News & Knowledge

E Tech Group’s Business Director for Material Handling, Kurt Wakeman participated in a roundtable discussion on the future of automation industry with two other industry professionals for the Plant Services, The Tool Belt Podcast. The podcast and article were originally published by Plant Services. Click here to listen or read the transcript of the full episode. In this episode of The Tool Belt, three system integrator professionals share their perspectives on where the automation industry is heading. The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) is a global trade association with over 500 member companies in 35 countries that seeks to advance the industry of control system integration. Control system integrators use their engineering, technical and business skills to help manufacturers and others automate their industrial equipment and systems. For this year’s System Integrator Roundtable episode, Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk spoke with three veteran system integrator professionals about how the industry is changing and which new technologies are poised to make a big impact. Kurt Wakeman is the business director for Material Handling group at E Tech Group. Bob Pusateri is director of business development at Electronic Drives and Controls. Sam Hoff is President and CEO of Patti Engineering. PS: Kurt, let me pose that question to you. Do you see a big change in the kind of work that your team will be doing in 2023 or beyond, versus the last couple of years? Or do you see the same kind of workload increasing? KW: Yeah, I do think 2023 looks a little different based on some of the economic challenges we’ve been facing. Customers tend to be investing a little bit more in existing equipment as opposed to buying new systems. They’re a little bit tighter with their money and they’re investments, so we’ve seen a big uptick in demand for recontrols, … Continued

We’re pleased to announce that Mike Whatley, Business Director for Material Handling, will take on a new corporate operations role within E Tech Group as Director of Digital Technology.  Mike will assume this new role immediately, while working with the Material Handling team to transition his current responsibilities. Kurt Wakeman has joined E Tech Group and assumed responsibility for the Material Handling Program.  In his new role, Mike will work alongside the IT & Advanced Software teams, among others, to drive the company’s overall digital transformation strategy and roadmap.  He will support the development and implementation of internal technology initiatives, primarily focused on Engineering and Corporate Workflow Automation & Optimization through digitization and standardization across the enterprise.  These initiatives are critical to the ongoing effort to integrate 4 outstanding brands into 1 best-in-class company with common standards and practices. We appreciate Mike’s contributions over the past 16+ years  in a variety of programming, engineering and management roles – supporting the growth and success of E Tech Group.  Congratulations Mike and thank you for your dedication to E Tech Group!

E Tech Group would like to announce the addition of a new member to our team, Kurt Wakeman!  Kurt will be reporting to Alan Maxwell, who had some kind words he wanted to share.  “I’d like to welcome Kurt Wakeman to the E Tech Group Process Industries team!  Kurt joins us in the role of Business Director, Material Handling.  We look forward to utilizing Kurt’s depth and breadth of experience in the Material Handling industry to diversify and grow our established presence in the market by expanding our capabilities, developing additional offerings and solutions, and forming new vendor & client partnerships.” Kurt comes to us with over ten years of engineering and project management experience across program, software, mechanical, electrical and controls. We’re elated Kurt has joined us and thrilled to know he feels the same after sharing, “I am excited for the opportunity to drive growth and take E Tech Group’s Material Handling business to the next level!” Welcome to the team!