Industry Ignited Podcast

Hypersonic technology promises speeds beyond Mach 5, but there’s a critical problem most people overlook: the materials. In this deep-dive conversation, Dr. Ed Pope shares over 30 years of experience developing advanced ceramics and composites designed to survive extreme environments. From reusable heat shields to next-generation carbon-carbon materials, he explains what actually happens when systems are pushed to their physical li...

Thinking about investing in automation? Watch this first. In this episode, Bill Willard shares decades of experience helping manufacturers move from “shiny object” automation to scalable, real-world solutions that deliver results. He explains why most companies underestimate the true cost of automation, why labor reduction is often the wrong ROI focus, and how overlooking operators and maintenance teams can quietly sabotage even th...

Damien’s journey is anything but ordinary. After losing his father, he stepped into leadership with little experience in the industry and a promise to keep the business alive. Today, he leads a company at the forefront of aerospace innovation, turning simple mechanical parts into smart, connected technologies.

In this conversation, he opens up about overcoming rejection, scaling from scratch, betting big during COVID, and building a...

The future of work is being rebuilt right now and manufacturing is at the center of it. In this episode, Connie Gunther shares how emerging technologies like AI are transforming workforce training, accelerating certification, and helping companies scale faster than ever before. But technology alone isn’t the answer. True transformation comes from aligning industry, education, and community in a way that creates real career pathways...

In this episode of Industry Ignited, we challenge one of the biggest assumptions in renewable energy: that bigger is always better. Host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar speaks with Frank Gagnon of Wind-Do Energy about a new model for wind power, mid-scale turbines designed to work in networks, not just massive standalone farms.

Frank shares how his industrial engineering mindset led him to rethink wind technology from the ground up, focusing on...

In this conversation, we break down the technology behind a revolutionary GPS chip designed to overcome the limitations of traditional RF systems. By digitizing up to 90% of the radio frequency architecture, Tom Trill and his team have created a solution that dramatically improves efficiency, scalability, and cost. This shift allows devices to achieve high-performance positioning and timing while using significantly less power, ope...

What would make someone walk away from a secure, prestigious career path and risk everything to build something from scratch?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Lindsay Gorrill shares the pivotal moment that changed the course of his life. On track to become a partner at KPMG, he made a decision most people wouldn’t: he chose uncertainty over security. What followed was a journey filled with failure, high-stakes risk, global expan...

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Marcos Pordeus de Paula, CEO of Frigo King and Power Mobile, to explore what truly drives competitive advantage in transport refrigeration. While many companies compete on price, Marcos shares why Frigo King chose a different path, focusing on uptime, durability, service, and real-time data to deliver long-term value for customers.

From its beginnings as a small...

What separates leaders who simply manage engineering from those who turn it into a true engine for growth, margin, and shareholder value?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Bill Kleftis, CEO of Spartan Consulting Solutions, to unpack the real-world leadership lessons behind building high-performing engineering organizations. With experience spanning HVAC, medical devices, rail, and beyond, Bill s...

Why do so many brilliant innovations fail? Often it’s not the technology, it’s the lack of a clear path to commercialization.

In this episode of Industry Ignited, host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Nigel Marc Roberts, CEO of GraphMarine, to discuss the real reason great ideas struggle to become profitable businesses.

With experience leading 23 technology commercialization journeys, Nigel shares hard-earned lessons about why inno...

What if the biggest barrier to faster, safer, and more cost-effective defense manufacturing isn’t technology, but the path to deploying it?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Dr. Dean Bartles, President & CEO of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group (MTDG), to discuss how innovation actually reaches defense manufacturing.

With over 30 years of experience across General Dynamics, innova...

As AI accelerates and the pace of change intensifies, the biggest question facing organizations today is this: what human skills will determine who thrives and who struggles in the future of work? In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with David Powell, co-founder of The Golden Thread, to explore the people skills that technology cannot replace.

Drawing from more than 30 years of experience working with ...

Clean energy has a supply problem and almost no one is talking about it. As governments push electrification and AI drives power demand higher than ever, the materials required to build batteries and upgrade the grid remain concentrated in the hands of geopolitical competitors. Mike Reilly breaks down why lithium extraction, synthetic graphite, and critical mineral processing are the real battlegrounds of the energy transition.

He c...

What does it really take to become a great aerospace engineer?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar speaks with Dr. Rashid Ali, aerospace educator, UAV designer, and flight control expert, about the mindset that separates competent engineers from transformational ones.

From childhood fascination with flight to rebuilding confidence after a glider crash, Dr. Ali shares how failure, discipline, and intellectual humi...

What separates high-performing manufacturing leaders from everyone else? It’s not just automation, AI, or bigger facilities. It’s the ability to build disciplined systems, develop strong teams, and make decisive moves under pressure.

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar speaks with Meher Billimoria, a manufacturing leader with over 27 years of experience spanning enterprise leadership, entrepreneurship, consultin...

In this episode of Industry Ignited, Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Salman A. Rahman, Chief Technology Officer of Decorate AI, to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the $290 billion interior design industry.

Salman shares how his background in technology and textiles led to the creation of Decorate AI, a platform built to eliminate guesswork, reduce costly design mistakes, and give users the confidence to make d...

In this episode of Industry Ignited, host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Lisa Voronkova, CEO of Ova Solutions and author of Hardware Bible: Build a Medical Device from Scratch, to unpack the real reasons medical devices fail, not in the lab, but in the real world.

Lisa shares hard-earned lessons from her own founder journey, including the classic trap of building around “cool tech” instead of solving a real clinical and commerci...

Hydrogen is often talked about as the fuel of the future, but what does it actually look like in practice?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Salim Rahemtulla, President and CEO of PowerTap Hydrogen Fuel Corp, to break down how hydrogen fuel cell vehicles work, where they make sense, and where they don’t. From 20-minute heavy-duty refueling to water-only tailpipe emissions, this conversation...

What if the most misunderstood part of a product category isn’t the product people obsess over, but the one that actually determines performance?

In this episode of Industry Ignited, host Dr. Leeanne Aguilar sits down with Gary Ramey, CEO of Liberty Ammunition, for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, brand strategy, innovation and what it takes to grow in highly regulated, high-stakes industries.

Gary shares his unusual career...