Richard E. Fitzgerald

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1985. The non-profit company is based in Arlington Heights, IL. AME is dedicated to the exchange of enterprise excellence knowledge and provides engaging workshops, plant tours, summits, and industry-leading conferences to its 4,000 members. The organization focuses on continuous improvement strategies, lean thinking, and other operational improvement methods. AME members share best practices and network through practitioner-to-practitioner experiences. Kimberlee A. Humphrey has been the CEO of the company since 2020.

Qual-Pro Corp. provides electronic contract manufacturing services. Its services include the turnkey system assembly, flex assembly, electro-mechanical assembly, and design for manufacturability analysis and box-level assembly of critical electronics. The firm serves aerospace, defense, medical, health, and commercial industries. The company was founded by Gerald Shane on September 17, 1971 and is headquartered in Gardena, CA.

SMTEK International, Inc. was an electronics manufacturing services provider serving original equipment manufacturers in the medical, industrial instrumentation, telecommunications, security, financial services automation, aerospace and defense industries with integrated solutions ranging from design to end-of-life services. The company was headquartered in Moorpark, CA.