Leadership through Partnership: Joe Harsany & Tyler Smith take the lead as Co-CEOs
McMinnville, Oregon, 11/09/2021 – Andrews Cooper (AC), a product development and custom automation engineering firm, is pleased to announce that the board of directors has named Joe Harsany and Tyler Smith as new co-CEOs effective November 2021.
Mirroring the effective business partnership established by co-founders Neal Andrews and Steve V. Cooper, Joe and Tyler have experienced an organic development of their working relationship during their 15+ year tenure at AC and most recently in their respective executive roles as Vice Presidents of Product Development and Custom Automation. Their impact and success has been the result of a mutually respectful collaboration, leading with humility and openness.
The cooperative leadership paradigm has served AC well and is based on the business model that deeply influenced Neal and Steve, namely that of Hewlett Packard (HP). Bill Hewlett and David Packard’s development of HP and the Rules of the Garage taught Neal and Steve how to form and lead a company (2000–2017) and establish AC’s values and best practices. This kind of cooperative partnership between individuals, clients, and teams “provides diversity of thought and the ability to challenge ideas” and “raises everybody’s game.”
Under the guidance of these principles throughout AC’s 21 year evolution, Joe and Tyler have worked cooperatively for two-thirds of that time. They have developed fresh solutions and robust business services, mentored engineers and managers, and made crucial leadership decisions. Their origins are similar as well, starting their careers at AC as talented Mechanical Engineers and shouldering increasing responsibility and leadership roles:
➤ In 2004, Tyler Smith joined AC in Corvallis, OR as an entry level mechanical engineer. He led the creation of a team focused on the Custom Automation needs of our clients, becoming the VP of Automation in 2012. Today Automation at AC is driven by over 50 engineers and covers large parts of the product development lifecycle including R&D, Test & Measurement, and Manufacturing.
➤ In 2006, Joe Harsany was hired as a mechanical engineer at client sites in Vancouver, WA before moving to AC’s corporate headquarters in McMinnville, OR. Joe’s work was key to the expansion of AC Product Development. In 2013 he was promoted to VP of Product Development and developed our Managed Engineering Services to better assist AC customers directly on location. PD has since grown under his leadership into new areas of med tech, AR/VR & gaming tech, and a wide variety of other consumer device partnerships.
Joe and Tyler are well-positioned for the co-Chief Executive roles with their broad engineering experiences, positive team building instincts, and pragmatic approaches to creating solutions. With Joe and Tyler at the helm AC is positioned for continued strong growth into the future.
From Left: Joe Harsany, Tyler Smith, Steve Cooper, Neal Andrews
AC is an enterprise grade product development services firm with deep expertise in product engineering and custom automation.
Hey A-C Dudes!
Way cool on your new co-CEOs!
Mega congrats to Tyler & Joe!
Uber kudos to Steve & Neal for making an inspired legacy handoff decision!
This leadership transition passes my gut check on common sense wisdom.
It makes all the sense in the world for company pilots to have lots of skin (and personal history) in the game. I don’t think you could have made a better decision. Your learning from experience selecting company leadership is showing.
I have a faux embroidery wisdom meme I got from Steve at HP-McMinnville eons ago. I will share a photo LATER via email. The punchline is:
EXPERIENCE ENABLES YOU TO RECOGNIZE A MISTAKE … WHEN YOU MAKE IT … AGAIN!
To that I will now add:
WISDOM ENABLES YOU TO RECOGNIZE YOUR SERIAL MISTAKES … AND … MERCIFULLY STOP MAKING THEM!
Your new website is stunning and slick. Whoever the web designer is … job well done!
I’ll send this website comment also via email.
Cool I just happened to check your website (looking for the now missing writeup on SuperNova) … and saw your press release just 3 days after it went public.
All the Best to Andrews-Cooper … with Tyler & Joe now fighting over the helm!
-Gary Clark