1995 FIN: Harris Succeeds Scofield as IFI Managing Director
FASTENER HISTORY
1995 FIN: Harris Succeeds Scofield as IFI Managing Director
Rob Harris
Harris Is Sixth IFI Managing Director
December 13, 1995 FIN – Robert Harris is only the sixth managing director in the 64-year history of the Industrial Fasteners Institute.
IFI was founded in 1931 and first named a managing director in 1940. Herman H. Lind served from 1940 to 1954. Frank Masterson was managing director for the next 20 years and Clyde R. Roberts Jr. held the executive position from 1975 – 1981.
Richard Belford took the managing director title on an interim basis from 1982 – 1984 and was followed by C.G. (Dick) Scofield who retired at the end of 1995. ©1995/2009 Fastener Industry News.
December 13, 1995 FIN – A one-time ship’s captain has taken the helm at the Industrial Fasteners Institute. Robert Harris succeeded C.G. (Dick) Scofield as the managing director of the IFI on December 4.
The Cleveland, Ohio-based organization of North American manufacturers of bolts, nuts, screws, rivets and custom formed parts has been searching for a new director since announcing Scofield’s retirement a year ago.
IFI chairman James Schiele said Harris “has an engineering background, corporate management experience and marketing skills that will be extremely useful in communicating technical information to IFI members as well as fasteners users.”
Schiele, noting the IFI recognizes “rapid changes, both in the industrial climate and in the needs of fasteners users,” told Fastener Industry News that Harris’ “understanding of engineering standards and specifications is a particularly useful asset.”
Harris, 48, was selected from a pool of 125 applicants.
He was a corporate vice president for a Cleveland aerospace manufacturer of flight-qualified hardware for NASA. He also was in charge of an industrial division involving vibration monitoring and predictive maintenance.
He also was a fleet manager for a ship builder and a ship’s captain.
Though not directly in the fastener business, Harris noted he was “a user of fasteners in a number of applications.”
“I’m comfortable with the technology,” Harris told FIN.
Many people believe ships are primarily welded, but in reality ships use “tons of fasteners,” Harris pointed out.
After seeing North America lose much of its shipbuilding industry and portions of the aerospace manufacturing, Harris said he brings to IFI a “keen sense of preservation and stimulating growth in core industries.”
Having seen competing economies while living in England, Italy and Singapore in his shipbuilding career, Harris said an ongoing question for the IFI to deal with is “how do we compete here in North America?”
Harris described his experience as “primarily management plus sales and marketing and financial with P & L responsibility.”
His first assignment is to “spread the word as to who the IFI is and what the IFI does.”
Harris resides in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, with his wife and two children. He is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and De Paul University.
The 100 IFI members and associates use their technical knowledge to advance technology and application engineering of fasteners and formed parts through planned programs of research and education. The IFI as a whole meets three times a year. ©1995/2009 Fastener Industry News.
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