Take Control of Your Engineering Career on the International Stage- Ron Kyslinger

Engineering International Programs hosts Alumnus Ron Kyslinger during departmental seminars to discuss his distinguished global career and how to "Take Control of your Engineering Career on the International Stage". 

When: Monday, Feb. 1 from 12:10-1 pm (EE/CoE Seminar)  or  Tuesday, Feb. 2 from 10-10:50 am (Mechanical Engr Seminar)

How to sign up: Via Qualtrics- a zoom link will be sent to you. If you are an ECE or Mech E student and attending seminar during the times above, no need to register. 

Ron recorded a video answering some of your questions! You can find that here: https://youtu.be/HxMGuKg0was

Ron's Bio: 

Mr. Ron Kyslinger has over 30 years of International Engineering and Business experience that spans numerous industries. He is a University of Pittsburgh graduate with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and has a Master’s in Business from Central Michigan University.  His experience includes international leadership roles from the perspective of the OEM (end-user) as well as from the supplier, in numerous industries. 

Mr. Kyslinger started his career at Honda where he was engaged in all aspects of auto assembly as he learned lean manufacturing long before it was nouveau to know.  Mr. Kyslinger then joined Ford Motor Company where he created Cold Test which quickly became an industry standard used by auto companies worldwide.  Mr. Kyslinger was recruited by Chrysler to implement Cold Test and lead an International Joint Venture engine program between Chrysler, BMW, and Rover. He was promoted through various roles of increasing responsibility which included Advance Manufacturing, Corporate Quality, and Corporate Strategy.  He helped put the Fiat/Chrysler acquisition in place and then joined Fiat’s machine tool company, Comau.  At Comau, Mr. Kyslinger was General Manager of Manufacturing Operations for North America & Director of Global Strategy. 

Mr. Kyslinger then chose to apply his expertise to C&S Wholesale Grocers and its subsidiaries, where he quickly led the continuous improvement and redesign of a very complex automated system in just 5 short months.  He then became the VP of Operations & VP of Engineering and helped name and launch Symbotic where he led the design and production of turnkey Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) with fully autonomous shuttles that were capable of speeds of up to 30 mph. These systems were capable of automatically building mixed case pallets for shipment direct to stores.  Mr. Kyslinger was then asked to be the acting President of ES3 where he doubled the EBITDA, in just one year, to help fund the growth of Symbotic and increased the output of ES3 to 1 Million cases/day and 7 Million cases/week.

Mr. Kyslinger was recruited to be the Executive Director of Worldwide Operations, Engineering, Design & Innovation for Amazon where he led the design of next-generation fulfillment centers globally to support Amazon’s numerous business verticals.  He then was recruited as the SVP of Jet.com and quickly became the Global Officer of Walmart Fulfillment Engineering and led the transformation of the eCommerce Fulfillment processes for both companies.

Today, Mr. Kyslinger is the CEO and President of Kyslinger Consulting International and Advises various international start-ups, and is an Executive Advisor to Thomas H Lee (THL).  THL is one of the oldest and most storied Private Equity (PE) firms in the USA and Mr. Kyslinger advises them with respect to target investment companies for their Automation Fund, which is the first of its kind in the PE industry.