All in the family: Three brothers take diverse paths from ISyE
Posted on 14. Dec, 2011 by admin in Focus on alumni
What’s better than one ISyE graduate in the family?
How about three?
In 1983, Jeff Plaster became the third of three brothers to graduate with a degree from the department. His two older brothers, identical twins Larry and Gary, graduated in ’80 and ’81, respectively. What drove them to pursue the same degree? Jeff says he was inspired by high-profile CEOs with industrial engineering degrees, and the university’s transition to focusing ISyE study on socio-technical systems and ergonomics. “It really tied the people with the processes and equipment,” he says.
And Larry adds that he liked the department’s emphasis on efficiency and making processes more cost effective, as well as the way the major combined engineering and business concepts.
The Plaster brothers
After receiving their engineering degrees, Gary and Larry also both stayed at Wisconsin and earned MBAs, in finance and marketing, respectively. From there, all three pretty much diverged.
Larry has spent his entire career working for Texas Instruments, working his way from a sales engineer position in Minneapolis to now worldwide corporate account manager and manager of Texas Instrument’s strategic relationship with GE Healthcare. He manages a worldwide team of sales and application engineers that is focused on understanding GE’s initiatives—and developing custom solutions to meet its needs. Larry has nurtured strategic relationships around the world, enabling TI and GE to partner in the development of key joint products. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where he volunteers for local charities and schools and travels around the world for both business and pleasure.
And though Gary also started with Texas Instruments, working in financial management, he moved on to several other corporations, including Sperry Corporation and Price Waterhouse Cooper, working on improving productivity, cost management, and other business strategy. He’s worked for Grant Thornton, launched an internet start-up, and now helps companies grow profitably with Landhouse Group LLC, a strategic consulting firm that he founded. Gary has also published two books about managing corporate growth, and is a professor at DePaul University’s business school. He also founded a youth lacrosse association in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he now lives. He volunteers with the National Volunteer Caregiving Network, which cares for homebound neighbors who are isolated by chronic health conditions or disabilities, and works with Native American tribes around the country on community planning and economic development. He enjoys gardening and fishing for tarpon—large saltwater fish—in his free time.
Jeff went the way of supply chain management for larger, well-known companies, starting with General Motors and continuing on to GE Healthcare and Pentair. For GE, he led the start-up of a greenfield electronics facility in Budapest. He now works as VP of integrated supply chain for Pentair, which creates water pump and filtration systems for residential and commercial purposes.
For Pentair, Jeff has implemented lean manufacturing, simplified the supply chain and shortened lead times in a model driven by natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, as well as housing starts and other market drivers. He says he is most proud of his team’s effort in bringing products and supply back to Wisconsin, increasing both labor productivity and the earned hours in his plant. Outside of work, he volunteers in Milwaukee homeless shelters, is an avid sports fan, dabbles in wildlife photography, hikes, and raises and rides horses.
The brothers chose three completely different career paths but say they all agree that much of their career success can be attributed to the education they received at Wisconsin. “The industrial engineering program provided a broad understanding of the bigger picture of manufacturing,” Jeff says. “I never viewed myself as an engineer after graduating—Madison prepared us to be leaders.”
