Joe Zawacki joined Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE) LLC on Monday, 20th July as General Manager in Brenham, Texas.
During his induction this week, we caught up with Joe to learn a little more about him as a person, and of his first impressions of life at Precision Polymer Engineering.
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INTERVIEWER: Hi Joe – thanks for letting us grab a minute with you on your first day! We really just wanted ask a few questions to give people the chance to learn a little about you, if that's ok?
JZ: Sure no problem!
So first, could you give us an idea of what you’ll be doing here at Precision Polymer Engineering?
Absolutely. I’m joining PPE as General Manager, which I’m incredibly excited about. On top of the standard challenges involved in growing a business – capacity increases, working even more closely with our customers – this year, we’ve got the Covid-19 pandemic to contend with.
How are you expecting Covid-19 to impact the business?
It’s impossible to predict accurately how the situation will develop from week to week, but what I can say is that thanks to the work of my predecessors we have some very strong foundations here at Precision Polymer Engineering. We’ll be continuing to work closely with our customers to ensure we’re meeting demands as best as possible, but critically, we’ll be taking every measure to continue to protect our team.
In the short term, it’s definitely going to make your onboarding a little more interesting!
Haha absolutely, group gatherings will have to take a back seat for a while with the social distancing! I will certainly be making a point to meet everyone personally and introduce myself properly as soon as it's safe to do so.
Could you tell us a little about your background?
Well I’m originally from Michigan…
Big change to Texas!
Definitely, but I moved here after graduating so I’m slowly getting used to the heat! My two young boys are native Texans so you can’t hold my northern roots against me!
We’ll try not to!
So yes, after graduating with a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA, I starting working in a variety of strategic engineering roles – most recently as a VP of a hydraulics strategic business unit. So in total that’s over twenty years.
What kinds of things do you like to do outside of work in your downtime?
Together with my wife and children, we enjoy all kinds of outdoor sports. So biking and swimming, and we also love wake surfing and boating.
And you’re also pretty big on football, is that right?
I’m an avid Michigan fan, as you might have guessed! But I’ll root for all the Big 10 schools during the football season. Apart from Ohio State, sorry, the rivalry’s just too big! I also coach for my son’s teams, which I really enjoy.
Well I'll let you carry on settling in then! Thanks again for the time today.
My pleasure – I look forward to giving you a more detailed update soon!
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