Board of Directors

President​

Nipendra P. Singh
S&A Consulting Group, LLP
Nipendra Singh has almost 40 years of experience in the high technology aircraft engine components manufacturing business including nearly 17 years with TRW Corporation. Early in his career Nipendra managed the design and startup of a new investment casting plant for General Electric Company.
Since 1991, Nipendra is Consulting Partner and CEO of S&A Consulting Group LLP, Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in India having received a degree in Metallurgy and did post graduate work in business at Case Western Reserve University. His background includes marketing strategies, product engineering, strategic management and new plant construction in aerospace and commercial ventures. He has consulted for over 18 years for multi-national and American companies in the US, Japan, Europe and Asia.
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Vice President

​Ty Ueland
SeaCast, Inc.
Ty Ueland is the Vice President of Business Development at SeaCast Inc. and chairs the Board of Directors at Montana Precision Products, a SeaCast/GE Aviation Joint Venture. Within the ICI, he currently leads the ICI’s Government Relations Committee. His investment casting experience began working a summer air melt job with SeaCast, where he later progressed through roles in quality, marketing and sales. He has been active in his current tenure since 2007 overseeing sales, marketing, strategy and government relations. Prior to his return to manufacturing, Ty worked in Smith Barney’s Investment Banking Division as a Financial Analyst and held various roles in Microsoft Corporation’s Corporate Strategy and Corporate Marketing groups.  Additionally, he is the Chairman of the Board of Montana Craft Malt, a startup barley malting operation. Ty holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the University of Washington.
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Past President

