In
Chris Williams
Profile
As a child, Chris Williams lived in states all across the United States. His father was with the U.S. Border Patrol. When Chris was in high school, his father was made the head of the U.S. Border Patrol and assigned to Washington D.C. Chris and family lived in West Virginia. When Chris was thinking about schools, he was initially interested in Texas schools, but he decided to come to WVU after a visit to the campus.
Chris always knew he wanted to be an engineer, but he says: “I didn’t want to design door knobs.” He chose Industrial Engineering because of the breadth and flexibility of career options. Chris did well in school. He liked math courses, but struggled with statistics. He especially liked courses with an operations focus. His ME/EE courses have been especially helpful to him in his career.
Chris joined Rockwell in Milwaukee. One hundred engineering graduates across the country were selected by Rockwell for a possible position. Three of the 100 were from our program. Three out of the 20 graduates hired by Rockwell were WVU IE’s.
Rockwell had a training program where new hires had experiences in engineering, sales, and operations. Chris selected a sales after his training program ended. Chris became recognized at Rockwell five years into his career. He was known for producing consistent results, being process oriented, and being aggressive. In just five years, he was the global account manager for General Motors.
Chris left Rockwell after about 13 years to move to an entrepreneurial venture. This part of his career only lasted 1 year. “My partners were more interested in living the high life than building a business,” Chris says.
Chris then joined Belden, an electronic manufacturing company with a focus on transmission technology. Chris comments that he has never had trouble with the technology knowledge needed for sales. He says that he prefers to hire engineers because of their technical aptitude. Also the customers they will be working with are mostly likely to be engineers.
Chris has become involved in Mergers and Acquisitions when Belden acquired ProSoft Technology. He did the analysis that justified the purchase of ProSoft. When the purchase was completed. Chris was asked to run ProSoft. He sees his career moving more to a finance direction.
Bio
Chris Williams is the Vice President, Global Sales and marketing for ProSoft Technology a recent acquisition of Belden, Inc. In this capacity, he has essentially the authority for leading ProSoft Technology.
Chris Williams started his career with Rockwell Automation where he was the Account Manager of General Motors and Daimler Chrysler. He was later involved in an entrepreneurial start up, Koncept Manufacturing Information Systems.
Chris Williams joined Belden, Inc. in a global sales position. Belden is a global leader in end-to-end transmission solutions serving industrial, enterprise, and broadcast markets.
Chris has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering 1995.
