Meet Our Team
David Klein
President & Technical Market Consultant
David brings 30 years of business and technical market management experience to lead TekMark Growth Partners’ delivery of custom technical market consulting and M&A advisory services. Sustained growth (from our clients and for our clients) has resulted in large part from a simple belief and practice; a hyper focus on client satisfaction that includes recommending in detail and agreeing with our clients on what you are going to do to meet their needs and then executing on that commitment.
David has performed and led consulting services for a global client base across many technical markets including the; optics & photonics; aerospace and defense; electronics/semiconductor; sensor; medical, analytical and scientific instrument; industrial, automation and IIoT; and general process and manufacturing industries.
Prior to starting TekMark in 2002, David held increasingly responsible management positions with Deutsch Aerospace, Coppus Engineering (now part of Curtiss-Wright), EG&G Corporation (now part of Perkin Elmer), Plasma-Therm and IDEX Corporation. David holds a B.S., Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University and an M.B.A. from Bryant University.
For full bio see LinkedIn profile.
Wayne Curcie
Technical Market Consultant
Wayne is a technical market consultant and subject matter expert (SME) with a focus on the pharmaceutical, biotech, semiconductor and similar process and industrial markets, equipment and technologies. He has managed complex projects including the design, development, fabrication, automation and testing of semiconductor fab process support systems and pharmaceutical fermenters, bioreactors, filtration units and related support engineered components, controls, equipment and systems.
Prior to consulting Wayne held engineering and management positions with IBM Semiconductor, CH2M Hill Consulting Engineers, Qimonda Semiconductor and ABEC BioSystems. Wayne has a B.S., Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Syracuse University.
Jill Stechler
Technical Market Researcher
Jill supports TekMark and our client base with quantitative research and database development including the identification of; prospective targets and comparative data (finders programs); lead users, prospective customers and potential investors to support pro-active marketing campaigns; competitors to enable SWOT analysis; key industry decision makers, key opinion leaders (KOLs) and similar to support qualitative/Voice of the Customer (VoC) research; agency TPOCs and program managers (for SBIR related programs); among similar activities.
Jill has conducted extensive research across a variety of technical markets including the electronics, semiconductor, optics and photonics, sensor/IoT, medical instruments and devices, and industrial equipment among others. Jill’s career has spanned administrative, research and office management positions including at University Hospitals and Collaborative Clinical Research, Inc. where she was involved in activities to support pharmaceutical research. Jill holds a degree from Hocking College.
Gerry Waldron
Technical Market Consultant
Gerry has 30 years of experience in technical sales, marketing and management of electronic products and electronic contract manufacturing services (EMS). He supports client programs with in-depth and unique insights into industry sales channels, competitive technical capabilities and evaluation, market positioning, offshoring/reshoring, supply chain and logistics along with overall strategic development.
He has supported technology clients in electronics, medical instruments, military, aerospace, refining & petrochemicals, industrial controls and general industry. His international experience includes management of the NAFTA region, serving clients in Japan and Korea as well as managing offshore partnerships for low-cost region manufacturing programs.
Gerry’s technical market experience includes 22 years with Libra Industries, an electronics contract manufacturer (EMS), where he was the primary driver of sales growth. This organic growth along with strategic acquisitions enabled Libra to establish a long-term track record of consistent, profitable growth and it was recently sold to a private equity firm. Prior to Libra, Gerry also held several technical and business positions in the specialty chemicals industry including Shell Chemical’s refining catalysts group. He holds a B.S., Chemistry from The University of Dayton.
Sharon Starr
Technical Market Researcher
Sharon is a highly experienced technical market research professional. She specializes in business-to-business customer insights, business intelligence, marketing and strategic planning. She has worked extensively in the electronics manufacturing industry (EMS) along with many end use markets including the aerospace & defense, medical instrument, automation, networking & communications, industrial automation among others. Throughout her career she has conducted in-depth Voice-of-the-Customer research for leading manufacturers in the electronics, chemical and similar technical industries.
Sharon was the Director of Market Research at IPC International (Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits) from 2003 – 2019 where she researched many segments of the global electronics manufacturing industry, as well as conducting major studies of industry trends in markets, technology, quality benchmarking and compensation. Previously, she held management positions at Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in strategic marketing, strategic planning, business development and marketing communications. Sharon has an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management with a concentration in economics, marketing and strategy and a B.A. in English and History from the University of Wisconsin.
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