In an announcement today, Paul Frank,after 28 years of leadership at ACR Electronics, Inc., has announced his retirement as company president, effective January 1, 2009.
Frank, who joined ACR on September 15, 1980 as Vice President of Administration, and was appointed President in 1994, has overseen tremendous growth at ACR. Cobham plc, ACR’s parent company, is currently interviewing candidates to succeed Mr. Frank with a newly-created General Manager position.
Under Frank’s leadership, ACR has evolved from a small U.S. manufacturer selling primarily into military and aviation markets into a multi-disciplinary, high-tech brand selling into eight distinctive market channels literally around the world.
Countless individuals owe their lives to ACR’s adherence to its mission statement “to build quality products, knowing they are used to save lives.” ACR’s products are designed, tested and re-tested to ensure they work without fail-the first time, every time. Perhaps the greatest testament to Frank’s vision is the company’s well-earned reputation as the world leader in safety and survival technologies.
“It’s been a phenomenal ride,” said Frank of his 28 years with ACR. “This truly is a great company with an exciting future. I’m leaving the company in the hands of a highly experienced staff of senior level managers, many of whom have been together as a team for more than a dozen years. The company also is well represented by experienced middle management and department heads and a motivated core of employees making up the backbone of an organization second to none.”
“ACR is a company at the top of its game. We have launched a company-wide Lean Initiative that will allow us to more efficiently design, build, purchase, market and sell our life-saving products with the ultimate beneficiary being the consumer”, he said.
Earlier this year, Frank announced at ACR’s yearly international sales meeting record sales for its 2007 fiscal year and introduced a dynamic, new “The Science of Survival” theme for its line of marine, outdoor, aviation and military products. The Science of Survival campaign, according to Mr. Frank, will capture and communicate the technology behind the quality that is the foundation of ACR’s reputation. The refreshed image is more than skin deep and combines the new “The Science of Survival” theme throughout trade booths, packaging, advertising, sales materials and a more consumer-friendly web site with e-tail features, educational downloads and plans for an online blog.
As for ACR’s future, Frank said that he feels very confident that the company will continue as the industry’s lead innovator, in engineering and manufacturing safety products with cutting edge technologies, and guaranteeing product performance through the most sophisticated and stringent environmental testing available today.
