IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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16 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2026 Whiteside: Defense, specifically, is a very specialized market with many addi- tional requirements to service it. KCA and MEI both brought a very high degree of proficiency with a deep bench of experienced, talented staff. That gave us a solid foundation to service the defense market. Combining the cultures of two companies, particularly with an M&A strategy, can be challenging, but it must be a top priority. At Summit, everyone knows that our most valuable assets are our customer relationships. It is a bedrock of our culture. We don't have any unique IP or our own proprietary technology. We stand out as a customer partner in our capabilities and will- ingness to execute. Every day, we strive to be our customers' best manufacturing partner. I couldn't agree more that we succeed and fail through the success of our customers. Gerry, what are your thoughts on creating a unified com- pany culture? Gerry Partida: When you bring companies together, you don't want to diminish what they are and try to make everyone the same. It just doesn't work. We wanted to preserve each company's strengths and unique skill sets, then share them across all facili- ties. That was really the most challenging part. Ac- quiring facilities is the event, but the actual work is bringing everyone to work as one company. Each company brings something important. It's their peo- ple, process knowledge, and the customer trust. We didn't want to erase those incredible strengths. Rather, we wanted to connect them all. Through Shane's vision and leadership, we've formed a cohesive team. It has made it easy to share experiences and capabilities and be open- minded. As we have shared them from one facility to the other, we've created some best practices that we use across all of the sites. Summit is dedicated to training and developing your young engineers which seems to be a core value for Summit. Why has this remained such a focus for you? Whiteside: We have always recognized that developing talent was essential to our growth as a company. The two great companies we started with had great teams, but to really grow and expand, we needed to develop talent within our company beyond what was already there. We understood that much of the talent across the industry was entering their later career years, and that challenge continues. One's knowledge, partic- ularly in process and engineering, is developed throughout one's career. We saw an urgent need to develop this knowledge and talent more quickly in our employees who were earlier in their careers, so they will be able to take over that brain trust in our company when we lose some of our Gerry Partidas. Gerry has been leading that effort right from the beginning. We were really excited when IPC launched its Emerging Engineers program a number of years ago, and we were very early adopters and champions of that program. Partida: I started in this industry as an application en- gineer for CAM, but my true love was being a trainer. I always got a great deal of satisfaction from explain- ing things, showing people different skills, and shar- ing my knowledge. I believed it is extremely impor- tant, and I have done it throughout my career. I have met some of the best subject matter experts in this industry by happenstance or perhaps providence. I learned what was important and what was not, di- rectly from them. They guided me to be great in my career. I saw the Emerging Engineers Program as a way to create subject matter experts in three years, with people entering the industry. These newer engineers are being given an accelerated pathway to knowl- edge that has taken others three decades to acquire. They will be this industry's subject matter experts in 10 years, the ones who are deciding, engaging, and helping each other for the success of the entire industry. I give them guidance and an entry point into the program, but it's their own curiosity and desire to Gerry Partida