Management Biographies

LAROUX K. GILLESPIE, Dr. Eng., FSME, CMfgE, PE
President 
Society of Manufacturing Engineers

LaRoux K. Gillespie, Dr. Eng., FSME, CMfgE, PE, retired as quality assurance manager of Honeywell’s Federal Manufacturing & Technologies Division. He led a 200-employee group responsible for product and operating quality for the 2,800-employee plant. His career at the Bendix Corp., AlliedSignal and then Honeywell involved a variety of engineering and management positions involving precision microminiature parts to large man-size cases, assembly, electronics and as head of quality to several thousand products. Gillespie has been extremely active in SME since becoming a student member in 1963, and is currently serving as the SME president. He has held more than 20 different officer and committee positions in his chapters, including chairing University of Kansas S003, Kansas City No. 57 and organizing Robotics International F162. Gillespie has previously held several terms on the SME Board of Directors. An SME Fellow, he has served on numerous SME committees over the years, including honor awards, certification, ad-hoc lifelong learning, education and advanced technologies publications. Gillespie chaired the former SME Machining Technology Association of SME (MTA/SME), led SME’s Profile 21 landmark study of manufacturing in 2000 and numerous SME technical conferences. He has degrees in both manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering and has been honored in Japan, Russia and the United States for his research in metal finishing.  

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MARK C. TOMLINSON, CMfgE, EMCP
Executive Director/CEO
Society of Manufacturing Engineers   

Mark C. Tomlinson is executive director/CEO of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Dearborn, Mich. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the Society with business responsibilities for events, professional development, membership and publications, the SME Education Foundation and all additional business-support operations. Tomlinson joined SME in 2003 as director of membership with responsibility for chapter and Technical Community activities. In 2005, he was named managing director of membership, expanding his role to include responsibility for SME membership activities worldwide. Tomlinson has held a variety of positions in the global manufacturing community. He previously served as director of proposal and estimating at Cincinnati/Lamb where he was responsible for global proposal and estimating for all Cincinnati and Lamb product lines. Prior to this, Tomlinson  served as vice president of Lamb Technicon Machining, where he was responsible for the company's machining systems engineering U.S. operations, including product engineering, new product development, controls, CAD, proposal and related engineering support functions. Tomlinson  also directed market planning and manufacturing engineering activities for the body and assembly and machine tool divisions of the company. He began his career in the machine tool industry at Buhr Industries, where he worked for three years. Tomlinson  currently holds one patent (U.S. 4,629,384) titled "Transfer and Locator of Workpieces for a Gang Machine." He is the past chair of SME's former Manufacturing Enterprise Council (MEC), a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the University of Michigan Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Science and a trustee of Lighthouse Community Development, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable housing to those in need. Tomlinson holds a degree from Ferris State University, and received his master's in engineering business management from Warwick University, England, in July 1998. 

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