Leadership

Kevin Hansell is the Chief Executive Officer of TASI Test and Automation. Kevin joined the TASI team in 2006 and in 2011 became the General Manager of Cincinnati Test Systems, leading the company through a period of rapid growth by gaining market share and expanding into new vertical and international markets. In January 2020, he became the President of TASI’s Product Integrity segment, overseeing the continued global growth of CTS and other segment companies Sciemetric, Sierra CP and innomatec.

Prior to working at TASI, Kevin’s experience includes leadership roles in product development, systems engineering and sales at Cincinnati Incorporated and GE Aviation.

Jim Schauer is the Chief Financial Officer at TASI Test and Automation, joining the company in September 2015. Jim brings with him over 25 years of international experience in various finance roles in manufacturing, engineering and service environments. Jim joined TASI Group from TAS Energy where he held the position of CFO. Prior to this Jim worked for General Electric, Flow & Process Technologies (formerly Dresser Inc.) where he last held the position General Manager for the Americas Region and was previously Vice President Finance for Flow Technologies. Prior to General Electric, Jim spent a large portion of his career at Invensys Process Systems Inc. in various manufacturing and finance roles including an overseas assignment.

Jim has a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Finance as well as a Master of Business Administration, all from Bryant College, and is a Certified Management Accountant. Jim is married with two children, a dog and three cats and likes to spend his free time at Newfound Lake in New Hampshire.

Ethan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology with a Minor in Business Management from Tennessee Technological University.  He has been employed by ATC Automation since 2001, working his first 6 years as a machine designer, over a decade as a Business Unit Manager and Director of Operations.

Since his graduation from TTU in 2000, Ethan has proven through his continuous actions that he has a great passion for giving back to TTU, the local community, and his highly technical profession. He takes pride in seeing the success of others and playing an instrumental role in that success.

Ethan resides in Cookeville, TN with his wife of 20 years, Julie and their children Lily and Landon.  He is an active member of First Baptist Church in Cookeville.  In his free time, Ethan enjoys spending time with his family, competitive fishing, woodworking, hunting, and golf.

Kris Fairfield is the President of the Product Integrity segment of TASI Test and Automation, which consists of four global businesses: Cincinnati Test Systems, Sciemetric Instruments, innomatec, and Sierra CP. Kris has been part of TASI since July of 2018 and was previously the President of TASI’s Package Integrity segment.

Kris brings extensive international experience to TASI Test and Automation, with a strong commercial and general management background. Before joining TASI, Kris spent over a decade working for Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he held various commercial and management roles including managing a business in Shanghai, China, and managing the global product inspection business that included sites in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Parma, Italy.

Kris is a passionate proven global business leader with experience leading large multinational teams including commercial, product management, R&D and field service, and managing full P&L responsibilities. He is a proven leader that leads by example, and believes employees are the most valued asset within an organization.

In his free time, Kris enjoys travelling the globe with his wife, experiencing different cultures and participating in Ironman and cycling events.

Kevin Mathews is the President of TASI Test and Automation’s Packaging Integrity segment, taking on this new role on January 1, 2024. He was previously the Vice President of Operations for TASI Flow in the TASI Measurement group, which included AW-Lake, Air Monitor, Fox Thermal, Greyline, KEM, Litre Meter, ONICON, Pulsar Process Measurement, Seametrics, Sierra Instruments, SignalFire, and Vogtlin.

Kevin has over 28 years of global business experience in transformational leadership and has held roles in engineering, program management, operations, supply chain, quality, and general management. His background includes leadership of multi-national organizations in Industrial, Plastics and Automotive Markets including Nordson, Magna International General Motors and Chrysler Corporation.

With a strong background in Lean Manufacturing and Structured Problem Solving he helps guides organizations to achieve their goals through transforming their internal organizations and supply chains. He is motivated to help organizations achieve Operational Excellence through collaborative high performing work teams that are customer centric.

Kevin has participated in a nine-month Executive Leadership Program with Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and MBA from WGU as well as an A.S. in Engineering Science from SUNY Canton.

Jill Shearer is the General Manager of ALPS Inspection. The world leader in leak detection of injection blow-molded plastics, ALPS manufactures, sells, and services solutions for in-line leak inspection of containers.

Jill re-joined ALPS in 2018 as Project Manager, building on her 15 years of previous experience with ALPS. Jill’s passion for customer relationship building is the guiding force that drives all aspects of the ALPS business, from new machine development to field service. Jill is excited to lead the talented ALPS team on its journey toward sustainable and strategic global growth.

In her free time, Jill enjoys performing in Milwaukee’s premier classical, choral music ensemble and German folk dancing at local festivals.

Andrea’s previous experience is mainly related to the pharmaceutical market, where he has been active for almost 15 years working for different manufacturing companies, all devoted to the production of top quality equipment for this industry. The most important previous experience has been with Stilmas, an Italian company specialized in the production of pharma water generation systems.

Andrea has a strong commercial background that, coupled with international business experience and with know-how in lean manufacturing processes and methods, supports him in the management of a fast evolving and dynamic company like Bonfiglioli Engineering. A strong trust in team work guides Andrea’s actions in the life of the Company.

Thanks to Andrea, Bonfiglioli Engineering scaled its knowledge, power and influence in the Pharma sector, that is now definitely the reference market.

Cord Cassel is the Managing Director of CASSEL Inspection, a global leader in the design and manufacturing of metal detection and X-ray inspection systems for industrial applications. Cord founded the business 25 years ago as a small business operating out of a garage. His engineering expertise and ability to attract and assemble a high-performing design team, helped grow CASSEL into a multi-million dollar business. With a manufacturing site in Dransfeld, Germany and over 70 employees, CASSEL provides customizable inspection systems to a number of industries including food & beverage, timber, nonwovens, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, chemicals, and more.

