A nearly five-decade long commitment to making the world's best industrial cutting solutions has resulted in the accumulation of a lot of expertise. Our expert roster covers all things having to do with cutting. Whether you're writing a story on plasma, laser, waterjet, motion controls, CAM software, robotic software, or something else, we have an expert that can help to answer your questions. And our expertise doesn't stop there. Hypertherm Associates experts lead the way in many different areas including corporate social responsibility, Lean manufacturing, six sigma principles, and workplace safety.
If you are a member of the news media interested in setting up an interview with any of our experts, please contact a public relations team member for your region.
Aaron Brandt
Executive Vice President of Technology
- Nearly 20 years of experience in thermal cutting technology
- Extensive technical understanding of both plasma and laser cutting
- Inventor behind several patented technologies
- Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, completing his thesis on cutting with laser
Dave Dumas
Customer Application Engineer, Waterjet Products
- One of the industry's preeminent waterjet experts
- Nearly three decades of experience working with waterjet systems and customers in North America and Europe
- Wide understanding of waterjet systems sold by all major brands
- Sought after speaker at major industry conferences and tradeshows
- Engineering, research, and development work for both pure water and abrasive systems and components
Jason Emery
Senior Engineer, Hypertherm Technical Services
- More than 20 years experience troubleshooting industrial cutting issues for customers around the globe
- Expert in the installation and integration to operations and optimization of CNC table based plasma
- Degree in electrical engineering technologies from Vermont Technical
Charlie Hackett, PhD
Corporate Improvement Team Leader
- Oversees team responsible for continuous process improvements including methodologies to eliminate waste, eradicate defects, and reduce variation in order to achieve operational excellence
- Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering and more than 15 years of Operations and R&D experience in the metal cutting, spraying, and welding fields.
- Interests include reducing waste throughout the business, creating cultural change in teams, and the application of statistics in everyday problem-solving.
George Konstantakos
Director of Operations, Powermax Products
- Certified lean and six sigma master black belt
- More than 20 years of manufacturing experience including supply chain management
- Expert on the Toyota Production System and its application in both industrial and healthcare settings
- Responsible for training more than 30 black belts and 300 green belts at numerous companies
Jenny Levy
Executive Vice President People, Community, and Environment
- Over 20 years of experience managing in industrial environments
- Architect of our 2020 environmental sustainability goals
- Leads how we integrate our triple bottom line strategies throughout our organization
- Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
- Speaker in various college and graduate school classrooms, statewide and national conferences
Mike Shipulski, PhD
Director of Advanced Development
- Leads strategic technology development and evaluates technologies
- Expert in Design for Lean
- Distinguished Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) honoree
- Author of numerous articles and white papers on lean design
Jon Lindsay, PhD
Principal Engineer
- Inventor of co-axial assist jet technology, a patented shield gas technology that delivers enhanced piercing protection and higher cutting speeds
- More than 15 years of experience designing plasma and waterjet systems
- Doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota
- Area of study in thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition
Ken Woods, PhD
Principal Engineer, Hypertherm Laser Systems
- Hypertherm’s preeminent laser expert
- Named inventor on six Hypertherm patents, including FAST Laser (Flow Accelerated Screen Technology™)
- PhD in Physics from Dartmouth College with graduate research in laser physics
- Current member of the Laser Institute of America (LIA), American Physics Society (APS), and SPIE
- Published author and presenter at key industry conferences
Roger Young
Engineering Team Leader, Computer Numerical Controls (CNC)
- More than two decades of CNC work including the writing of graphical user interfaces
- Founder of Automation Dynamics, now known as Hypertherm Automation.
- Responsible for the code behind many of our CNC products
- Developer of Hypertherm’s Cut Pro Wizard, software that enables anyone to learn how to run a Hypertherm CNC in about five minutes