Faces of Interface Featuring Keith Skidmore
The combination of technical expertise and interpersonal skills is rare in an engineer. Fortunately, these are the outstanding qualities that Regional Sales Director Keith Skidmore brings to the table. Or as we like to call it at Interface, the lab.
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, with a dad that worked as a technical salesman, Keith experienced the impressive capabilities of science and technology first-hand, simultaneously learning how to create relationships with customers and sell solutions. Keith also had a passion for finding out how things work at a young age. As a kid, he was always tinkering with different hardware to figure out how it worked or how to make it better.
This upbringing led Keith to The Ohio State University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1994. His short professional career in Ohio took him to Sensotec, where he was a Technical Sales Engineer for one year. At this point, Keith’s more than 20 years in the cold, snow and rain were taking its toll. He was ready for a warmer climate.
In 1995, after visiting a friend in the Phoenix area, Keith made the decision to move out West for good. He started his career in Arizona at DH Instruments, a Fluke Company, as a Regional Sales Manager. During his time with the company, he sold pressure calibration equipment. After one year, he started to investigate career opportunities at Interface because he was interested in the mechanical applications of the company’s load cell and sensor technology products.
In October 1996, Keith joined Interface as a senior application engineer. At the time, he became one of the only application engineers on staff and had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of industries across the world. Some of Keith’s customers at the time included Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Airbus, Ford, as well as a lot of smaller companies and labs. He enjoyed working across different industries providing performance load cells and instrumentation because he was able to see all of the unique and innovative ways these companies were developing products with the use of the world’s leading force measurement equipment.
“A lot of the products that Interface makes have an impact on our daily lives. From medical technology to automotive, I enjoy seeing and learning about all the different ways our products are used to test different equipment. Having a genuine interest in the products I’m selling certainly makes it a lot easier to get our customers excited about them.” Keith Skidmore, Regional Sales Director
In 2006, he was promoted to Product Sales Manager at Interface. In this role, Keith became responsible for more product lines and gained more responsibilities, leading sales in Interface’s Specialty Products, including torque transducers, multi-axis sensors, and instrumentation. In fact, Keith recently shared his insights on the growing trends in multi-axis sensors for test and measurement projects. You can read the post here.
Skidmore remained with Interface for 10 years before moving on to take a measurement application engineer position with Measurement Solutions, a representative firm of Interface solutions based in Arizona. Measurement Solutions had been an outside sales representative firm with Interface’s for many years and continues to carry Interface’s line today. Keith experienced what it was like working as a sales representative for his former company and other OEM’s of testing products in the industry. This role provided Keith with a new perspective and helped him grow in his career as a technical salesman. After three years with Measurement Solutions, Keith returned to Interface to take on his current role as the Regional Sales Director work in representatives in Arizona, New Mexico, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, New York, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania and the state where he grew up, Ohio.
He rejoined Interface because he still loves the ability to consult with customers and his outside sales force team on a diverse selection of industries and projects.
In his free time, Keith and his wife can be found mountain biking or taking trips to Flagstaff with their small dog. He likes to get back to the green scenery and even the snow he grew up with when he lived in Ohio. In reality, he misses it just enough for a day or weekend trip. The heat and sun have won him over.
To learn more about the talented people behind Interface’s industry-leading torque and force measurement products, follow our Faces of Interface series on our blog at /blog/.
