MEET OUR TEEM
MEET OUR TEEM
Nicholas J Frank
Originally from Houston, Texas, Nick spent 15+ years in Europe before returning to the US at the end of 2016. For the majority of this time he resided in Switzerland but also lived for an extended period in Paris, France. Nick helped to co-found and lead operations of a contract manufacturing firm in the Lake Geneva region city of Montreux. Serving the quality conscious Swiss market, Nick provided a bridge between domestic electronic hardware companies and high quality offshore manufacturing and assembly. With customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to local startups, the common need is for reliable manufacturing and supply chain logistics of quality products at an affordable price. Nick started his career with a move to China for a period of time to locate, verify and solidify quality manufacturing partners. He forged relationships at the founder and executive level that he would later trust with his highest quality and most critical Swiss customers. With nearly two dozen years of expansion, the network of manufacturing expertise has grown with both machine investment and a skilled work force to now occupy multiple sites with factories employing thousands. Still serving quality minded manufacturers, Nick now resides with his wife, Kristin and son, Malcolm, in Austin, Texas. When not serving electro-mechanical product companies or on the phone to the other side of the world, you'll find Nick traveling or somewhere outdoors with his family.
MICHAEL LALLY
Mike's experience comes as a second generation businessman. He and his 4 brothers lead the various sensor companies of the PCB Group. Mike was the founder and president of The Modal Shop which designed and manufactured vibration calibration systems and structural vibration test products. The flagship brand, PCB Piezotronics, was founded by his uncle and his father in 1968 to serve product design engineers and machine maintenance technicians with quality vibration, force and pressure sensors. Serving blue customers like NASA, Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, Airbus, Daimler/Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Ford, GM, GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi, as well as thousands of other electronics and durable goods manufacturers, the brothers grew PCB Group through both organic sales and strategic acquisitions at a compound annual rate of over 15% from 1968 to 2016. In July of 2016 PCB Group, with over a thousand employees world wide, was acquired by the public company MTS Systems Corp (MTSC) to further serve customer synergies in the mechanical test and measurement market products. Mike has 4 kids through college and now lives in the Tampa/St Petersburg area with his wife, Robin and son, Issac. Mike holds a private pilots license, and enjoys adventure travel, boating and family time at the beach.
SCOTT SHWARTS
Scott is an accomplished technology and product development executive with over 30 years of experience. He’s worked for or with a wide range of companies from Apple to AT&T to numerous small start-ups. He has experience in everything from IoT devices to consumer products to industrial control and robotics. When not developing new products for Knectiv clients, Scott can be found mentoring young start-up companies or advising angel investment groups. Scott resides in the Asheville, NC area.
LI YANCONG
Li Yancong has been ensuring the highest quality of PCBs and electronic assemblies for nearly 20 years. After graduating from Hebei University outside of Beijing, Li joined the prestigious Yuandong Group in 1998 as a PCB engineer. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Engineering Manager in 2000 and later Quality Management Director in 2006, overseeing the quality control systems of the group and its nearly 1000 employees. In 2009, Li left Yuandong to manage Chinese operations of the Swiss firm Ruida Electronics, acting as the quality control guru for the uber-strict technical requirements from the Swiss manufacturing industry. Li is an expert in PCB, CAD & CAM design, PCB + PCBA manufacturability analysis and is a member of the China Printed Circuit Association Technical Committee. He lives in Beijing with his wife and son.