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Faces of Interface Featuring Jeff White

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In today’s Face of Interface, we are going global. We are sharing our recent interview with Interface’s International Sales Director, and one of the newest members of the sales leadership team, Jeff White.

Jeff took a non-traditional path into the force measurement world and has truly taken the lead ever since. We are extremely excited to share his story, which includes a long history working with Interface.

Jeff grew up in Chicago and attended Northern Illinois University where he received a bachelor’s degree in public health and a minor in business. After school, he was working at Target when one big sales event, known as Black Friday in the US, made him realize his time in retail was ending. Over that Thanksgiving period a friend talked about an opportunity with Rice Lake Weighing Systems and Jeff jumped at it.

Rice Lake manufactures and distributes weight-related products and supplies, so Jeff leapt headfirst into the force measurement industry. His first role with the company had him working in inside sales where he answered customer calls and got his first taste of real-world applications. As he learned more about solutions, products, and customer requirements, he moved into a position “on the road” in Rice Lake’s Mobile Marketing Unit (MMU) Bus.

This role had Jeff traveling the country showcasing Rice Lake systems and meeting customers, partners, and vendors. This is also where many people at Interface, and others around the country, came to recognize Jeff as the bus guy! His dynamic enthusiasm, passion for helping others, and product technical knowledge were a perfect mixture for this innovative way to bring solutions to the customer’s door.

Jeff loved the role in his younger years traveling and getting to know everything he could about the industry. Working with a network of hundreds of distributors, he was able to help solve all kinds of customer challenges. Some of his time was learning how to best help Interface with a range of products to satisfy all types of customer requirements. This experience helped Jeff quickly become an expert on all things force measurement, including Interface’s sensor technologies.

As Jeff managed different territories and distributors around the country, he realized living out of a suitcase (and a bus) did not align with goals he is aiming to achieve in his personal and professional life. At this point, he had lived in Arizona for a few years and became acquainted with the growth and opportunities at Interface. His vast technical, sales, and leadership experience across a wide range of industries and distributor groups, as well as collaborating with suppliers, made him a great fit for the International Sales Director role.

In this position, Jeff is responsible for growing international sales through our extensive global sales network. By focusing on building relationships based on trust and respect, Jeff brings tremendous value to Interface’s valued distributors and customers. He wants to ensure they are secure in sharing their business and product requirements in territory, by working together with their committed partner – Interface.

Jeff says that he has enjoyed meeting and learning from the team and learning all about Interface’s production area. He is also excited to have a home base and office that is close to engineering and production, being able to get answers quickly and communicate effectively, and build a relationship with co-workers, while he represents the interests of “rest of world” through our global network. He also understands that when he is in territory, he brings practical know-how and experience to support and train our representation throughout the world.

As for his free time, Jeff loves all things Chicago sports. Despite his travels around the country, he stays true to his hometown teams. He is also active in sports himself. He golfs, plays pickup basketball, and is part of a Friday night softball league.

Interface is thrilled to have Jeff on the team. His experience, force measurement expertise, and leadership aligned to an enthusiastic commitment to success is the perfect alignment to help us grow our international business.

To learn more about our excellent Interface team members, tune into our blog every month for a new Faces of Interface ForceLeaders posts.

Interface Promotes Key Leaders to Expand Services, New Markets and Innovations

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Interface, the world’s trusted leader in technology, design, and manufacturing of force measurement solutions, announced this month key leadership changes within the organization. Ian James was promoted to chief operating officer (COO), Brian Peters was promoted to vice president of Global Sales, and the role of Mark Weathers, vice president of Interface’s Mini and 1923 Wireless products, is now leading advanced manufacturing and OEM solutions. These executive promotions are key steps to drive Interface’s sustained growth across multiple product lines, as well as its expansion into new markets and industries.

“Ian, Brian and Mark represent our breadth of leadership within our organization,” said Greg Adams, CEO, Interface. “In alignment with our entire Interface team, they are instrumental in growing our position as the leader in premium, accurate, and reliable force measurement solutions. Our company is fueled by our dedicated employees and I am honored to be part of their continuous efforts and commitment to provide the high-quality products and an exceptional customer experience for all of those we serve.”

Despite disruptions caused by the global pandemic in 2020, Interface continued to find new ways to help customers across multiple industries. The company launched one of its most innovative load cell products to date in ConvexBT, and expanded manufacturing and global sales of its international G Series SI-based load cell product line. Interface also expanded its automation and high volume, engineered-to-order production capabilities, and added manufacturing representatives GenTek and Hill and Company to improve in-market sales support in the U.S.

Ian James is a seasoned senior executive with a background in manufacturing and systems. After spending the early part of his career in the UK military, he held a series of senior roles in GE before founding two successful startups. He has worked with Interface since late 2017, most recently as vice president of sales. In his new role as COO, James sees his primary challenge and opportunity as leading the transformation of operations to a new and robust manufacturing model that will help the company serve its customers with world class products supported by an unbeatable customer experience.

