Jerry Rex

My first paying job was at 10 years old, working weekends and some evenings for neighborhood farmers until I was 16, when I worked at Wayne’s Hardware. During my high school years, I was compelled to be a leader and was class president grades 8-11 and Student Council president my senior year.

After graduation from high school, I was accepted into Columbia School of Broadcasting. My father encouraged me to wait to see if I was accepted into GE’s Machinist Apprentice Program before signing the paperwork. That day, when we arrived home, the acceptance letter was in our mailbox. The program exposed me to every aspect of machining, welding, assembly, forge shop, metal fabricating and more with 4 years of 40+ hours per week in 6 month rotations and classes 4 nights a week.

Upon graduation, my first role was as an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer and then I was offered a position as Production Foreman. At the age of 22, I had 68 people reporting to me on 2nd and 3rd shifts in a factory. When things slowed at GE, I was interviewed by Carboloy, GE’s cutting tool division. I accepted a job in Technical Marketing and went into sales a year later. In 4 years, I was promoted to Regional Sales Manager before moving on to a role in sales management in machine tool distribution. I had never been exposed to “technical sales” and I loved being able to solve problems and help people improve their production as my vocation.

I have been blessed to work for some great people during my years and they exposed me to other leaders through involvement in trade associations. Eventually, I served on the Board and as an officer in AMTDA and then AMT for a combined total of 11 years, serving as Chairman of AMT in 2015-16. Throughout my career, I have made it my mission to raise awareness of the opportunities that exist in manufacturing.