John Palahnuk
- Engineering - MIL/Aero, Medical & Semiconductor (661)219-5590
About John Palahnuk
John's History and Professional Background
John is a technology executive with a proven background in business, management, engineering, R&D, sales and product development. John established and led management teams for advanced programs in the military/aerospace, semiconductor and robotics industries. He possesses technical expertise in emerging technologies such as automation, hypersonic sub-systems, missiles, satellites, electronics, advanced materials, and effectual developments in AI.
John was born in Southern California in the mid 1960’s. From childhood, he was fascinated with gadgets and technology. To him, regular space travel, humanoid robots and flying cars were right around the corner, and he loved Star Trek and science fiction. As John became a teenager, he started disassembling (and occasionally repairing) all the mechanisms, machines and devices he could get his hands on. John’s passion to understand, improve, and invent new technologies is encoded in his DNA.
Later, John realized the best way out of LA's inner city and poverty was an education beyond high school. He witnessed how shortcuts or mediocracy did not end well for those around him, so he focused on excelling in high school and helping at a local auto repair shop in the afternoon and weekends.
Upon graduating high school, John was fortunate to be accepted to what at the time was a rare bachelor’s degree program in automation and robotics. While in college, John gained applicable experience interning at the American Pharmaceutical Corporation in the Pomona area. It’s there where an automated indexing table was successfully designed, manufactured and tested by this team of interns. John designed the control system and wrote portions of the PLC logic for controlling the rotating table and robot operations. This indexing table automatically assembled intravenous extension lines with silicone stoppers and injection ports. Finally, John earned his Bachelor of Science degree and graduated with honors from the institution. It is John’s curiosity, strong work ethic and determination that led him to become the first in his family to graduate from college. After graduation, John accepted an engineering position working for TRW Technar in Irwindale, California.
At TRW, John joined a small team of like-minded engineering graduates who were tasked to rapidly design and assemble several automated production lines. TRW gave the team the freedom to design custom automation and components, since the availability of versatile automation equipment such as pick-and-place robots, spot welders, epoxy dispensers, feeder bowls, sensors and controllers were limited at the time. These automated production lines assembled and tested 1,500 air bag sensors per shift for Ford, Toyota and Mercedes. Later, John was approached and asked to join AVG Productions in Valencia, California. AVG had a growing industrial robotics division, and a theme park/animatronics division. TRW was transitioning out of development and moving into its production and maintenance phase, so John left TRW to join AVG.
At AVG, John designed motion control systems for water jet gantries. Later, he joined the animatronics team and co-developed a custom digital playback and control system for animation and show action equipment. John also designed a cutting-edge servo card PCB and an addressable backplane for those servo cards. This servo card system controlled the variable position of pneumatic air cylinders inside the animatronic figures. The new servo cards and animation control system recorded positional and audio data for digital playback of the animatronic figures, special effects, sound and lighting. This new system was compact and eliminated the risk of fluid leaks inherent with other hydraulic animatronic systems at the time. After five years at AVG Productions, John joined the engineering team at Poly-Flow Engineering in Sylmar California.
At Poly-Flow Engineering, John was offered an opportunity to lead the company’s initiative to upgrade its manual wet bench products into semi and fully automated wafer and quartzware wet processing machines. John’s efforts helped grow the company sales by 3X and he subsequently reported directly to the President. His successes include developing the department’s capabilities to design automated wafer processing equipment for the semi-conductor industry. His accomplishments included advancing engineering skills, tools, methods, and the creation of Integrated Product Teams. John added the needed talent in electrical, mechanical, software and chemical sciences to support the expansion. After 10 years, the results of these functional teams translated to significant growth. Ultimately, Poly-Flow Engineering was sold to Ktech Corporation. John decided to accept an offer to join CICOIL just prior to the sale of Poly-Flow Engineering.
At CICOIL, John was presented with an outstanding opportunity to repeat his successes at Poly-Flow Engineering. Reporting to the CEO, John provided strategic direction and managed the operational and engineering activities at the company. He played a pivotal role in the advancement of the companies’ technical capabilities, product development, engineering organization, as well as exceeding production and program objectives. He created an IPT framework and established cross-functional teams to achieve common goals. John personally built relationships with key stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities. He addressed and solved technical and program issues while surpassing performance expectations. Working closely with the CEO, customers and the CICOIL team, John’s efforts helped grow the company sales by 5X.
John’s aerospace program experience at CICOIL includes AIM9X, LRSO, TOW, RAM, HAWC, Hellfire, Patriot, EKV, and more.
Other military and space program experience at CICOIL includes Starlink, the LITENING Advanced Targeting Pod, IRST, Inertial Measurement Units, gimbals and others. TPC Wire and Cable Corporation acquired CICOIL in 2019, ultimately leading to the creation of Trexon, a new business platform.
At Trexon, John’s new role on the corporate team included the advancement of new technologies and innovation throughout the organization. Reporting to the CEO, he managed the development of new designs, products, and programs to create new opportunities, streamline operations, and enhance customer experiences. John continued facilitating the development of functional teams at CICOIL and across the other businesses on the BU platform. He managed multiple teams, departments, disciplines, and various resources within the global organization.
John’s energy and optimism is what fuels his must-win attitude and drives him to exceptionalism and success.
John Palahnuk Professional Experience
John's Program and Accomplishments
The following is a partial list of programs and achievements spanning over the last 30 years. Experience includes all phases of business growth and program development. This summary encompasses executive, middle and project level management, as well as actual execution of engineering design, team development and driving growth for the organization.
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