issue: August 2006 APPLIANCE Magazine Advisory Board Our Engineering Experts	Share  Printable format  Email this Article  Search
by Lisa Bonnema, Senior Editor Behind any good technical magazine is a team of experts. For APPLIANCE magazine, that means leveraging the expertise of industry engineers that literally know the ins and outs of appliances.

Since 1967, APPLIANCE has had an Engineering Advisory Board consisting of seasoned engineers from leading appliance companies. Their purpose? To give feedback about editorial content and provide insight to some of the key engineering issues affecting the industry. From reviewing paper outlines to confirming highly technical content, these industry workhorses have become a valuable asset to the editorial staff and help ensure that APPLIANCE achieves its mission to be an accurate, credible and relevant trade publication.
Our current board members are some of the appliance industry’s most reputable engineers. With expertise in topics such as product safety, global standards, ozone depletion, controls, and refrigeration systems, each member offers a breadth of engineering know-how and experience. Most have several appliance patents, representing only a sample of the important contributions engineers make to our industry.
Following is a snapshot of what our advisory board members have accomplished throughout their engineering careers—and what they have learned along the way.

Tim Brooks

Senior Manager, Corporate Product Safety, Whirlpool Corporation With more than 20 years of appliance engineering experience, Tim Brooks has managed engineering projects of all kinds. Whether speeding up product development cycles, improving costs or ensuring product safety and reliability, Brooks has worked hard to ensure that product success starts with good design. In his current position as senior manager of Corporate Product Safety at Whirlpool Corp., his main responsibility is to lead the global product safety efforts for cooking products and small appliances. Among his many accomplishments are patents for a cooking control and a small appliance accessory. Currently, Brooks is chairman of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) SC59K for cooking appliances and microwave ovens. He was also the chief delegate and technical advisor for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for 13 years, representing the U.S. for the IEC. Brooks has a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, U.S. and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan, U.S. In addition to his long-standing career at Whirlpool, he has held engineering positions at Hobart Corporation, Leland Electrosystems, Inc. and General Motors. Most valuable lesson learned: “ I can’t do everything by myself. A team is needed to get things accomplished. With a dedicated team, most things are possible. Dedication, perseverance, motivation, and the desire to do the right things are essential.”

William A. (“Buz”) Reed

Vice President, Operations, U-Line Corporation With 15 U.S. patents, it is safe to say William “Buz” Reed has had a successful engineering career. His focus on refrigeration products has been especially rewarding. His developments include a patented electronic control scheme for residential ice makers, a residential clear ice maker and a unique single-stage evaporative process. Reed has been operations vice president at high-end refrigeration products company U-Line Corporation for more than 20 years. He joined the company in 1982 as chief engineer and was promoted just 2 years later to his current position. He also serves on the company’s board of directors. Prior to joining U-Line, Reed was a project engineer in Whirlpool Corporation’s room air-conditioner design group and was a senior project engineer and manager of Refrigeration Systems at Admiral Corporation. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine and his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S. Future of appliance engineering: “ The future of appliance engineering lies in the emergence of a more global economy. Customer/supplier relationships will continue to evolve, and markets will develop in areas of the world where they had not previously existed.”

Glenn Goetz

Lead Engineer, International Products, Food Stream Solutions, Global Product Development, Whirlpool Corporation Knowing products on a global scale is what Glenn Goetz does best. For the last 5 years, he has been the product compliance manager for Maytag International, Inc. His primary responsibilities have been to understand international product compliance requirements and to help specify and develop products that meet the requirements. Starting in August, he will take his knowledge to the next level, serving as a lead engineer for Whirlpool Corporation, where he will be responsible for designing international refrigeration products. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Iowa, Goetz spent 20 years as a design engineer at Amana Refrigeration. There, he helped design Amana’s first line of plastic liner refrigerators and freezers. Since 1993, he has concentrated on product compliance, working for the international appliance sales divisions of Raytheon, Goodman LP and Maytag International. Goetz has earned three patents in his professional career and was awarded with the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers’ Distinguished Service Award in 2006. The future of appliance engineering: “ Product compliance will become an increasing factor in product management and design. This will create work for engineers finding the optimal solution to often conflicting requirements.”

