Ed Chalupa founded AIT in 1992 with a vision to focus his engineering expertise on aircraft positioning and alignment systems. Since then, Ed has transformed AIT into the leader in global turnkey integrator of factory automation solutions, concentrating on the aerospace industry. 

Under Ed’s leadership and guidance, AIT personnel have continually delivered innovation and have been involved with designing, developing, installing, and enhancing almost every large airframe automated alignment system in production throughout the Aerospace industry. His tireless efforts have cultivated a culture of excellence and creativity, where cost and time savings through precision and perfection are the ultimate goals. AIT’s customers recognize and respect the value of AIT’s business practices – so much so that the vast majority of new sales are achieved by referral and word of mouth.

Before founding AIT, Ed worked at McDonnell Douglas and Texas Instruments (TI).  An engineer in TI’s Factory Automation and Control Systems group, Ed gained his experience supporting their aircraft clients in the development of the automated positioning and alignment systems.

Ed is a graduate of the University of Southern Illinois, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering in 1985.

Karl Williams is responsible for the company’s domestic and international operating activities and brings an insightful, can-do style to AIT. 

Since joining the company in 1999 as a Project Manager, Karl has concentrated the majority of his time on the interrelationships among AIT, its customers, and suppliers so that we deliver superior products and services. Karl has also been expert in defining best practices in the process-intensive aspects of manufacturing in the aerospace industry.  In his time here, he has made many significant contributions to the company and its customers. Most recently, Karl drove new business ventures in aircraft parts manufacturing and services for AIT, launching two new locations in Texas in 2014 with approximately 500,000 square feet of industrial space.

He also played a key role with Vought Aircraft Industries, as the total project integrator for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aft fuselage. Collaborating with Vought, he and the AIT team defined an entirely new process to build this noteworthy aircraft – substantially raising the bar in streamlined, economical manufacturing. Before joining AIT, Karl worked for The Boeing Company in Seattle, WA, in a variety of capacities. Initially, Karl worked in the Tooling Core arm of the company, focusing on enhancing the tooling performance, the final assembly of the Boeing 747, and the Methods team of industrial engineers. Here Karl championed the development of processes that resulted in better, faster, more economical practices.

Karl received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration in 1995 from Washington State University. 

Matt Ptacek is responsible for ensuring the financial strength of AIT and enabling its profitable growth by planning, directing, and leading the financial activities of the organization while partnering with the operations across the company to support and drive the overall business plan and strategic direction of the company.

Prior to joining AIT, Matt was the Administration Director at TH Foods with responsibility for the company’s finance and accounting, procurement and information technology functions. Matt brings Aerospace and Defense experience having worked at Esterline Technologies for seven years. During his years at Esterline, he spent time in operations as a Vice President/General Manager running one of their subsidiary companies as well as time in their corporate finance function as the Operations Controller. Matt’s prior leadership, operational experience and broad background in finance with roles in FP&A, Treasury, Audit and Plant Controllership make him well suited for this role.   

Matt has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  

As Corporate Chief of Security, Kory Kelly has complete oversight for all matters relating to the security of AIT company assets, government programs, and personnel. His expertise ensures the overall fidelity to compliance with relevant government policies to ensure that AIT accomplishes the goals and objectives aligned with those programs.

With a Top Secret Security Clearance, Kory's career has spanned more than two decades directing secuirty efforts in both government and private sector security disciplines supporting United States Government Compartmented, Commercial, and Military programs. 

Additionally, Kory served for almost a decade in the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency and Joint Services, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Agency. 

Kory holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science from Humboldt State University as well as a Master of Arts degree in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University.

Phil Check is Vice President of Quality Assurance responsible for the critical role of administering and maintaining the Quality Management System and processes with AIT's AS9100 registrars and customers. In this role, he also has oversight for all activities comprising internal and external audits, any corrective action, and continual improvement as well as ensuring that customer requirements are met.

His responsibilities take him to all AIT sites in North American where he continually coordinates with staff for current and future applicable customer, national and international regulatory and statutory requirements.

Before joining AIT in 2011 as the Quality Manager, Phil has held staff positions in highly regulated industries as well as hands-on process and quality engineering responsibilities. His expertise in managing compliance to ISO 9001 and the unique, specific provisions mandated by industries adopting ISO principles made him an ideal fit to develop a robust system for AIT.

