NJMEP CEO Serves as Keynote Speaker for NJ Makers Day

On March 21, 2015, NJMEP’s CEO & President, John W. Kennedy, Ph.D., served as the keynote speaker for NJ Makers Day. The goal of the event was to attract participants to join the growing “MAKER CULTURE “of young and old to learn about and experience practical doing and tinkering with 3-D printing, electronics, CNC tools, metalworking, woodworking and all sorts of technology-related arts and crafts that are part of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) world. Makers from across New Jersey came together to celebrate and share the maker culture.

Highlights from the day include:

• NJ libraries, schools, museums and commercial and public makerspaces hosted fun and interesting events throughout the state. Presenters, entrepreneurs, small business owners, professionals, children, teens and parents came together to share their enthusiasm for, and interest in, the culture of making and creating.
• NJ Makers Day festivities ran from 10 am to 4 pm at over 135 locations throughout NJ. The inaugural kickoff event was held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark, which included a special videotaped message from Senator Cory Booker.
• Mike Nager of Festo Didactic demonstrated a Mechatronics material handling system that utilizes pneumatic and electronic control of manufacturing techniques.
• BJ Dowlen of Bodyworks Enterprises presented her concept (BodyBall) to the public and permitted some assembly of her product at NJIT.
• Glass Roots had a glass blowing exhibition demonstrating skills in scientific glass blowing and presented their educational opportunities.
• Andres Gomez, of Rockwell Automation, presented a display on soldering as well as a display of manufacturing control systems.

About John W. Kennedy, Ph. D.

John W. Kennedy, Ph.D. John has spent over 30-years in the Engineering and Manufacturing Industries – both in Sr. Management w/ larger firms like Sandvik & Cofely-GDF-Suez – and as the owner of several successful firms. One was the large-bore machine shop known as Barnett Industries in Irvington – teaming w/ Charlie Hood and Tony Ferreira before Tony bought the firm out and moved it to Harrison as Barnett Machine Tool. It continues on as a firm of over 150 years of service to the US & NJ Marketplace.

The second was as the President/COO of The Multitech Group (TMG), and engineering firm that was sold to Thinkpath in 2007. This company was annually one of the top performers in the market as named by NJBIZ. TMG (also) was on the post 9-11 Team that supported the deployment of scanning and screening machines in 429 US Airports.

After selling the firm, John was the President of the US Market for Cofely Services, a division of energy giant GDF-Suez focusing on high-end operations and maintenance support for airports, government, and high-tech manufacturing firms.

In 2012, John was asked to join (New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP) as the Chief Operating Officer and took over as Chief Executive Officer in 2014. This brought him full circle back to his manufacturing and New Jersey roots. The mission and the opportunity are solid “fits”.