Len Swatkowski

Vice President, Global Shared Services, Invensys Controls Len Swatkowski knows all aspects of the appliance industry. His technical expertise has led him from an industry association, to an OEM, to a specialized component supplier, providing a solid foundation any problem solver strives to obtain. As the vice president of Global Shared Services at Invensys Controls, Swatkowski is responsible for design and process validation, engineering and technical support for national and international standards, oversight of safety and certification programs, and managing the product data and lifecycle process. Prior to joining Invensys in 2003, he was the manager of diversified products at Whirlpool Corporation, which followed a 10-year stint at the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), where he was vice president of the Appliance Research Consortium. While at AHAM, he completed 24 research projects that investigated the eventual phase-out of ozone-depleting refrigerants used in appliances. He has also developed patented refrigeration systems for the vending industry. A graduate of Western Illinois University, Swatkowski received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology in 1977, Master of Science in 1982 and Master of Business Administration in 1988. Biggest industry change: “ The consolidation of not only the manufacturers in the industry, but the vendors. The synergies and economies gained by reducing duplicated services and skills has come at a cost to the intensity of innovation available from a much smaller group of OEMs and suppliers.”

Thomas H. Yu

Vice President/General Manager, Maytag Asia, A Subsidiary of Whirlpool Corporation Vice President of R&D, The Hoover Company, A Business Unit of Whirlpool Corporation One could say that Thomas Yu believes education is the key to engineering success. Not only has he earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, he has a Master of Business Administration. He has also completed Lean Sigma and Six Sigma training as well as several leadership and management development programs. It is this technical and management knowledge, combined with extensive on-the-job experience, that has lead Yu to two key positions in the Maytag Asia and Hoover divisions of Whirlpool Corporation. As the vice president and general manager of Maytag Asia and vice president of R&D for Hoover, he is challenged with balancing two demanding jobs, often while traveling to and from China. He also belongs to The American Chamber in Shanghai, China and is a member of the board of trustees for the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges. Prior to working at Hoover, Yu spent 14 years at General Electric focusing on automotive lighting design. He joined Hoover in 2000 as vice president of Engineering, had quality and Asian business development responsibilities added to his role in 2003 and was promoted to his current positions in 2005. The future of appliance engineering: “ Appliance engineering will play a key role not only to educate consumers about the benefits of the new products, but to drive the growth of this industry. I see a bright future ahead for appliance engineers.”

Fred J. Keller

Vice President of Engineering, Residential & Light Commercial Systems, Carrier Corporation Throughout his 36 years with Carrier Corporation, Fred Keller has focused on improving the environmental impact of heating and cooling products. Currently vice president of Engineering for Carrier’s Residential & Light Commercial Systems engineering group, he is devoted to developing high-efficiency, non-ozone depleting products. He has authored several papers on global warming and ozone depletion and was awarded an EPA Ozone Protection Award in 1998. He has also served as the lead author of the air-conditioning chapter of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Technical Options Committee on refrigeration. With extensive product development experience, Keller holds five U.S. patents and was awarded the Dr. Willis H. Carrier Award for Engineering Excellence, Carrier’s highest engineering achievement award. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., where he has also completed graduate courses. Advice to future engineers: “ I see too many young engineers trying to tell management what they think they want to hear rather than the facts. Open and honest communication is always the best approach.”

Edward J. McInerney

Chief Engineer, GE Consumer & Industrial Edward J. McInerney has given 42 years of his life to the engineering trade, with 40 of those years spent in the appliance industry. With that level of experience, it isn’t surprising that he has been the chief engineer for General Electric’s (GE) appliance division for the last 16 years. In addition to being awarded several patents, he has received GE’s Steinmetz Award for sustained technical contributions and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers’ Home Appliance Industry Leadership (HAIL) award. Other accomplishments include serving on technical advisory panels for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the United Nations (UN) Environmental Programs and the World Bank. He has chaired the domestic refrigerator sub-committee of the UN Environmental Programs Refrigerant Technical Options Committee since 1992 and was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)/Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) special report on fluorocarbons. McInerney joined GE in 1964 in the Corporate R&D department (Schenectady, New York, U.S.). In 1966, he transferred to GE’s appliance business in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. He received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, U.S. Most valuable lesson learned: “ The need to continuously learn and be open-minded. The typical half-life of an engineering graduate is about 5 years now. The pace of change is now so rapid that failure to continuously learn will result in rapid obsolescence.”