Honoring a Leading Woman in Manufacturing

Last week I blogged about Jim Hommer, Sr., who was honored with the Technology and Manufacturing Association’s Winzeler Award at its Annual Meeting earlier this month. Today I’m going to tell you about the second of three honorees from that event: Francine Petrucci.

Francine is president of B A Die Mold, Inc. in Aurora, Illinois, and she was presented with the TMA’s Rose Mottl Leadership in Manufacturing Award, an honor created by the Women in TMA Committee to recognize “outstanding women who have worked to advance the manufacturing industry through significant contributions and whose efforts serve as an inspiration to current and future generations of women in manufacturing.”

The award is the namesake of Rose Mottl, who was president of Atlas Tool and Die Works. Rose was quite active within the TMA and was the first woman to sit on the organization’s board of directors. She was appropriately the first to receive the award, and it’s worth mentioning that another deserving honoree from the moldmaking industry has been Carol Ebel of Janler Corporation.

Francine Petrucci grew up in the mold manufacturing industry, and she has been a member of the AMBA Chicago Chapter’s Board of Directors since 2003. In 2012 she accepted the role of president of the Chapter, which she maintains today. Francine was a founding member of the AMBA Chicago’s national campaign called “Save American Manufacturing (SAM)”. SAM created chapters throughout the USA and spearheaded a letter writing campaign to make manufacturers’ voices be heard in Washington DC when millions of jobs were being lost to low-wage countries like China.

Throughout her tenure with the AMBA Chicago Chapter, she has been a tireless champion of promoting mold manufacturing as a viable career to young women and men. She established the first Education Committee for the AMBA Chicago Chapter and has enthusiastically led that group in achieving its goals, including creating a website (moldyourcareer.org) and a brochure emphasizing the rewarding aspects of working in manufacturing.

Francine frequently represents the AMBA at job and career fairs, where she is persistent in reeling in young women to the booth and letting them know of the wonderful career opportunities in the manufacturing industry. Francine was also instrumental in the AMBA Chicago Chapter’s ability to exhibit at the 2014 IMTS Smartforce Student Summit to educate the young adults, teachers, counselors and parents in attendance about mold manufacturing. She is already planning to exhibit again at IMTS this year.

In April 2015, Francine led the Education Committee in the organizing and hosting of a Supplier Night event to help fund the Committee’s initiatives. This event was extremely successful, with exhibitors and attendees giving it high marks. Most recently, Francine and her Committee promoted manufacturing careers to Chicago area educators, superintendents and counselors with the first annual Educators’ Symposium, held October 8, 2015. Again, attendees praised the Committee’s efforts, saying more events like this should be held for others who work in education. Francine also recently participated on a panel hosted by the Leyden High School District where she represented and shared her experiences as a woman working in a non-traditional career for women.

Now, full disclosure to those reading today’s blog: Francine is not only a wonderful advocate for manufacturing and especially the moldmaking industry, she’s also my sister. Ask anyone who has worked with her and you’ll find they agree she is a worthy recipient of the Rose Mottl Award. In fact, she was nominated by colleagues who are not family members. But let me take this opportunity to say how very proud I am of my little sister, and I look forward to seeing what else she accomplishes on behalf of our industry in the years ahead.