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Al Stimac
President, Machining Solutions
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A self-made industrial leader, Al Stimac is the personification both of entrepreneurial spirit and of the American Dream, and his professional career has been accompanied by an outstanding record of service in civic and charitable efforts, as well as with professional boards and associations.
A native of Croatia, Mr. Stimac came over on a cargo ship to meet up with his family in Rochester, New York, in 1970, and at the age of 16 with a 7th grade education, he began an apprenticeship in precision sheet-metalworking with the Stromberg-Carlson a division of General Dynamics. He would remain associated with that company and its successors for some twenty-five years, advancing through a series of increasingly demanding management positions.
After earning his journeyman certification in 1976, Stimac, a union shop steward at the Rochester plant, was named the youngest member of the Executive Board of the AFL-CIO. Just a year later – 1977 – Stimac was given the opportunity to manage the re-location of the Rochester facility to Lake Mary, Florida, where he was named Manager of the General Fabrication Department.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the company underwent a series of mergers and acquisitions, and Stimac was named Director of Manufacturing for Plessy Telecommunications only after he received his GED, the UK high tech company that had acquired the Lake Mary facility which, by that time, employed some 380 people. After passing through ownership by Siemens AG, by whom the plant was used to produce digital central office equipment for telephone companies, the machine shop facility was acquired by Comtel Metals in 1992, and Stimac became Vice President and General Manager of the Comtel plant – he was tasked with building a new state-of-the-art precision metals plant at the Lake May site.
At about the same time in 1986, Stimac, concerned about the need for Florida manufacturers to purchase precision machining capacity from out of state, started his own facility in his garage. He left Comtel in 1995 to concentrate on growing his own business – Metal Essence, Inc. – which had expanded from the original two or three people and 1500sq feet to a workforce of over ninety in 34,600 sq feet.
The company specialized in production of high volume, high tech parts used in the automotive, aerospace and electronics industries. Metal Essence had successfully leveraged technology to enable the company to be an effective competitor in the global marketplace.
Al Stimac has had a career-long record of giving back, both to the community and to the manufacturing industry. His community involvement has gone as far as his major fundraising for the United Way to supporting all local young sports programs to the abused and neglected children. Al has been among the most ardent supporters of Workforce Development of Central Florida and has served as President of the Board of the Manufacturing Association of Central Florida. An original member of the board of the FMTC program, Stimac served on the board of its successor organization, the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Florida MEP). Al currently serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Manufacturing. He helped start the Manufacturers Association of Florida and has served as the president since the beginning. Over the years, he has been tireless in his efforts to explain the benefits of a manufacturing-based economy to both state and Federal legislators, regulators, chambers of commerce and other business interests.
Stimac is a champion of the notion that manufacturing helps maintain a diverse economy; creates high-paying jobs; promotes investment in capital equipment and research and development; and generally helps build and maintain a superb quality of life for those employed in the industry and for the larger community from which they purchase goods and services, He was recently appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to serve on the Work Force Florida, Inc Board of Directors this past year in which he will serve a 4 year term.
Stimac continues his career of helping manufacturers through his new company, Machining Solutions, LLC started in 2002. He now consults for other manufacturers in equipment selection, process improvement, fixture/tooling designs and programming to provide custom solutions that benefit the customer and their bottom line.
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