Upon graduating in 1984 from the Electronic Technology Institute of Cleveland, Ohio, with a degree in Electronic Technology Joe joined Reliance Electric as a Service Engineer for the Northern California Region. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to the Technical Support group of Reliance in Athens, Georgia, as an Application Engineer/Technical Trainer/ Product Specialist. In 1995 he joined Eurotherm (now Parker) in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a similar capacity. Looking to diversify his background and gain direct sales experience, Joe joined Pacific Scientific (now Danaher) in 1998 as a Technical Sales Specialist for motion. In 2001 Joe wanted to try distribution and he worked for two different distributors in the Carolinas—Integrated Motion as a Sales Engineer and later for HPS as the Electronics Product Manager. Joe joined Shimpo in December of 2004 as the Southeastern Regional Sales Manager responsible for planetary servo gear boxes, supporting reps, distributors, and direct customers. Over the next few years as Joe’s sales experience grew and so did his responsibilities to include a territory of 21 eastern states for Shimpo. In June of 2009 Joe joined R.L. Matus & Associates covering Western North Carolina and outlying areas of South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.