated. At 30 years old, he is truly on his game.

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