BLUEWATER THERMAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Commercial Operations
Bob started his career in heat treat in 1979 in a captive heat treat at a fastener manufacturer. Upon exiting that company, he held multiple roles from production to quality to operations at several large commercial heat treaters and metal processing facilities. In 2012, Bob made the move to join Bluewater Thermal Solutions where he has been a Business Development Manager and recently promoted to Director of Commercial Operations, overseeing the sales efforts for Bluewater.
Job Titles:
- Bluewater in 2023 As Director - Commercial Operations
- Director of Commercial Operations
Bryant joined Bluewater in 2023 as Director - Commercial Operations. Prior to joining Bluewater, Bryant served as Director at a Zinc Thermal Diffusion Company and was solely responsible for growing their business from initial start-up in the Western Hemisphere. Bryant brings extensive knowledge of sales and operations to the Bluewater Team across multiple aspects of the oil and gas industry, including onshore, offshore, mills, services, and specialty coatings/treatments. He began his career with RedMan Pipe & Supply (MRC).
Bryant received his B.B.A. in Accounting and B.B.A. in Marketing from ETBU - East Texas Baptist University and resides in Midland, TX.
Carolyn started with Bluewater in 2007 as a Quality Engineer in our South Bend plant. As Quality Manager in South Bend, she reshaped their Quality System which facilitated becoming Nadcap certified. After this, she took on the role of Corporate Quality Manager with the goal of launching our Corporate Quality System. In this role, she began to learn about the capabilities and operations of all facilities. In 2012, she accepted an operations role at our Benton Harbor plant as General Manager. Her technical knowledge and industry experience led to her promotion to Director of Operations in April 2022.
Clif Higdon joined Bluewater Thermal Solutions in November 2013. Clif is a metallurgical engineer with over 20 years of quality, manufacturing, metallurgy, and R&D experience. Previous roles have included Director, Advanced Development, Materials Research and Engineering Specialist, Quality Manager, and Metallurgical Engineer. Clif attended Michigan Technological University, earning a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Lawrence Technological University, where he earned a Masters' of Engineering in Manufacturing. Clif is an active member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and has both Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Greenbelts. He has authored and published several papers in peer-reviewed technical journals and has multiple patents to his credit.
Job Titles:
- Engineer
- Director - Technical
Craig Zimmerman joined Bluewater Thermal Solutions in July 2010. Craig is a metallurgical engineer with over 20 years of heat treatment experience. Previous roles have included Regional Sales Manager, Plant Manager, Quality Manager, Chief Metallurgist and Lab Technician. Craig attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he earned both Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in Metallurgical Engineering. Craig has served on the Board of Directors at both the ASM Heat Treating Society (HTS) and Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) along with being a past chairman of the ASM Heat Treating Society's Research and Development Committee. Craig has authored and published several papers in heat treatment journals on a variety of topics and is recognized as a leading global expert in the field of boronizing.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Bluewater in 2010 As Director - Finance
Eric joined Bluewater in 2010 as Director - Finance. Prior to joining Bluewater, Eric was employed at Robert Bosch Corporation, initially in their International Development Program in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and Stuttgart, Germany, and then progressing to Sr. Financial Analyst at their Anderson, South Carolina, plant. In that role, Eric was responsible for a variety of operational finance initiatives including labor shift modeling, customer quoting, forecasting/budgeting, and project calculations.
Eric has supplemented his deep knowledge of the financial workings of the Company by serving as General Manager of Bluewater's Coldwater, Michigan, facility. Eric received his B.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and his MBA from Clemson University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Bluewater in 2013 As Senior Financial Analyst
Jeff joined Bluewater in 2013 as Senior Financial Analyst and has grown with the corporate finance team at Bluewater ever since, being promoted to Director of Finance in 2019, accepting the Chief Financial Officer role January 2024. Prior to Bluewater, Jeff served as Corporate Cost Accountant at KEMET Electronics Corporation. In this role, Jeff was responsible for computing global standard costing, production support analysis, resource variance, physical inventory audits and rolling three month variance projections. Prior to KEMET, Jeff worked at Bosch Rexroth, the mobile hydraulics division of Robert Bosch, LLC. At Bosch, Jeff served in a variety of analytical roles including the areas of cost, business and procurement as well as plant accountant building broad accounting experience in manufacturing and operations. He received his B.S. in Financial Management with a minor in Accounting from Clemson University and resides in Greenville, SC.
Jim joined Bluewater Thermal Solutions in 2008. His experience base with engineered thermal solutions started in 1977 and includes two industrial furnace manufacturing companies and two commercial heat treating companies. Jim has held positions including Manufacturing Engineer, Service Manager, Contract Manager, and Senior Regional Engineer. Jim attended Kansas State University.