NEWS BRIEFS
4 Women Tell Their Fastener Career Stories
Telling their fastener stories at a Women in the Fastener Industry meeting in conjunction with FastenerTech 2011 were (left-to-right): Kimberly Kaindl, director of marketing for Aztech Locknut; Ruth Dowling, general manager of Jinding Fasteners USA; Julee Kerivan-Mortensen, Fasteners By Design; and Becky Moujouros, president and owner of American Fasteners & Components. (Photo courtesy Tracie Lumina, Distributors Link magazine.)
Four women told the stories of their fastener manufacturing and distribution careers to the Women in the Fastener Industry meeting in conjunction with FastenerTech 2011.
Becky Moujouros started in the fastener industry in 1983 as a receptionist for Globe Fastener. She quickly was moved to sales – where Moujouros believes that at age 18 she was the industry’s youngest woman in sales.
In 1989 Moujouros joined a branch of Highland International/MNP where she learned manufacturing and reading blueprints. After nearly a decade she was hired by Rumco where she stayed for seven years.
Five years ago friends encouraged her to buy American Fasteners & Components. In contemplating it, Moujouros realized “I’ve made a lot of people a lot of money. Why not do so for myself?”
Within the first six months as owner and sole salesperson, she sold $1.2 million in fasteners.
Moujouros attributed her success as woman to her “strong personality. I could be in a ‘man’s world’.”
The recession since 2008 has posed the same problems for male and female leaders of fastener companies. Moujouros is proud to have “kept my 11 employees.”
• Julee Kerivan-Mortensen started with Cronin Fasteners and educated herself through the then Chicago Bolt, Nut & Screw Association.
Next she learned about specials at American Socket. Kerivan-Mortensen also took evening accounting classes and then mechanical engineering classes.
She took a role purchasing fasteners for Arcon Fasteners and then sales for Pioneer/ITW and Eskay Screw.
She helped compile the Fastener Information Directory for the CBNSA’s introduction to fasteners class.
Mortensen said she has pointed out to men that as a fastener industry professional she should be treated “how you treat your wife, daughters and mother.”
Kerivan-Mortensen advised women in the fastener industry to respect employees at all levels. “If the guy don’t run the parts right, you can’t sell them. Work with them and don’t let the office isolate you.”
• Ruth Dowling started a career as a high school English teacher. Friends invited her to enter the fastener industry and she applied for a job at Fastenal. There in the national accounts department she wrote proposal and discovered “business was where I was supposed to be.”
At age 36 she set a goal of being a vice president by 45.
Feeling she needed to change companies to reach that goal, Dowling applied at Heads & Threads International. The next year Dowling was appointed HTI vice president for materials. When HTI shut down recently, a supplier asked her to open a U.S. office and Dowling is now opening a sales office and warehouse in the Chicago area as general manager of Jinding Fasteners USA.
In her importing role, Dowling found a difference between American men and “men from other cultures. She also found herself in the role of boss of older men with more experience.
“You have to overcome that voice in the back your head” questioning your readiness for the position, Dowling acknowledged.
She advised women to “admit when you don’t know” technical information. “When you ask for opinions, you demonstrate you value others.”
Dowling appreciates her male mentors in the fastener industry and looks forward to “teaching fastener wormen their worth.”
• Critical care nurse Kimberly Kaindl said she started in the fastener industry by marrying Mark Kaindl. Her husband asked her to help Aztech Locknut with trade shows and s in fasteners while still practicing as a nurse.
In addition to being a woman, Kaindl has had to deal with the role of being in a family business and being introduced as “Mark’s wife” instead of the director of public relations and marketing.
She recalled as a nurse “getting up to give the chair to a male physician” as an example of dealing with the male/female roles in the hospital setting.
“There are similarities between the critical care industry and the fastener industry,” Kaindl said. “An angry customer in no different from an angry patient.”
The next WIFI meeting will be October 19, 2012, in Las Vegas, in conjunction with the National Industrial Fastener & Mill Supply Expo. The first woman chair of the Industrial Fasteners Institute, Jennifer Johns Friel of Mid West Fabricating Co., will be the speaker. ©2011 GlobalFastenerNews.com
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