John J. Marcin
RTX Corporation
John Marcin is currently Senior Technical Fellow for Raytheon Technologies Corporation and Discipline Lead for Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering for Collins Aerospace. He leads a technical team in Global Strategic Sourcing focused on supplier producibility, performance, and delivery assurance of a broad range of aerospace product. Previously, he managed the Advanced Casting Facility at United Technologies Pratt & Whitney where he led activities in alloy development, component manufacture, casting technology development and investment casting supply chain management & creation.  John also manages activities for Raytheon Technologies divisions involved with sand and die casting.  He is the recipient of UTC George Mead Medal for Engineering Excellence (highest corporate award), 4 Corporate Leadership Awards and 60 Patents. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Metals International (ASM).
John received a MS in Materials Engineering and a MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and BS in Materials Engineering from Lehigh University. His additional activities are Adjunct Professor of Engineering Sciences at RPI, Professional Engineer for the State of Connecticut, ASM Lecturer on Superalloys, and a member of ASM, American Foundryman’s Society, The Metallurgical Society, and Investment Casting Institute (ICI).  
John has served as Vice President, President and Past President of the ICI (2X) and past chair of the ICI Executive Director Succession Planning, Audit and Membership Committees.
He is the current ICI Past President and chair of the Technical Committee and a member of the Executive, Audit, Awards and Process Control Standards Committees.
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Brad DeSplinter
TPM
Brad has been in the investment casting industry since 1991. He is currently VP/GM of Texas Precision Metalcraft (TPM) in Sugar Land, TX.   Brad has had the opportunity to work for both large and small commercial IC foundries, giving him a unique perspective on our industry and how the ICI can best serve member foundries.   Having spent the past several years in a smaller foundry atmosphere (<$7.5M in sales), Brad recognizes the importance of this large segment of the regular membership being represented on the ICI Board.   
​Brad is currently Chairing the ICI Marketing Committee, and the Strategy Subcommittee on Marketing for the IC Industry, as well as being a member of the Program Committee.  He is involved on a daily basis in all aspects of the foundry, including engineering, sales, operations and purchasing.   Brad is a graduate of Bradley University with a BS in Manufacturing Engineering.
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Phil Geers
Blasch Precision Products
Phil Geers is the Director of Global Business Development, Molten Metals for Blasch Precision Ceramics. In his first job out of college, Phil worked as a plant engineer reviewing and auditing the steps required to produce a metal fabricated part.  This started his love for manufacturing and process improvement, which are still great passions for him today.  Another great passion in Phil's career has been the Investment Casting Institute.  Over 20 years ago he attended his first ICI meeting and quickly found out the great benefits of this organization.  As Phil's time in the ICI grew, so did his understanding of the market which in turn helped our business grow.  Phil has had the great fortune of being mentored by several senior members in the ICI over the years, which has helped him both professionally and personally.  In his past work for the ICI, Phil has held positions on committees and presented 4 separate technical papers.  In Phil's current job position, he travels the world to improve the refractory use of investment casters and alloy producers.  He has had the privilege of visiting hundreds of customers performing refractory installations and trainings.   Phil's focus has always been to improve the processes of the ICI member foundries by being a technical resource for refractories and to provide knowledge and assistance when and wherever needed.  
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Robert Johnson
Shellcast, Inc.
Bob's experience and education covers a wide variety of manufacturing disciplines. His career has covered positions in sand casting, permanent mold, die-casting, pattern making, precision machining, quality control, technical sales, and operational management with a primary focus on investment castings beginning in 1980 at Golden State Castings in Southern California.
He joined Howmet in 1984 in a quality role and rose to the sales and program manager for advanced titanium alloys while at the titanium casting operation in Whitehall, MI. He also co-holds two US patents for permanent mold casting of titanium and nickel-based alloys developed while at Howmet. In 1995 he joined Teledyne Cast Product's Picco facility (now CPP City of Industry, CA) and became the engineering manager for GE Aircraft Engine Lynn, MA components. He moved to an aluminum die-casting facility in 1996 becoming the VP of sales and co-owner. Joining ShellCast, Inc in 2005, he became the President and owner of the 60-year-old company in 2011.
Under Bob's direction the company has become a recognized leader in the medium-sized steel casting market and has been chosen for multiple Casting of the Year Awards and became the first foundry to win the ICI's Innovator of the Year Award.
He is a Muskegon, Michigan native and a second-generation foundry man who studied mechanical engineering at Muskegon Community College.
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Rich Kilpatrick
Paramelt USA 
Rich is the President and General Manager of Paramelt USA, located in the Muskegon, Michigan area. He started in the industry with M. Argueso & Co., Inc. and has been in the Investment Casting Industry for the past 16 years in various roles. Rich has served on multiple ICI committees to aid in improving the industry. Recently, he has served on the ICI Strategy Committee and helped to update the Atlas for Wax Pattern Defects. Rich holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Grand Valley State University and a certificate in Executive Leadership from The Wharton School of Business. His passion for continuous improvement has helped numerous foundries over the years and he continues to be an asset for the industry as a whole. He has served on multiple boards and strives to push the industry and Institute towards innovation.
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Erich Knoespel
Artcast, Inc.
Erich Knoespel has been around the investment casting industry for close to ten years. He is the Additive Manufacturing Specialist for Artcast Inc., a multigenerational family-run art foundry in Canada. Since 2013, Erich has been integral to the rapid adoption of additive manufacturing technologies at Artcast. Erich initiated the utilization of additive manufacturing processes into the art casting environment of Artcast through experimentation.  Through trials and tests he has been able to streamline the wax making process for many of the projects.  He has introduced the client base to the use of scanning and printing to allow for ease in their creation process.  As well as the manipulation of their 3D files for thickness, aesthetic, or sizing adjustments before print.  This area of expertise along with his ability to work closely with the clients has made the introduction to new processes easier on the client base and added efficiencies to the art casting process.  Having grown up in the investment casting industry Erich is knowledgeable of every step of the process.  His willingness to push the envelope has been invaluable in each step from wax making all the way to patination.  The ICI Casting Certification combined with the willingness to experiment has combined the technical with the creative and has triggered many new opportunities. Every project that flows through Artcast Inc. is unique and requires this combination of technical and creative.
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Juan Molina
FS Precision Tech Co LLC
Juan Molina has 30 years of broad business management and technology experience, has held several board level positions in his career, and has over 15 years of experience in titanium investment casting industry serving aerospace, defense, and commercial markets. Mr. Molina is currently employed as Executive Vice President and General Manager of FSPT. He received a Bachelors in Business from the University of Phoenix and is certified as a Professional in Human Resources. His experience includes business management and turnaround, healthcare executive, operational strategy, sales and account management, Six Sigma/lean leadership, and  other traits.
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John Morison IV
Hitchiner Manufacturing Co., Inc.
John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy from Northeastern University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Hampshire. He started his career at Hitchiner in 2011 as an Internal Controls Auditor. He has since held key positions in critical aspects of the organization, including in quality, operations and finance. Currently John serves as Hitchiner’s Executive Vice President, Treasurer & Secretary, where he is responsible for the organization’s corporate treasury and governance functions. In his role John works in close coordination with Hitchiner’s Board of Directors, along with other key external stakeholders (shareholders, state & local officials, financial & legal partners, etc.) and provides strategic financial leadership in determining the organization’s overall direction. In 2021, John was appointed to the company’s Board of Directors

