NES July Employee Spotlight
Ralph Brooks
Four years ago, a bearing test rig that Napoleon Engineering Services had built for an East Texas-based customer experienced a failure.
Ralph Brooks, an NES employee, happened to be in Houston for a trade show. And though he was no longer directly involved with the testing department, he’d gained enough experience to stop in and solve the problem.
The same thing happened with a machine in Southern Pennsylvania a year later.
Due to his expansive institutional knowledge, Brooks, again, had the answer.
A WEEK SHY of his 21st work anniversary, the Port Allegany, Pa. native has long been an invaluable presence at NES. He’s been with the company since its formative years, helping it to evolve from an outfit of just a few employees into the bearing manufacturing force it is today. And he’s left his mark on just about every aspect of the business, serving as a machinist, engineering technician, testing programmer, information systems manager, business unit manager and technical sales associate before being promoted to his current role of vice president of business development in August of 2023.
In his present position, he’s busier than ever.
Put succinctly, Brooks is responsible for quoting, contract alignment, export control, supply chain development and expedition. “And almost all of that happens every day,” he said. He also represents NES at nearly every trade show, making for 7-8 travel weeks per year.
Brooks finds it rewarding when he can land a big sale or come away with a new customer from the latest convention. He’s helped to secure several lucrative orders, including perhaps his white whale – a major agreement with Rolls Royce in 2024.
Brooks enjoys these aspects of the job.
Mostly, however, he enjoys being the jack-of-all-trades that he’s emerged as after two decades – and working in nearly every department – on the job.
“To be able to know off the top of your head, that’s where that came from, and go find it; here’s the spec that was derived from and just sort of hold that microcosm of that order for that customer,” he said of what he appreciates most. “The whole thing, a little bit from the beginning to end, and understanding all of it and just reinforcing (the role that I’ve played here for as long as I have.)
“I hinge a lot of my value in the organization on that.”
IN A TYPICAL day, Brooks might field a customer inquiry one minute, facilitate a conversation between a customer and NES engineer the next and developing a new source of supply the next (“I mean, in order to be able to sell the stuff, I gotta figure out where to get the stuff to make it,” he said matter-of-factly.)
How does he go about accomplishing all those tasks in an eight- or nine-hour workday?
“You just grab the thing that you can work on, and you make it move because the stuff that you can’t or that you’re waiting on … it’s like when a ship capsizes or something that like,” he said, referencing an old analogy. “You can’t save everybody from drowning, but you can help the one that’s closest to you. So, we have all these little projects drowning out here or things that are on fire, and you hit the ones that you can.
“Whatever’s actionable, you move on.”
And with those actions has come immense pride in what he does.
Brooks delights in being able to work on NES’ more intricate projects, including government-related systems or “one of our bigger vendors’ engineering or quality specifications.” He takes satisfaction in understanding a contract or application completely, of being involved, in some capacity, in almost every step of the manufacturing process. It’s created a feeling in him, all these years later of, “I got this.”
YES, THE scope of Brooks’ work has led to perhaps one word above all others: “Stress,” he said with a laugh. But it’s also made him among the more integral cogs in the NES machine, and he understands: that’s a remarkable place to be.
“Early on, the boss (Chris Napoleon) set a standard that was pretty hard to match,” recalled Brooks, NES’ fifth-longest tenured employee. “Coming in and seeing how he operated was kind of what told me, ‘Damn, you could probably do a lot more with your existence than what you currently are.’ … That stuff’s been built into us for so long, I don’t know how to operate any other way.
“The single greatest source of stress and stability for the last 21 years have all been this.”
Outside of NES, Brooks is equally busy.
He plays guitar in several local bands, most notably Vinny and The Mudflaps, is president of a local non-profit dedicated to fundraising for veterans’ causes and is co-owner of Keystone Tactical Firearms and Machine and S&B Sound and Production.
His tremendous efforts in-house are not lost on those with whom he works.
“In over 20 years of knowing Ralph, I can say he is a bit of a bulldog at work,” said Chris Truman, NES’ vice president of business operations. “You can always count on him to see things through to the end, regardless of the challenges. This quality makes him an invaluable colleague, especially on difficult or complex projects that require sustained effort and a refusal to give up.
“The only unfortunate part is that he likes Fords – otherwise we could have been friends.”