Northern Kentucky Business Hall of Fame Inducts Brian Papke

Brian Papke, chairman of manufacturing technology leader Mazak Corp., has been inducted into the Northern Kentucky Business Hall of Fame. He accepted the award in April at the Metropolitan Club in Covington, Kentucky, where he credited Mazak’s customers and its employees for the company’s decades of success across North America.

“Our customers are not just customers, they are friends, and the majority of our employees are homegrown,” Mr. Papke says. “We have all worked together over the years to create wonderful opportunities for families, the local community and all of the areas our customers call home.”

Under Mr. Papke’s direction, Mazak has strived to give back to its customers and the manufacturing industry through its contributions to the state’s economic growth and its establishment of a successful model for manufacturing excellence. He also oversaw the Kentucky plant as it became an 800,000-square-foot campus and significant regional employer. Today, the Kentucky facility serves as a proof of concept for the Mazak iSMART Factory model in addition to acting as the staging ground for some of the industry’s most advanced manufacturing systems, including full five-axis, multitasking and hybrid multitasking machines.

Of course, Mr. Papke has also served the state and the manufacturing industry by working to meet the needs of his company’s customers since he joined the company in 1987. “One of Brian’s greatest traits is that he listens,” says Paul Hemmer, president of Paul Hemmer Company, a local leading construction company that often works with Mazak. “He listens to his staff and he listens to his customers.” And armed with that information, Mr. Papke and the team at Mazak have helped propel U.S. manufacturing into the 21st century.

Today, North American manufacturers in all types of industries use the Mazak iSMART Factory model, which the company established to better serve its customers and help deliver the technology for which the company has become known. It is this technology that has helped Mazak customers maintain their competitiveness and success to keep work and jobs from going offshore, one of Mr. Papke’s personal goals for the industry he has helped to lead for decades.