LIVONIA, MI September 11, 2023 – Heat Treat Today magazine announced today that Angella Sell, Connor Montgomery, and Chris Pietszak of Aalberts surface technologies are members of their 40 Under 40 Class of 2023.
The Heat Treat Today 40 Under 40 award recognizes rising leaders in the heat treat community who are giving their time, talent, and education to make the industry a great place to work.
Angella Sell, Research & Development Engineer, is a proven leader, having chaired the ASM Detroit Chapter from June 2020 to June 2021. In 2022 Angella received the ASM Detroit Chapter President’s Award for her leadership role during the challenging pandemic years. Angella is the vice-chair of the AFS Cast Iron Research Committee and will assume the role of chair in May 2024. Within this group, she serves as a subject matter expert for heat treatment research. Angella specializes in programs related to austempered ductile iron. Part of our team since 2015, she manages the R&D laboratory in Livonia with a focus on working with clients on heat treatment research and development programs, many of which are materials conversion related.
Connor Montgomery, Oshkosh Plant Manager, understands the importance of building strong teams and supporting them for success. His focus on hiring and retention practices as well as his emphasis on effective communications has positively transformed the culture in his plant. Connor is leading major efforts to improve flow, efficiency, and throughput in the Oshkosh plant. He has introduced the use of modern lean tools such as 5S, FIFO, and Supermarkets to reduce unproductive manhours. He is actively involved in the reduction of additional waste within plant processing. Connor is a graduate from MTI’s YES Program and is currently working to earn his MBA. Under his leadership the Oshkosh plant realized dramatic increases in throughput, sales and customer satisfaction. Connor has been part of our team since 2015.
Chris Pietszak, Quality Manager, focuses on the implementation of and support of ISO, IATF, and Nadcap as well as CQI-9 compliance. He is a trained ISO and IATF auditor and an MTI YES Program graduate. Chris played an important role implementing the quality systems during the start-up of the Fort Smith facility. He leads major quality initiatives on the corporate level for Aalberts surface technologies and is currently working to align the quality system process for all HIP | braze | heat treatment plants in the US. Part of our team since 2016, Chris is making a significant contribution to the implementation and continuous improvement of quality systems in the commercial heat treatment industry.
“At Aalberts surface technologies our strength is in our people. Congratulations to our own mission-critical leaders: Angella, Connor, and Chris, for this very well-deserved industry recognition,” says Alisa Patel, VP of Human Resources at Aalberts surface technologies HIP | braze | heat treatment.