Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1496178
46 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2023 the business of printed circuit boards was offshored. When I started with BEST, close to 25% of the world's electronics were made in the U.S., but it soon went down to 12–15%, so with that offshoring, we had to go and find new BEST customers. What does BEST look like today? Wettermann: We have 32 people on staff, some of whom work offsite. We do training services, rework and repair services, and have many products that help companies repair and rework products themselves. We are proud to sell these all over the world. EZReball You were doing some analysis 23 years ago as you stepped into your role at BEST. How did you and BEST adjust to those changes? Wettermann: Most of our customers at the time of the purchase were within 300 miles of our doorstep. Now our reach—at least on our services and training business—is anywhere in the United States, because clients can economically ship their boards from any location. With training services, we have a unique ser vice offer ing for our solder training business as we bring everything with us in a mobile training vehicle The previous owner convinced a friend to loan him the money to because you can make decisions rapidly as opportunities or problems come up. We had to package up our own products and send them out via UPS to customers, but it was a really fun job. I was able to leverage my German experience again, this time with my MBA and some industry knowledge. as I looked for a new job. I traveled to Europe frequently, speaking German to my Danish and German counterparts. I really loved small business, but when the owner died, and his daughter took over, it just wasn't fun anymore. I think that's when you started to pivot and BEST came into the picture. Tell me about that. Wettermann: At first, I went to a publicly traded company, Woodhead Industries, where I learned all about corporate decision-making, decision by committee, and so forth. I stuck that out for five years, saved my nickels, then bought BEST. My father was an entrepreneur, and I started my entrepreneur career with BEST which was right down the street from my childhood house, with eight employees performing contract rework and repair services as well as some solder training. You've seen much change in the industry, and I'm sure you have some stories to tell. What was it like when you started? Wettermann: The printed circuit board industry looks very different today from when I came into it. When I first bought the company around 2000, I looked at the Midwest to see how big the market was. Market data indicated that the total number of component placements on PCBs in the Midwest were centered in Chicago. I thought, "Chicago is the electronics hub of the Midwest. This is great." That was before Motorola and many other communications suppliers moved out, and