CASSEL Inspection is motivated by quality and driven to provide solutions that enable their customers to provide products of the highest integrity. Like other TASI Test and Automation Packaging Integrity businesses, CASSEL has earned its long-standing reputation by protecting the reputations of their customers.

Eric Kersting is the General Manager of Cincinnati Test Systems. He started his career at CTS in 2007 and has held several roles in engineering, project management, general management, and as the head of the company’s custom engineered solutions business. Through his extensive experience with leak testing, the manufacturing test environment and with a focus on customer requirements, he continues to lead the growth and innovation that have made CTS a top brand in leak testing.

Eric has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Cincinnati. He enjoys spending time with his wife Julie and three sons, golfing and cheering on the Bengals, Reds, and Cincinnati Bearcats.

Amanda Deng is General Manager of Cincinnati Test Systems Shanghai. Amanda joined the CTS team in 2006 as the first employee of CTS China, and managed to grow CTS Shanghai into a market leader in all scales. She also helped CTS established a highly efficient, self-functioning team which gained CTS China a promising rapid growth for the next coming 10 years.

For the past 12 years, Amanda expanded CTS Shanghai from one location to a five location branched offices company, setup a sales/service network to have China fully covered to meet all kinds of sales opportunities and challenges. Amanda believes that great products and great people are the core of any successful company – people above all, matter. She will keep working on building the team and forming the company culture to ensure a bright future for CTS China.

Amanda is a passionate new learner of golf who still struggles to beat her personal goal. She is a foodie too; and European cheese and wine are her favorite.

Pascal Schröer is the General Manager of innomatec Leak Test Solutions. Since joining innomatec in 2007 he has held several roles, ranging from mechanical design, product management, R&D, and sales. In support of the company’s growth, he helped set up a sales and manufacturing operation in India and lived in China for two years to build what is now a successful business. Later he focused on sales, using his in-depth expertise to further expand the company’s business in the European market and beyond.

Pascal has a BA Mechanical Engineering degree from HSRM. He enjoys spending time in nature with his family and dogs and competitive cycling and motorcycle racing.

Paul Smith is the Managing Director at Sepha Ltd. For over 40 years Sepha has been at the forefront of providing packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical and medical device markets. Throughout these years Sepha’s core purpose has remained the same: ensuring the quality and safety of products for patients and their families.

Paul brings extensive international and commercial experience to Sepha having worked previously in a medical device company producing defibrillators and for 17 years in Sepha. During his time in Sepha Paul has worked out of different global locations at various levels in both Operations and Sales including: Engineer, Customer Service Manager, Area Sales Manager and Head of Sales and Marketing.

Paul’s passion for customer satisfaction coupled with product innovation will be the driving force behind Sepha’s longer term strategic goals and he is excited and humbled by the talent of the Sepha team who share this vision.

A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin with a Master’s in Business Administration and a BSc Hons Biomedical Engineering from the University of Ulster.

In his spare time Paul enjoys spending time with his family, walking the dog, watching sports, and visiting as many new countries as possible. His goal is to visit all 50 US states with 38 already ticked off the list.

Ryan Reneau is the General Manager of ATC Automation Simi Valley. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Riverside, with a focus in machine design. His career experience has predominantly been focused within the industrial automation industry.

Starting as a Mechanical Engineer designing automated equipment at Jabil, he has since performed roles as a Project Manager, Director of Engineering, and Director of Operations at Virgin and Dynamic Automation.

Ryan serves on the executive leadership team for the Automation in Manufacturing (AIM) Committee, part of AMT. The AIM committee works to address issues facing the automation industry within North America. In his free time, he is an avid woodworker and craft beer enthusiast and maker.

 Angela Vale is the Corporate Controller for TASI Test and Automation. Angela has been with TASI since 2012 when she joined as the Director of Finance and HR for Litre Meter after it was acquired by TASI. She is involved in financial and budgetary reporting, as well as audit and tax matters and also administers the group consolidation software tool.

Prior to joining TASI, Angela worked for the University of Oxford’s subsidiary companies team, providing accounting and operational support to a variety of companies, from a niche publishing house, to the asset management team, to the student union. Angela started her career as a software engineer before making the decision to retrain into accounting.

Angela is a Chartered Certified Accountant and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Manchester. She lives near Oxford, UK with her two teen girls and a menagerie of animals and is an avid theatre goer and mountain climber.

Ian Pensom is the Vice President of IT and will be helping develop and transform the TASI IT strategy into actionable goals through a collaborative effort with business leadership.

Prior to working at TASI, Ian has experience in several IT leadership and ERP implementation roles for global companies such as VWR International, Chromalloy Gas and Turbine, and PrimeSource Building Products.

Eric Muhlen is the Human Resource Director at TASI Test and Automation. Eric has been supporting TASI companies since the very first TASI Group acquisitions. Starting as the Human Resource Manager at Cincinnati Test Systems in November of 1999, Eric quickly moved to manage the U.S. benefit package for all TASI employees. In January of 2004, Eric became the TASI Human Resource Director.

Eric is a skilled and knowledgeable human resource professional able to manage all functions of H.R. including talent development, employee relations, benefits, compensation, recruiting, training, safety, employee performance, and legal compliance. Eric is certified as a Global Human Resource Professional by SHRM and holds a Master’s Degree in Labor and Employment Relations from the University of Cincinnati.

Eric looks forward to his continued support of the TASI management team and TASI employees as he leads the human resource effort to create a top-quality, world-class workforce.