Connect with Joe Fritz
Email: jfritz@investmentcasting.org
Website: www.investment casting.org
Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Joe Fritz. Joe has been the Executive Director of the Investment Casting Institute since 2013. With over 35 years of experience, Joe has contributed to some programs, including the navy's Trident programs, the air force's joint strike fighter program, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner program. Joe holds degrees in engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Union College.
Joe and I had the opportunity to work together in Puerto Rico at his association's annual meeting. He was also kind enough to let me bring my mom with me. We had a great time together. Joe, welcome to the show.
Joe Fritz: Well, thank you very much, Lisa. We did have a good time in Puerto Rico, and it was a distinct pleasure meeting your mother and having you speak at our event.
You were extremely well received, and I had many people requesting that we share the event's recording with folks on their staff to learn from you about gratitude in the workplace.
Lisa Ryan: It was almost like back in the olden days when we used to have live events.
Joe Fritz: It does seem like quite a long time since we've been able to do so. The pandemic last year wiped out every live event that we had, except for one training program that was conducted in February.
Lisa Ryan: Share with us just a little bit about your background, and then we'll get into the details as far as what this last year has meant to you, your association members, and really what you hear in the industry. Tell us about you, Joe.
Joe Fritz: That's a loaded question. As you can tell from your introduction, I have a solid military design background. That was really a big part of my career when I first got out of college, working through things until the end of the Cold War. When the Berlin Wall came down, I worked as a design engineer for General Electric in the naval ordnance division. It was like this bright young man better find something else to do with them without a Cold War to be building apartments for.
I applied for a blind ad in The Wall Street Journal. Nobody ever gets a job on a blind ad. What they were looking for was an engineer with aerospace experience, an advanced business degree. A couple of my friends pushed me to apply for it, and I ended up changing industries completely, finding myself in the world of metals and material science.
Since 1990, I've been working in the investment casting industry and parallel industries I've stepped out in a couple of times. Still, I became fascinated with technology and the science involved in creating precision metal components. Using this process for the point that I could actually say that I love the industry. Around 1999-2000, a business colleague of mine solicited my help in looking at and preparing his presentation to apply for the job that I'm in right now. I was I got very excited about this. Mike, this is the perfect job for me. He laughed at me, and he said, you know, the only differences, I know the Board of Directors, and you don't.
In 2013, Mike picked up the phone, calls, and says, hey Joe, I'm planning on retiring. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring? After some discussions and a series of interviews, I found myself the Executive Director of the investment casting Institute.
We're a 501 C six nonprofit trade association. We have approximately 265 Member companies throughout the United States and some international. Our focus is on bringing first-off benefits to our Members, especially the smaller members. We've got a couple of substantial companies. Still, the smaller companies are the ones...
