Board of Directors

James R. Bean has been a director of the Company since October 2006 and served as President and CEO of Preco Electronics, LLC from November 1999 to March 2020. From May 1997 to 1999 he held various management positions in Boise, Idaho with Preco Electronics, LLC. The company was sold to Sensata Technologies in March 2020 and Mr. Bean remained with Sensata until his retirement in November 2022. Previously he held various management positions in manufacturing operations with Sun Microsystems, Inc., Apple Computer, Inc. and National Semiconductor, Inc. Mr. Bean is a graduate of New Mexico State University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

Craig D. Gates has been a director of the Company since July 2009 and has been President and CEO of the Company since April 2009.  Previously he was Executive Vice President of Marketing, Engineering and Sales since July 1997.  He served as Vice President and General Manager of New Business Development from October 1995 to July 1997.  He joined the Company as Vice President of Engineering in October 1994.  From 1991 to October 1994, Mr. Gates served as Director of Operations, Electronics for the Microswitch Division of Honeywell Inc.  From 1982 to 1991, Mr. Gates held various engineering and management positions within the Microswitch Division.  Mr. Gates has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Urbana.  Mr. Gates also serves on the Board of Directors of CyberOptics Corporation.

Ronald F. Klawitter served as Executive Vice President of Administration, CFO, and Treasurer from July 1997 to July, 2015, before retiring. Previously he was Vice President of Finance, Secretary and Treasurer of the Company since October 1995. He was Acting Secretary from November 1994 to October 1995 and Vice President of Finance and Treasurer from 1992 to October 1995. From 1987 to 1992, Mr. Klawitter was Vice President, Finance at Baker Hughes Tubular Service, a subsidiary of Baker Hughes, Inc. He has a BA degree from Wittenberg University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Yacov A. Shamash has been a director of the Company since 1989.He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University and was the Vice President of Economic Development from 2001 – 2019 and the Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the campus from 2015. Professor Shamash developed and directed the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for the Design of Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits from 1989 to 1992 and also served as Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Washington State University from 1985 until 1992. Dr. Shamash also serves on the Board of Directors of Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., Softheon Inc., Advanced Convergence Group and Comtech Telecommunications Corporation.

Cheryl Beranek has been a director of the Company since December 2023. Since June 2007, Ms. Beranek has been President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Clearfield, Inc., a publicly held company that designs, manufactures and distributes fiber optic management, protection and delivery products for communications networks. Ms. Beranek was a member of the board of directors of publicly-traded CyberOptics Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of high precision sensors and inspection systems for the semiconductor and electronics industry, from May 2020 until its acquisition in November 2022. Ms. Beranek holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southwest Minnesota State University and a Master of Science degree from North Dakota State University.

Dr. Subodh K. Kulkarni has been a director of the Company since October 2018. Dr. Kulkarni has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Rigetti since December 2022. Dr. Kulkarni is a seasoned public company CEO with thirty-plus years of experience in the semiconductor industry and a track record of success in scaling and commercializing cutting-edge technologies. Prior to joining Rigetti, Dr. Kulkarni was President, CEO, and member of the Board of CyberOptics Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of high precision sensors and inspection systems for the semiconductor and electronics industry. He held these roles from 2014 until CyberOptics was acquired by Nordson Corporation in November 2022. Prior to CyberOptics, Dr. Kulkarni was CEO of Prism Computational Sciences, a developer of software tools for scientific and commercial applications in the semiconductor industry. Earlier in his career, he held additional leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of OEM/Emerging business, global commercial business, R&D and manufacturing at Imation, a global scalable storage and data security company. Dr. Kulkarni began his career in research and management positions with 3M Corporation and IBM. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and later obtained a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT. Dr. Kulkarni currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Prism Computational Sciences.

