Avionics News January 2014 - 33

What do you like best
about your job?

What do you do when
you're not working?

And do you
have hobbies?

I just enjoy working for Shadin. It's
a small company, so we get to do a
lot of things. I have visibility with the
end users, and I get to work with the
cool machines in aerospace.

I have two kids - my son, Jack, is
a senior in high school, so he's going
through the college application
process. He's on the varsity lacrosse
team and is a typical teenage boy.
He played youth basketball all the
way through and still plays rec and
AAU during the winter. He was born
in Connecticut, but we moved here
when he was 18 months old.
My daughter, Katie, is 15 years old
and a sophomore. She's the athlete of
the family and plays ice hockey. Here
in Minnesota, she started playing
co-ed hockey at age 4. Now there's a
program for girls as young as age 6.
Hockey is her first love. She has made
the varsity hockey team, and they
were state champs. She's a goalkeeper for the soccer team and plays golf
in the spring. She has been on the
varsity golf team since eighth grade.

I like to play golf as much as I
can. We have a place in Wisconsin
on Horseshoe Lake where we have
a boat. We also have snowmobiles.
Katie likes to fish; that's the thing
you do in Minnesota.
My family is so important to me,
and that's one of the biggest reasons why I've been here so long. Yes
I have a lot of tribal knowledge, but
a work-life balance is huge to me.
Minnesota is a great place to raise
kids. It's safe, and there are tons of
sports and other activities, all kinds
of things to keep them occupied
and successful. We have a huge
park system with bike trails.

What's the corporate
culture like at Shadin?
We hover at around 50 employees.
The culture has changed a lot in the
last 15 years. The philosophy we're
stressing now is simplicity. We are
looking at all our internal processes to
streamline them. We believe the simplest solution isn't always the easiest,
but that's what we're trying to foster.
Being a small company, quite a few
people have been here six to eight
years. Everybody has been here a
long time. There's low turnover, and
we're very tight-knit.

Do you travel much?
I go to the big trade shows - NBAA,
HAI and AEA. I go to installs sometimes and on customer work visits on
the business development side. I have
been to Australia for the AEA Regional
Meeting, to Europe a few times and to
Hong Kong.
I have had great opportunities since
I've worked at Shadin. The company
is flexible. When I started, we had five
engineers, a drafter and two part-time
people. Today my group is 14 people,
and I really like that.

How did you
meet your wife?
I met her in high school in
Wyoming. We dated on and off during college and got married right
after. She was the CFO of a hospital/
health care facility, and she worked
for United Health. That's how we got
to Minnesota. For a long time, she
was the corporate person and had to
travel a lot, and I was more the Mr.
Mom when the kids were little, getting them to school and sports.

What about the future?
Shadin is an exciting place right
now. We're stabilized with new products, so we're energized and hope
to make the transition from a small
company to a medium-sized one. My
kids are getting ready for college, so
it's an optimistic time. I work 9 miles
from the house, but I've put 50,000
miles on the car in the past two
years driving them around. So when
they're off to college, I'll have more
time to play golf rather than watching their sports. q
To learn more about
Shadin Avionics, visit
www.shadin.com.
avionics news

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january

2014

33
http://www.shadin.com
Avionics News January 2014

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