Florida MEP: Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2008

For more information please contact:
Gene Lussier
Board Chair, Florida MEP
954-565-0047

FLORIDA MEP APPOINTS ROGER GRACE, STRATEGIC HIGH-TECHNOLOGY MARKETING CONSULTANT TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CELEBRATION, FL - The Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Florida MEP) has recently added Roger H. Grace, a Naples, Florida-based marketing consultant who specializes in technology and manufacturing to their Board of Directors. Grace founded Roger Grace Associates (RGA) in 1982, and his background includes more than 40 years of analog circuit design engineering, manufacturing engineering, applications engineering, project management, product marketing, and technology consulting.

“Roger has extensive experience in assisting manufacturers, and is widely acknowledged as one of the leaders in the micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) industry. He’s also been a resource to the media, often contributing articles and interviews to many technical and business publications,” said Gene Lussier, chairman of the Florida MEP Board of Directors. “His values mirror those of the Florida MEP organization, with the goal to strengthen our manufacturers by showing them new ideas, products and processes. He will be an important asset to our team.”

Grace’s services to domestic and international clients include market research, competitive analysis, merger and acquisition support, and business plan development. His clients include the National Science Foundation, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories, Thomson (France), Texas Instruments, H.P., the French Government, Seagate, Applied Materials, Oki Semiconductor and many organizations in the electronic field especially small and start-up companies.

He has served on a number of industry committees, including chair of the Marketing Committee for the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) Sensor Manufacturers’ Division, and chair of the Marketing Committee for the IEEE 1451 Smart Transducer Communications Interface Standard. He was a co-founder of the Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation (MANCEF) where he served as its President. He also serves on a number of editorial advisory boards, and is a guest lecturer at numerous colleges, including University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and Boston University. Mr. Grace has been a guest lecturer at the University of California Berkeley from 1992-2005 where he taught a course in business plan development. He was awarded Engineering Alumni of the Year by Northeastern University in 2005 for his contributions to the commercialization of Micro and Nanotechnology.

Mr. Grace’s educational background includes a B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. from Northeastern University and the MBA program at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.

The Florida MEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national MEP is a network of manufacturing extension centers that provide business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to more than 2000 manufacturing and business “coaches” whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits, and enhanced global competitiveness. For more information on the Florida MEP program call 321-939-4000.

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