Corporate Officers

Craig D. Gates has been President and CEO of the Company since April 2009.  He has held various executive management positions since joining the Company in 1994.  From 1991 to October 1994 Mr. Gates served as Director of Operations, Electronics for the Microswitch Division of Honeywell Inc. From 1982 to 1991, Mr. Gates held various engineering and management positions within the Microswitch Division. Mr. Gates has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Brett R. Larsen has been Executive Vice President of Administration, CFO, and Treasurer since July 2015. Previously, he served as Vice President of Finance and Controller from February 2010 to July 2015, and as Chief Financial Officer of FLSmidth Spokane, Inc. from December 2008 to February 22, 2010. From October 2005 through November 2008, Mr. Larsen served as Controller of Key Tronic Corporation. From May 2004 to October 2005, Mr. Larsen served as Manager of Financial Reporting of Key Tronic Corporation. From 2002 to May 2004, Mr. Larsen was an audit manager for the public accounting firm BDO Seidman, LLC. He also held various auditing and supervisory positions with Grant Thornton LLP from 1997 to 2002. Mr. Larsen has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Masters degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Philip S. Hochberg has been Executive Vice President of Business Development of the company since July 2012. From October 2009 to July 2012, Mr. Hochberg held the position of Vice President of Business Development.  He has held a number of Director level positions since joining the Company in July 2000.  Prior to joining Keytronic, Mr. Hochberg worked for Quinton Instrument Company as their Director of Marketing and Product Management from 1992 to 2000. From 1988 to 1992, he was employed by SpaceLabs Medical as their Business Development Marketing Manager. He has an MBA from the University of British Columbia, a BA Psychology, with a minor in Business from Washington University in St. Louis.

Duane D. Mackleit has been Executive Vice President of Operations since July 2020. Previously he was Vice President of Operations from September 2019. Prior to this, Mr. Mackleit served as Vice President of Program Management since July 2012.  Mr. Mackleit also served as Director of Program Management from July 2008 to July 2012.  From May 2006 to July 2008 he served as Principal Program Manager.  Prior to that, he served as Program Manager from March 2002 to May 2006 and Associate Program Manager from August 2000 to March 2002. Mr. Mackleit has also held several other positions with Keytronic.  Mr. Mackleit has an AA in Business from Spokane Falls Community College and a BA in Business/Marketing from Eastern Washington University.  He also holds a MBA from Gonzaga University.

David H. Knaggs has been Executive Vice President of Quality and Information Systems since May 2021.  Previously he was Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs from November 2017 to May 2021. He was Vice President of Quality since October 2016. Before joining Keytronic, Mr. Knaggs worked at Telect, Inc. from 2008 to 2016 as their Director of Engineering. Prior to that, he worked at Isothermal Systems Research as Lead Systems Engineer from 2003 to 2008. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in mathematics from the University of Washington.

Chad Orebaugh has been Executive Vice President of Engineering since September 2021. Previously he served as Vice President of Engineering since April 2017. Prior to this, Mr. Orebaugh served as Director of Engineering since May 2013. From April 2010 to May 2013, he served as Manager of Engineering. From January 2000 to April 2010 he served as Lead Mechanical Engineer. Prior to that, he served as Mechanical Engineer from October 1998 to January 2000 and Associate Mechanical Engineer since October 1997. Mr. Orebaugh holds a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Gonzaga University.

Mark Courtney has been Vice President of Supply Chain of the Company since August 2019. Previously, he served as Purchasing Manager and Director of North American Purchasing from September 2015 to August 2019, and as Supply Chain manager, ERP and Business Operations Manager for Amphenol Telect from August 2007 to September 2015. From March 2006 to August 2007, he served as Senior Buyer/Planner for Honeywell Specialty Materials and from June 2005 to March 2006 as Purchasing Manager for MRV Communications.  From 2000 to June 2005, he served as a Field and Inside Sales Associate for Arrow Electronics and from October 1991 to May of 2000, he held various positions at Alesis.

Thomas Despres has been Senior Vice President of Southwest Operations since May 2021.  Previously he was Vice President of Southwest Operations since November 2017 to May 2021. Prior to joining Keytronic, Mr. Despres worked for Gates Corporation as Plant General Manager from July 2017 to November 2017. From 2016 to 2017, he was self-employed and from 2012 to 2016 he was employed by Flextronics as Vice President Global Account Management. He has an MBA from Campbell University, and a BBA, Production Management from Ohio University in Athens.