Nifco Americas has some pretty incredible employees! We encourage you to read their stories of innovation, being an expert in their field, and advancing their knowledge base.
Jose I Assembly Team Leader
José has been with Nifco for almost 10 years, dating back to his days at La Vergne High School where he first started in Shipping. Now a Team Leader for Assembly, José considers his second-shift team members as a second family. This is high praise as there is nothing José values more than his family. When not at the Tennessee facility, you can find the entire Serrano family out fishing for White Bass and Catfish. Coming to La Vergne from El Salvador 20 years ago, José has brought with him a code of treating his teammates and coworkers with the upmost respect.
Nohemi I Assembly Supervisor
Nohemi Saucedo still remembers joining the Nifco Group 16 years ago when she was not looking for a job but accompanying her aunt in the job application process. She started as an Assembly Operator and has been promoted to Assembly Supervisor through her outstanding efforts and performance. Nohemi spends her free weekends visiting her grandmother with her children and her 4 legged fur baby. She never skips out on the opportunity to teach herself a new skill through tutorials on YouTube while eating "Rice and Fries."
Mikayla I AITF ISO Coordinator
Mikayla Doerzbacker quickly followed her siblings away from Pennsylvania, trading in Girl Scout cookies for caramel lattes and computer labs’ wheelie chair races while studying biological engineering at OSU. Mikayla fell in love with C-Bus for the nightlife, metro parks, and coffee shops. She recently stepped into the role of IATF ISO Coordinator, and she wears her Nifco title with poise, much like her high heels.
Jeremy I General Manager
Jeremy Rogers was born and raised in the land of country music. However, he will never voluntarily listen to country music while bass fishing on the weekends. Nifco has been a segment of Jeremy's life since skateboarding in the parking lot while in high school. He officially became a member of the Nifco group as an Assembly Operator and is now handling the entire Nifco La Vergne plant operations as General Manager.
Abbas I Material Handler
Abbas Al-Bidieri carries the title of "Material Handler," "Soccer Dad," and "Home Chef. He is known in Nifco for his perfect attendance, training ability, and being the go-to guy for a good laugh. You can often spot Abbas putting a little cream and sugar in his coffee in the morning and evening. Next time you see him be sure to ask him how he makes his homemade chicken soup.
Shannon I Acting President
Meet Shannon Stehman! She joined Nifco as an entry-level engineer and became the first woman President for Nifco America! Shannon has quickly made central Ohio her home while studying engineering at Ohio State University and competing on the fencing team. While running an international company, Shannon takes time to relish reading, drinking coffee, and being a worldwide tourist.
Bill I Information Technology
Meet Bill Gilcrest! He has been with Nifco for 27 years! You can find him in IT working on our ERP system and playing the trumpet. He grew up listening to jazz music and picked up the trumpet in the 4th grade. Bill continues to play Taps Across America on Veterans and Pearl Harbor Day. When he is not playing for Little Big Band Of Columbus he spends his free time making pens with his woodturner.
Madison I Quality Engineer
“Part of my job is to bully test the assembly lines, which just a fancy way of saying I try to trick the machines to pass a bad assembly. This is the fun part. If the work instructions say to place a spring in the fixture, I place two springs, bent springs, incorrect springs, and springs in the wrong orientation. If I determine that the machine will assemble and pass bad parts, I meet with production engineering to discuss how to fix this issue.”
Ken I Design Engineer
“I started my career as a design engineering at Nifco Japan in 2011. Last April I started working at Nifco America. One of the biggest similarities between Nifco Japan and Nifco America is both companies are an “idea company.” We put more importance on creating new ideas and this has been both company’s philosophy since Nifco establishment in 1967. Every idea that pops up in our mind we can openly discuss with peers and everyone respects it. We are able to push concepts forward and create new products that work in new and exciting ways because of this company culture.” We are extremely lucky to have Kentaro-San at Nifco America for almost a year.
Tony I Product Development Engineer I
Tony Wulk is a Product Development Engineer in Canal Winchester. “I have a degree in chemical engineering, chemistry and physics have always been an interest of mine. In the automotive plastics space, I can also draw from my experience in wood and metalworking to handwork parts. I particularly enjoy projects, at Nifco, where interactions at the molecular level must be a consideration. Recently my focus has been on the application of lubricants and choice of material to increase value to our customers.”
Drew I Production Engineer
In the last year, Drew has been learning to program robots to pack parts, which he sees as a beneficial skill in the future. “We have been able to pack parts directly into finished good totes in different positions using the Yushin robot and a servo motor table. Matt Vaughn and I came up with the idea, and we programmed the PLC and Yushin ourselves to achieve our goal. We learned a great deal from this project that will help in future projects.”
Aric I Design Engineer II
Aric Augustine, a research and development engineer at our Headquarters in Ohio, told us what he thinks are important skills to have as an R&D development engineer: “I think a skillset that has helped me in my research and development role is having attention to detail and being able to creatively solve problems with sometimes limited information.”
Jacob I Product Development Engineer I
Nifco welcomes Jacob Brown to the Design Engineering team. Jacob is a familiar face around the corporate office; he was an intern for the summers of 2018 and 2019 to be hired as a development engineer in June of 2020. "Coming in with two summers of experience as an intern helped greatly with my knowledge in many different areas. Even seemingly simple things, like having previous knowledge to navigate through databases quickly, filling out engineering specific forms, and knowing some of the many acronyms were things that proved very helpful in the first weeks of my position."
Ryan I Sales Supervisor
Ryan Plodzik is a new business development manager in our Troy, Michigan office. He has been with Nifco since 2014 and loves solving problems for customers. “I have learned a lot about people over the last 6 months- it’s really important to be understanding to everybody’s individual situations and to be flexible”
Reis I Design Engineer II
Reis Lehman is a design engineer working on parts for our domestic three customers. He regularly has to challenge assumptions to create successful and inventive designs. “I see myself as a bridgebuilder between different internal and external stakeholders. I believe the ability to look beyond what someone says and understand what they truly mean is integral to developing the most effective solutions.”