Brian Peters served as a successful regional sales manager before his promotion to vice president of Global Sales. Peters is now responsible for the worldwide sales network for Interface, including U.S. manufacturing representatives and international distributors. Stepping into his new role, Peters looks forward to bringing over a decade of direct experience to steer Interface’s continued efforts of industry leading customer support and targeted market growth in the test and measurement, industrial applications, and OEM markets.

“As we navigate the current dynamic landscape, it’s critical that we remain agile to stay in front of changing market demands and customer requirements,” said Peters. “Our diversification across a wide range of industries has provided us both stability through the pandemic and wide-reaching insight as markets are recovering. Interface has already experienced ramping growth in early 2021, and our ability to outpace and out service our competition will be vital to Interface maintaining the gold standard expectations set by our customers and the force measurement industry as a whole.”

Mark Weathers has extended his leadership role in Interface’s focus on automation and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) business solutions. His expanded role is a result of his continued achievements as vice president of Interface’s Mini and 1923 Wireless production groups, where he has been able to cut lead times for some of Interface’s higher volume products by 50% or more. This title change reflects the company’s new strategic priorities of growing its higher-volume custom OEM business, and the closely related improvement of its technology and manufacturing processes to improve cost and performance.

“The VP of Advanced Manufacturing and OEM products is an extension of my former role as VP of Mini and 1923, which are largely OEM products. My role will be to prepare us to be more competitive by innovating in both product and process, resulting in cost positions that allow us to move into higher volume OEM applications,” said Mark Weathers, vice president of advanced manufacturing and OEM products.

NEWS ARTICLE: Interface Promotes Three, Expanding Roles for Innovations, Services and New Markets

PRESS RELEASE: Force Measurement Solutions Leader Interface Announces Executive Promotions Supporting its Continued Growth and Expansion

Interface Continues Expansion in International Markets

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Interface is well-known across the U.S. for being the leading provider of premium force measurement products. We are heralded for our products’ and systems’ accuracy and reliability from coast to coast, and tens of thousands of manufacturers, test labs and more use our equipment every day to verify designs and test hardware.

However, did you know that Interface also has a strong presence in international markets including Europe, China, India and more? Interface has a long history of serving customers around the world. Our global outreach is supported by a very formidable network of distributors who work in-market to help customers with their force measurement needs.

In a continued effort to meet the global demands for precision sensor solutions, we have expanded our reach to customers across all continents to deliver the Interface products. In fact, despite the challenges of the past year, we had our best year in China in Interface’s 52-year history. Additionally, we’ve had substantial growth each month, and at the start of 2021 in global sales in APAC, LATAM and EMEA. We are at parity with our domestic sales in fulfilling demand.

Our growth in these markets is due to a concerted effort to speak directly with customers across these regions and find out more about their specific needs. Prior to the pandemic, we were attending more shows than ever and visiting customer sites internationally more frequently. Now, as like most of the world, we are conducting business around the clock via online meetings and with a hyper-focus on listening, learning and feedback mechanisms.

One of the direct results of these efforts was the creation of our Global Standard® Force Measurement (G Series) offering. Due to the increased requests for its high-precision, high-accuracy and high-reliability force measurement sensors designed and manufactured in the International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system, Interface launched the new International G Series product lineup in August 2020.

The G Series debuted with Interface’s most popular Mini™ load cells, enabling international customers to purchase these Global Standard Force Measurement products through the company’s large network of more than 37 distributors outside of the United States. You can locate a distributor in your area here. These products are the first Interface manufactured products near market. The facility’s proximity to core markets in Asia shortens the time and cost for customers to receive quality Interface products.

The G Series products available today include:

GLBM Series Load Button Load Cells – The GLBM Series Load Button Load Cells are strain gauge-based transducers with temperature compensation and excellent overall performance. This type provides a range of capacities up to 200kN with better than ±0.5% (full scale) non-linearity.

GSMTM Series Mini™ S-Beam Load Cell – The GSMTM Series Miniature S-Type Load Cells are a bi-directional aluminum strain gauge-based transducer with high performance and built-in temperature compensation. This design provides better than ±0.1% (full scale) non-linearity and includes overload protection in both tension and compression directions.

GWMC Series Mini™ Threaded In-Line Load Cells (10kN – 50kN) -The GWMC Series Miniature Threaded In-Line Load Cells are strain gauge-based transducers with temperature compensation and excellent overall performance. This type measures tensile and compressive loads up to 50kN with better than ±0.5% non-linearity.

GWMC Series Mini™ Threaded In-Line Load Cells (200N – 5000N) – The GWMC Series Miniature Threaded In-Line Load Cells are strain gauge-based transducers with temperature compensation and excellent overall performance. This type measures tensile and compressive loads up to 5000N with better than ±0.25% non-linearity.

In addition to the G Series product line, we are also evaluating new low-cost solutions that continue to meet Interface’s signature accuracy and reliability for our international markets. What we are hearing from our global customers about new solution requirements that range from middle ground low-cost, low-reliability force measurement products to Interface’s more premium jumbo or specialty product options.

To learn more about Interface and its solutions for international customers, please visit us at www.interfaceforce.com. Additionally, you can find the G Series solutions here: www.interfaceforce.com/global/.

Contributor:  Lloyd Fisher, VP International Sales