TTA Fall Meeting Speakers

     Summary  Hotel  Speakers  Sponsorship Attendance Fees  Policies

Wendy Covey, TREW Marketing    
CEO & Founder    

Wendy Covey is a CEO, a technical marketing leader, author of Content Marketing, Engineered, one of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in America, and she holds a Texas fishing record. 

With 25 years as a marketing leader in engineering design and manufacturing, Wendy knows the key to building trust and converting technical buyers is understanding their pain and developing compelling, technical content that leads to a solution. Through her company, TREW Marketing, Wendy has helped hundreds of engineering and technical companies become trusted advisors, grow sales pipelines, and increase market share through content marketing.

Wendy’s book, Content Marketing, Engineered (and her podcast of the same name), helps technical marketers looking to adopt or improve their content marketing programs. Wendy often shares her expertise in industry presentations, workshops and on the keynote stage.

Wendy gained national recognition when she was named one of WSJ’s 10 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs in America for bringing a unique, informed perspective to guide business leaders in technical industries.

Presentation:  Reaching the Technical Buyer: 2024 Research Findings for Manufacturers

Engineers and technical buyers are often the leading specifiers and decision-makers for manufacturing solutions. Learn how this discerning audience seeks and consumes information to make purchase decisions, how that behavior differs by age, and ways the landscape has changed over time.

In this research findings presentation, you’ll learn answers to questions such as:

  • Is it important to have a strong digital presence?
  • Do engineers use social media for work?
  • What types of content are most valued?
  • When are buyers most open to engaging with sales?
  • With younger engineers taking the helm, how are companies evolving their marketing, sales and recruitment strategies?

Kajsa Ralston, Fortis Mazars   
Manager Sustainability Advisory Services   

Overview Kajsa has worked with Forvis Mazars for 2 years and has 6+ years of sustainability working experience. Kajsa has experience in sustainability and ESG, with a focus on operations, environmental factors, as well as talent and culture management.​

Career Highlights
• Developed internal sustainability targets and metrics for benchmarking progress
• Developed and implemented action plans to improve metrics over time
• Tracked and improved metrics on waste, chemicals, water, raw materials, and air quality
• Established methodology for supply chain traceability and chain of custody verification
• Performed social and environmental assessments on supply chain
• GHG emissions calculations
• Supported and completed climate reporting on CDP
• Resource consumption analysis
• Sustainability benchmarking to stakeholder requests and roadmaps
• Designed and facilitated training/workshops on ESG and Sustainability

Before joining Forvis Mazars, Kajsa Ralston was responsible for sustainability at a textiles and apparel company, and has in depth industry expertise for this sector.

Kevin Hancock  
EXOSTAR  

Kevin Hancock has over 20 years experience in secure collaboration with distributed teams and partners in highly regulated markets. He has led Sales Engineering, Customer Success, and Professional Services Teams across a broad technology spectrum including Agile Development and DevOps tools and practices; Zero Trust Networking; and Identity and Access Management just to name a few. Focusing on driving adoption, managing change, and helping customers learn, Kevin joined Exostar in May 2021 as Director, Sales Engineering.

The Cost of Non-Compliance:  Why CMMC Matters

The Department of Defense is preparing to finalize the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 in early 2025.   Non-compliance with CMMC requirements can impact your business as a contractor or sub-contractor that does work for the Department of Defense.  This session will provide background on the CMMC program and how we got here, where we are in the rulemaking process, and what will be required under the program. Attendees will learn about the core levels of CMMC, the timeline for compliance, and how to navigate the certification process effectively. We will also discuss best practices for aligning with NIST SP 800-171.  Ultimately, this presentation will illustrate why investing in CMMC compliance is not just about meeting government regulations but protecting an organization's future in the competitive defense industry. 

If you do business with the Department of Defense, with companies that do, or plan to, you’ll want to attend this session.

Lukas Mueller  
Micrometals, Inc.  
Director of Application Engineering  

Lukas Mueller is the Director of Application Engineering at Micrometals Inc. He received his BS and MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology in 2012 and 2014 respectively. During his graduate studies he worked on novel power converter topologies for renewable energy applications with the FREEDM system center. Before joining Micrometals, he worked as a Design Engineer specializing in Magnetics for PULS. His research interests include the symbolic and numerical optimization of magnetic components.

Presentation: Design Considerations for the Next Generation of Inductors and Transformers

The widespread use of GaN and SiC semiconductors is enabling smaller and more efficient electronics. Magnetic components, like transformers and inductors, are becoming the main bottleneck in terms of reducing the size, weight, cost and losses in power converters. Optimizing magnetic components is therefore paramount in order to fully utilize the benefits offered by modern semiconductors. This presentation will focus on the theoretical limits of magnetic component performance to evaluate what improvements are possible in practical designs. Practical guidelines on material, core and wire selection are presented to assist engineers with optimizing their designs. 

Alex Chausovsky  
Director of Analytics and Consulting
Bundy Group  
In his investment banking advisory role as the Director of Analytics and Consulting for Bundy Group, Alex Chausovsky is a trusted resource and advisor for owners and executives of privately held firms and industry trade associations on analytical, economic, and business-oriented topics.

Alex is a highly experienced market researcher and analyst with more than two decades of expertise across industries such as automation, industrial technology, healthcare, business services and manufacturing. He has consulted and advised companies throughout the U.S. and Canada, Europe, South America, and Asia. 

Alex has delivered more one thousand presentations, webinars, and workshops to small businesses, trade associations, and Fortune 500 companies and is the go-to source of industry data and insights for hundreds of enterprises across a spectrum of industries.

Outside of work, Alex enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, and skiing, as well as international travel with his family.
Presentation:  Economic Update – What to Expect in 2025 and Beyond

The US macro economy is traversing the back side of the business cycle while several industrial sectors are going through a mild recession. Aggressive interest rate policy decisions by the Fed mostly stamped out inflation, but they also stifled capital investment and borrowing costs. Now the Fed is looking to rate cuts to prevent the economy from tipping into contraction. A visibly slowing labor market is just one of the visible cracks in the armor of consumers, with delinquency rates for credit cards and auto loans also flashing warning signs. However, leading indicators continue to support the narrative of a soft landing for the US economy. What does all this mean for your business? This presentation will deliver practical and actionable advice designed to help business leaders plan for future economic conditions and continuously improve their organization’s strategic planning initiatives.

Attendees will walk away from the session with the following insights:

  • Time-sensitive economic events of concern such as inflation, interest rates, labor market conditions, consumer spending, business investment and industrial activity
  • Concrete advice on how to navigate the current macroeconomic climate and plan for the future
  • Tools that company leadership can use to become better data-driven decision makers in running their businesses