A joint offering by the College of Engineering and the School of Business
The Engineer in Transition to Management
Ron Read was director of process development for the Cannon unit (electronic components) of ITT Industries, Santa Ana, California until 2001, when he retired. He has worked with ITT worldwide product and process development teams in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, France, UK and Japan.
Mr. Read has 40 years of experience as both a practicing professional engineer and an engineering manager in the automotive, aerospace/electronics and industrial business sectors. He began his career as a project engineer at the Bendix Corporate Research Labs in 1961. He made the transition to engineering management at the Bendix Manufactured Housing Division and later became director of business planning at the Bendix Electrical Components Division. He joined Midland-Ross Corporation in 1983 as director of technology. In 1991, he became director of engineering for ITT and was appointed to senior staff reporting to the president of Cannon in 1995.
Mr. Read has more than 30 years of experience in teaching management courses for technical professionals. He currently teaches at the UCLA Extension's, Department of Engineering, Information Systems and Technical Management and the University of Wisconsin–Madison's, Department of Engineering Professional Development. He has taught at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and BYU. He also has conducted workshops for the SAE International and IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers) professional societies. Mr. Read has led on-site international training programs in Germany, France, Finland, UK, Denmark, Mexico and Japan. A partial list of companies include Bendix, FRAM, Midland-Ross, Pilkington, Mitsubishi, Flightline Electronics, Viking Connectors, ITT, United Technologies Carrier Corporation, Toyota, Nokia, Bay Networks, Leviton, Scientific Atlanta, SONY, Sandia (Livermore), Informatica, City of Hope, and JPL.
He is a graduate of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and a registered professional engineer.
What Others Are Saying
“Ron Read was excellent!”
Tim Higgins, Research Products Corporation
“Great management training!”
Andree Uzee, Dow Chemical Company
“... a valuable learning experience.”
Greg Loughry, AAR Mobility Systems
“Great content, good pace, well worth taking the time.”
Bob Baldwin, Southern California Edison