Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1540425
90 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2025 a company in the Appleton area designing and installing electronic security systems, and Pete was familiar with the owners. The engineering group, "Technology Group Inc." (TGI), and as part of EAC, finished the trilogy under Pete's vision. Both companies grew in revenue, employees, and technology, with Electro- Tek maintaining its family-oriented, small- company culture. When Pete wanted to increase the mechani- cal engineering capability, he approached Norland Corp., in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Norland wanted to break off its mechanical engineering group because it didn't have a way to market its exper- tise, and it soon became part of TGI. Dad and Pete believed they needed to create a separate market- ing arm to represent EAC, Electro-Tek, TGI, and the Norland Group, so Dad started a marketing office called Sequence near the Milwaukee airport for him and Mom to work from. In 1979, Pete said he would like to have all these separate entities under the umbrella of a parent company. Like Electro-Tek, that name also became an industry icon: Plexus Corp. Business was grow- ing for all divisions, but Electro-Tek far outpaced the others and was the cash cow keeping Plexus above water. Plexus sold Electro-Tek to Norland because it needed capital to expand, and Electro- Tek was its most valuable asset. The deal returned the Norland engineering group, along with Electro-Tek, under a strict non-compete agreement. Electro- Tek had outgrown the current two-bay facility in Milwaukee, so Dad found a property about five miles south of the current location, designing and over- seeing construction to greenfield the current facility in Oak Creek, Wiscon- sin—the first of the three Electro-Tek facilities built specifically for PCB man- ufacturing (Figure 4). Years later, Dad said he regret- ted overlooking the proximity to the Delco PCB operations a mile away because Electro-Tek was often their training center, and we could not com- pete with Delco's compensation pack- age. Things ran smoothly until Norland executives decided they wanted someone from their company to oversee operations onsite and installed some- one without PCB or manufacturing experience. This was not only problematic for the business but also the beginning of the end of the Williams family's association with Electro-Tek. While Electro-Tek was doing well, there was con- stant pressure from Norland to grow the business faster. We all saw the writing on the wall: As with any business or sports team, any new leader at the top wants to put in their own players. First, Norland wanted to do all the bookkeeping and billing at its corporate offices, thus eliminating Mom's position. I left next for a position with a competitor. Shortly after, Dad was unceremoniously forced out, with Scott following the same day. Not to be undone, and being a bit of an entrepreneur herself, Mom eventually got a degree in sales and marketing and bought a local Dunkin' Donuts franchise, which she ran for many years, with Scott and Becki working part-time with her while they were in college. T H E R I G H T A P P ROAC H Figure 3: E xc erpts from the first Ele ctro-Tek bro chure. S c ot t (in the l ef t p h oto) , a n d S teve, s p o r t i n g h i s E l v i s s i d e b u r n s , o n t h e r i g ht . ▼ Fun Fact #6: I think we only had one white smock, and had to pass it around to all the employees featured in the brochure.