John is interested in serving on the ICI’s Board of Directors because he sees tremendous value in the organization for both the individual member companies and for the investment casting industry as a whole. John is excited at the opportunity to serve on the ICI Board to continue to drive the organization forward in service of its members and the industry.
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Aaron Phipps
MPI, Inc.
Aaron Phipps is the President of MPI, Inc.  Aaron is the son of founder Bruce Phipps and has been with the company in an official capacity since 2010.  In truth, Aaron has been in and around the investment casting industry his entire life.
Aaron has an engineering degree from Rochester Institute of Technology.  He currently teaches the wax section of the Certification Course for the Investment Casting Institute.  He presented a paper at the 2015 ICI Technical Conference entitled, “Current Problems in the Wax Room and How they are Best Overcome,” and also presented at the EICF World Conference in Paris a paper entitled, “Overcoming Common Wax Injection Problems: The First Step toward Automation.”  He sits on the Advisory Board of the New Paltz School of Science and Engineering, receiving an award for invaluable contributions to the school’s Internship Program.
Prior to joining MPI in an official capacity, Aaron worked at A.W. Bell in Australia as a product engineer and in the Bio Medical industry.  After joining MPI, Aaron worked his way through MPI taking on key roles including product and automation engineering, process engineering, establishing a training curriculum, department manager, VP of Sales and Service, VP of Manufacturing and Engineering and now President.
After working in all phases of engineering, Aaron took over the MPI Technology Center as manager, overseeing critical areas of the business including pattern production services, demonstrations, process validation, testing and operator/engineer training.  The Technology Center is MPI’s state-of-the-art facility where engineering, innovation and R&D intersect to create real-world solutions to customer’s wax room challenges without having to interrupt their production.
MPI has experienced explosive growth in recent years, having doubled in size.  Aaron has been an instrumental contributor to this growth as a talented problem solver who effectively collaborates with customers and vendors alike to develop solutions for a wide array of challenges.  
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Albert E. Torok, Jr.
Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers, Inc.
Al is currently the Investment Casting Technical Manager at Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers, Inc. located in Greenfield, IN.  After receiving his BS in Physics at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselear, IN.   Al has spent the last 47 years in the foundry Industry. 
Al started his investment career at Arwood, in New Hampshire in 1986.  He has held various positions within the technical side of the foundry business, from starting out as a Lab Tech, to Director of Engineering at an aerospace foundry in Southern CA, to the present, as the Investment Casting Technical Manager at YMPPI.   Al has technical engineering experience with casting large Aluminum, mid-size and small Low Carbon Steel, Alloy Steel and Stainless Steels, Copper base alloys, Magnesium alloys, Gray and Ductile Iron in both Shell and Solid Mold, for the aerospace industry.  However, he further has engineering experience in Green Sand, Dry Sand, High Pressure Die Casting, Permanent Mold, Tilt Mold, Low Pressure.
Al has co-authored five technical papers and has served on various technical committees for ASTM, ICI, Gray Iron, Ductile Iron and AFS research projects.
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