Phil has a bachelor's degree in biology from Drake University and a master's of business administration (operations management) from National University in San Diego.

Robert Chianese is AIT’s Vice President, Supply Chain with corporate responsibility for the company’s best-in-class procurement methodologies, sourcing and purchasing practices, material planning, and logistics and distribution. Collaborating with leadership at every location, he ensures that we optimize our supply chain infrastructure among all AIT facilities.

Re-joining AIT in 2012, Robert was hired as the Senior Manager, Supply Chain with direct responsibility for procurement at Plano and Canada locations. Once Grand Prairie was opened in 2014, he then added this location to his direction supervision as well. During his time here, Robert has tirelessly elevated the performance of supply chain to meet the robust schedules and budgets that our customers demand. He not only worked to streamline processes among his team, the designers, and project managers, but also developed a stringent system to offload tooling packages among our manufacturing locations.

Robert served as the MedAssets Senior Negotiator from 2006-2012, where he honed his expertise in negotiating supplier agreements for terms, volume discounts, and working agreements for the company's benefit.

Making his first appearance at AIT in 2004, Robert established the processes and procures for AIT's procurement team, which serve as the foundation for current business practices.

Robert earned his bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Jason McGahey has spent his entire career immersed in aerospace technology advancements, and that experience benefits AIT where he serves as Vice President of Project Management. AIT’s business is project driven, which means managing the complex nature of aerospace structure assembly is the company’s lifeblood. In this capacity, Jason ensures that each project is delivered on time, within budget, and at the highest quality through his team of engineering project managers.

When Jason began working at AIT in 2004, he was given responsibility for automated drilling technology as well as the business development and subsequent projects that involved drilling. He leads the automated drilling and fastening technology and business development for AIT, which includes Flextrack drilling and fastening, NC drill jigs, and fixed drilling.

Before joining AIT, Jason worked at McDonnell Douglas/Boeing St. Louis from 1994 to 2004 in a variety of capacities: manufacturing engineer, equipment and process engineer, and advanced manufacturing R&D engineer, with a focus on the F/A-18E/F aircraft.

Jason is a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering as well as a Master of Engineering Management degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Erica Moreno-Melton is AIT's corporate Vice President of Human Resources, responsible for achieving the HR strategies needed to strengthen AIT’s ability to serve our employees and executive board.

In this capacity, Erica will have the leadership responsibility for strategic compensation programs, recruiting, safety and compliance as it relates to human capital functions, the rollout of all initiatives under her purview, and the communication systems to accomplish these objectives. 

Having joined AIT in 2010, Erica has been instrumental in the company's growth for the HR function.

Lee Weiner is AIT's Vice President, Finance, providing leadership and coordination of company financial planning, debt financing, and budget management functions as well as ensuring company accounting procedures and reporting conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Lee joined AIT in 2013 with over 21 years of experience helping companies successfully restructure their organizations both financially and operationally. He served as CFO for the Bradshaw Group, where he directed the financial operations and information technology department of this worldwide wholesale distributor of printer parts and supplies for the desktop and high-speed printer industries.

Lee also held positions as Director of Treasury, Corporate Controller and Financial Planning Manager for several large corporations along with providing consulting services to numerous organizations. He has been successful in his career with many companies in a variety of vertical industries.

Lee earned is Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Ithaca College and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Michael Wellham serves as AIT's Vice President, Operations - Automation & Tooling with ultimate responsibility for the company's manufacturing lines of business, which include our locations in Canada, Michigan, Grand Prairie, and Sweden.

Michael came to AIT with an extensive record of distinguished leadership in both metals and mining and aerospace industries, spanning more than 25 years. Most recently at the helm of Bluewater Thermal Solutions, Michael drove operational change to create a very profitable and structured company in under 3 years. Before that, he served as president and in multiple senior leadership positions at RTI International Metals, transforming it from a producer of titanium mill products into an integrated supplier of finished aircraft components. The beginning of Michael’s successful career started at General Metals as VP of sales and the general manager, where he grew this specialty metals firm in the aerospace industry.

His skills in operational effectiveness, cash flow improvements, and strategic alignment of his organization have made him a valuable leader at AIT.

Michael earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee.