Leadership Team

Current Position: Mike is the Defense industry sales and business development lead at Barber-Nichols, with oversight responsibility for business development, sales engineering, cost estimating, and contracts for other markets.

History: Prior to joining Barber-Nichols Mike spent the majority of his career as an Applications Engineer & Manager, responsible for sizing, selecting, and quoting high-speed integrally-geared API pumps and compressors used in the Oil & Gas industry. Before that he spent several years working as an Auto Repair Technician & Advisor with a focus on diagnostics, troubleshooting, and repair of passenger cars and trucks.

Education: Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northern Illinois University

Interests: Outside of work Mike loves spending time outdoors with his wife and twin children, whether it’s a walk to the park, an afternoon at a festival, or hiking trails. When Mike has the free time it’s usually spent biking, snowboarding, or woodworking in his garage. Prior to having kids, they loved to travel the world, and they both look forward to getting back to that at some point in the future!

Current Position: Pete leads the Program Management team. His focus is refining his team’s skills and systems to maximize customer satisfaction and BN performance.

History: Pete operated teams in Quality, Supply Chain, Engineering, and IT across several space, aerospace, and defense organizations. His experience in mature FAA programs at the global aerospace level, agile development programs in startup space, and in programs at every stage in between provides a full lifecycle perspective. Pete acquired PMP certification in 2018 and continues to apply those valuable tools to drive program success.

Education: Pete earned a BS in Materials Science and Engineering and a BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Virginia Tech. He is Green Belt certified and completed his Black Belt project and training.

Interests: Pete enjoys time with his wife hiking, playing ultimate frisbee, or watching quality TV like Love is Blind or the Great British Bakeoff. He also has two dogs and two cats.

Current Position: Rachel Jaakkola serves as the Director of Human Resources at Barber-Nichols, where she has been instrumental in the growth and development of the company’s HR department. Starting as the first HR employee, Rachel built the department from the ground up, creating a sustainable framework that has supported the company’s expansion. Under her leadership, Barber-Nichols has doubled its employee base in just four years and continues to grow.

History: Before joining Barber-Nichols, Rachel gained comprehensive experience at Tri-State Generation and Transmission as part of their Leadership Rotational Program. In this role, she worked across various departments, leading recruiting, onboarding, and employee benefits administration initiatives. After her time at Tri-State, she took a personal adventure, solo backpacking across 13 countries.

Education: Rachel holds an MS in Organizational Leadership with a focus in Human Resources from Regis University and a BS in Business Management with an emphasis in Human Resources from Colorado State University. She is also certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and has earned additional HR-specific certifications.

Interests: Outside of her professional life, Rachel enjoys traveling, hiking, attending concerts, and spending time with her kitten and Chiweenie.

Current Position: Matt joined Barber-Nichols in 2014 and currently is our Director, Operations. Matt leads, directs, and oversees all aspects of production operations directly and through managers who coordinate purchasing, supply chain management, production and inventory control, manufacturing engineering, manufacturing, assembly and test, and shipping and receiving.

History: Previously, Matt contributed over 15 years working in various positions at Sargent Controls & Aerospace, growing in responsibility and ultimately holding the role of Manager, Quality & Process Engineering. He provided strategic direction for the quality management system and annual objectives as the management representative for ISO9000/AS9100. He was also responsible for all aspects of the quality management function for the facility including advanced quality planning, contract/design reviews, failure mode analysis, process capability analysis and certification, tool and part qualification, advanced quality control plans, inspection sampling plans, measurement system analysis, and internal audits.

Education: Matt earned a BS, Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona. He also has earned his Six Sigma Black Belt and Lead Auditor Training Certifications.

Current Position: Myles Lewis is the Director of Mission Assurance. He joined Barber-Nichols in November 2021, as Quality Assurance Manager. Myles provides the strategic direction and leads the Quality Management System at Barber-Nichols.

History: Myles’s most recent experience is from Flowserve where he was the quality manager for the North America Seals group. He provided strategic direction for the quality management system and annual objectives as the management representative for ISO9000/AS9100. Throughout his history, he has also led and implemented ISO 13485, ISO14001, and Nuclear Safety programs.

Education: Myles is an ASQ Certified Quality Process Analyst and Quality Technician. He also completed training for Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Interests: Myles enjoys spending time with his family, and exploring new technologies, including VR and AR.

Current Position: Matt Malone is the General Manager at Barber-Nichols (BN). Matt joined BN in 2015, as a Project Engineer, focused on rocket engine turbopump design and development. He was promoted in January 2018 to PMO Manager overseeing some of BN’s most strategic US Navy programs.  In January of 2020, Matt became our VP of Operations and led our team to be named Colorado’s 2020 Aerospace Manufacturer of the Year.

History: Previously, Matt worked at GE Transportation as a Turbomachinery Manager, Turbomachinery Engineer, and Edison Engineering Development Program. He led the turbomachinery design and development team for locomotives, off-highway vehicles, and marine engines. He also led the development of the state-of-the-art 2-stage turbocharger system for Tier 4 locomotive to meet more stringent emission standards and improved turbomachinery reliability through physics-based root cause analysis and design implementation. He also held roles in Diesel Engine Reliability, Engineering Finance, Engineering Quality, and Wind Engineering.

Education: Matt earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Turbomachinery from Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS in Mechanical Engineering with honors in design optimization from Pennsylvania State University.

Matt is involved in the Vistage Key Leaders Group, Colorado Office of Economic Development Grant Board, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers specifically for the Additive Manufacturing Community.

Interests: Matt is a volunteer for the Cystic Fibrous Foundation and enjoys skiing, triathlons, inventing, and world travel.

Current Position: Aaron leads the sourcing and procurement teams. His main priorities are building strong relationships with suppliers and ensuring operations and programs have what they need to succeed.

History: Previously, Aaron worked as a Senior Director of Supply Chain for an aerospace startup company. He also was a Director of Supply Chain for a helicopter refurbishment company. Aaron has over 13 years of manufacturing industry experience, including 8 years at GE. He completed an executive development program and moved out to Denver as a Senior Sourcing Manager at GE Aviation in 2018.

Education: Aaron earned a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. He also earned his Lean Six Sigma Black Belt during his time at GE.

Interests: Aaron enjoys time with his family, playing all sports (basketball as a favorite), hiking, reading, and researching/experimenting within the health and fitness space.

Current Position: John joined BN in July of 2021 and leads the product development teams at BN. He is responsible for developing the Engineering and Product Management strategic vision, team and process development, cross-functional business collaboration, and overall engineering execution.

History: John has over 25 years history of success in Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Product Leadership roles. Previous to joining BN, John held the position of Vice President of Technology Services at GE/Wabtec Transportation.

Education: John earned his MSME, Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and also has an MBA from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. In addition, he earned a BSME, Mechanical Engineering from Grove City College. John has co-authored several patents and received numerous awards and honors in the industry.

Interests: John enjoys time with his family, skiing, mountain biking, and hiking in the outdoors.

Current Position: Trang Pham started at BN in January 2018 as the Assistant Controller. She helped to successfully navigate the Accounting team through their first full financial audit, ERP upgrades, and acquisition with Graham Corporation. Trang was promoted to Controller in November 2019.

History: Trang has over 18 years of experience in Accounting and Finance with the last 10 years focused on Operations and Manufacturing. She previously worked at Sundyne as a Senior Financial Analyst, FP&A, and moved up to Operations Finance Manager before joining Barber-Nichols.

Education: Trang earned a BS in Accounting from CU Denver. She also passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Exam.

Interests: Trang enjoys spending time with family and friends, and loves trying new cuisines. Her hobbies include running, hiking, and volunteering.

Current Position: Tyler Shaw is an IT Manager who leads the team and manages all IT infrastructure and systems. Driven by a deep passion in leadership and information technology, he takes pride in supporting the business through his very successful team and in-depth technical knowledge. Tyler manages the infrastructure and supports our 9-building campus. He ensures Barber-Nichols stays on the forefront of technology.

History: Previously, Tyler was employed with Wahl Clipper Corporation as a global Network Security Engineer. Before that, Tyler was an IT Specialist for Lee County, Illinois. Tyler brings a wealth of knowledge from his technical schooling and nine years of experience working in an IT department. Tyler has three years overseeing IT resources.

Education: Tyler has a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Illinois State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Texas A&M.

Interests: Tyler enjoys spending time with his newly adopted Goldendoodle named Kona. They enjoy hiking, running, and exploring beautiful Colorado. Tyler enjoys golfing, cooking, and spending time with friends and family. He is currently learning Kotlin for iOS and Android development and hopes to begin a Doctorate degree in Business Administration in the coming years.