BUSINESS BRIEFS Profile: John Stropki The former Lincoln Electric executive chairman shares his business philosophy and thoughts regarding the future of welding 38 FEBRUARY 2014 How did you come to work for Lincoln Electric? I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage “It’s better to be lucky than good,” and in my case that’s exactly what the situation was. I grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights and a next-door neighbor and family friend was a longtime Lincoln Electric employee who worked in the maintenance department of our consumables factory. He introduced and recommended me to the company, and as a result, I was offered a summer job between my freshman and sophomore year at Purdue University. I ended up working in the factory for three summers while attending Purdue. After graduating with an industrial engineering degree, I was offered a full-time job in our technical sales training program. What were the positions you held with Lincoln prior to becoming CEO? How did they prepare you to lead the company? I started my full-time career in May 1972 when I joined the engineering training program. Just as we do now, we hired engineers for two paths, one for the engineering curriculum, which is focused on either R&D, plant engineering, or the manufacturing engineering side of our business, or the other path in technical sales. I felt my skills and personality were better suited to technical sales, so that was the curriculum and path I chose. After a one-year training program in Cleveland, I was assigned to a field office in Indianapolis. I then spent the next 20- plus years in various roles within our sales organization. I moved from Indianapolis to Ft. Wayne, Ind., to Chicago, Ill., in each case taking on greater levels of responsibility, calling on larger accounts, and taking on more important strategic responsibilities within the company. (From there, Stropki had stints as a district sales manager, national sales manager for Canada, vice president of sales of the Cleveland company, which included the U.S. and Canadian sales organizations, then VP of sales with international and domestic responsibilities. In 1996, he became president of the North American company, then continued to advance until achieving his final position, executive chairman.) Did you have a mentor in the company? Who was that person and how did he/she help you? I wouldn’t say a mentor; I would say several mentors. I don’t think any one individual ever shapes another individual’s career by him or herself. It’s a matter of a number of people that you teach and who teach you, and you have the opportunity to learn from in either your personal or business experience. My father was not a businessman; he was a construction worker and member of the Operating Engineers Union. He taught John M. Stropki John M. Stropki retired as executive chairman and member of the Board of Directors of The Lincoln Electric Co. at the end of 2013. For the final eight and a half years of his 41year career with the company, he served as CEO. Stropki shared the story of his career with the Welding Journal.
Welding Journal | February 2014
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