Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • May 18, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com W hether it's in her role as a manufactur- ing CEO or a key workforce-develop- ment strategist, Kelli-Marie Vallieres hasn't been one to back down from seemingly difficult challenges. The 51-year-old CEO of sister com- panies Sound Manufacturing and Mon- ster Power Equipment in Old Saybrook took over the family business from her father in 2006. She never planned to run the company, but when earning her Ph.D. in adult experiential learning at UConn she did a class project on Sound Manufacturing, which makes precision sheet metals for a variety of industries — landscaping, telecommunications, industrial, automotive, etc. The business was in a precarious position at the time, with one cus- tomer amounting to almost 90% of its revenue, Vallieres said. Further, that client was sold to an interna- tional conglomerate, making the situation even riskier. "My goal was to do business con- sulting so I thought this would be a great first project," Vallieres said. "But the issues were bigger than a consultant could fix," so she decided to join the company full time as CEO, "and I've been here ever since." Since taking over Sound, Vallieres has diversified the company's customer base, which included forming in 2011 Monster Power Equipment, a maker of commercial and municipal leaf and debris removal equipment. Under Vallieres' stewardship, the companies have grown to a combined 62 employees and $13 million in annual revenue. Her husband, John, and two sons also work at the family business, which recently moved into a new facil- ity, at 1 Williams Lane, that includes 80,000 square feet of production space. She's also formed relationships with Connecticut manufacturers, policymakers and other stakehold- ers, boosting her influence on issues involving manufacturing and work- force development. In fact, she was a runner-up for the state's new chief manufactur- ing officer position (filled by Colin Cooper), and currently serves as co- chair of the Governor's Workforce Council, which includes two dozen business, education and nonprofit executives, along with state and labor union officials tasked with re- viewing and overhauling the state's workforce-development programs. Years before the council was formed, Vallieres was already steeped in work- force-development issues, as president of the Eastern Advanced Manufactur- ing Alliance trade group, and a board member of the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Board. In the coming weeks, Connecticut will roll out a statewide version of an online manufacturing training program — called 180 Skills — that's been used by the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Board for about a decade. It will be available for free to all unemployed Connecticut residents. "It's an online platform where people who are unemployed can have all kinds of modulars they can go through," Vallieres said. "Some of it is around how to find a job, how to interview, things like that … and there's other more technical badges or certifications [users] can earn." The COVID-19 pandemic will likely increase the number workforce-edu- cation programs that can be taught online, which should help the state narrow a skills gap that has led to thousands of unfilled manufacturing jobs, she said. And despite logistical issues the pandemic has presented, the Gover- nor's Workforce Council is currently operating full steam ahead. In a more than hour-long inter- view with the Hartford Business Journal, Vallieres discussed the state's current workforce-develop- ment issues, how the coronavirus affects them and how she's been handling managing two companies amid a once-in-a-century pandemic. Here's an edited version of the conversation. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business? We had a scare where we thought an employee got sick while he was here probably a week that everything was shutting down. We shut down the business for a week, and then we slowly brought people back, and as of May 4, we're back to a full staff. We've implemented all the social distancing, face masks, we've got a good chunk of our employees work- ing remotely from home — basically everybody who is in the office and can work remotely is. We've got two shifts going on the manufacturing floor. It's been very challenging to manage the business, the needs of our customers, as well as balancing the health and safety of our employees — which comes first. But the thing that made me feel good is that when we were calling fur- loughed employees back to work they were all really anxious to go back. How much is business down? About 35% to 40%. How has the pandemic impacted your customers? We've had customers that I'm doing work for now that we haven't done for three to five years because they moved their manufacturing out of the U.S. But their plants in Taiwan and Mexico have been shut down, so Pipeline Builder Vallieres plays key role shaping CT manufacturing's workforce-development strategy Governor's Workforce Council co-chair Kelli- Marie Vallieres (center) talks with Bigelow Tea CEO Cindi Bigelow about the state's workforce- development efforts. FOCUS: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BY THE NUMBERS CT's manufacturing industry $30.78B Total output by Connecticut manufac- turers in 2018. 163,000 Total manufacturing employment in Connecticut at the end of March 2020. $96,279.43 The average annual compensation for a manufacturing worker in Connecticut (2017). Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CT DOL. HBJ PHOTO | GREG BORDONARO

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