Our Team of Experts

Phone : 509.723.3098
Email : SReed@SyntaktSystems.com

For the past two decades, Scott has led sales, marketing and customer service strategies for
various packaging companies including Pearson Packaging Systems and ADCO Manufacturing. Now
part of Syntakt Packaging Integration, Scott is not only able to draw from his experience helping
hundreds of Fortune 500 manufacturers solve their automation challenges but also from having
been on the customer’s side. As a sales leader for a division of Colgate-Palmolive and co-founder
of a private-label pet food business that later sold to a national brand, Scott understands the
environment and struggles of consumer good manufacturing operations well.

Although Scott spent an impressive amount of time at several high-profile schools starting with
Washington State University, followed by Harvard Business School, the University of Michigan and
Ross School of Business, he also knows how to enjoy life. Living in the Inland Northwest, Scott
takes full advantage of summer boating and winter skiing, even serving on the National Ski Patrol.

From Packaging Machine Designer to Sales Engineer, Product Manager, Vice President of Engineering, Project Execution Manager and Senior Systems Applications Engineer, Leo has held many positions supporting packaging automation for some of the biggest consumer brands. With several decades of personally executing and directing both machine and packaging line design, commissioning and field support, Leo is the guy you want on your team. With creativity and practical thinking, he is committed to the belief that with proper planning and solid engineering execution, a complete packaging line starts up quickly, performs well and continues to do so for the long run. Never expect anything less!

Throughout his life, industrial automation has been more than a job though. Leo enjoys understanding the many available technologies and how to best employ them. A trait that also carries over into his spare time. A perfectionist at heart, Leo devotes his favorite past time to fly-fishing, choosing precision over blind luck and skill over simple wins.

Martha jumped with both feet into packaging after receiving her Industrial Engineering degree and never looked back since. As a layout design and later sales engineer for KHS USA, Martha enjoyed creating custom automation solutions to help customers accomplish their packaging optimization goals. From evaluating 3^rd party quotes, to making a solution fit into a small space, overcoming difficult product handling challenges, or presenting the details of her choices to her customer, Martha owns her projects and that is why we are glad to have her on our team now as Senior Applications Engineer.

To recharge her creativity and refocus her problem solving mindset, Martha enjoys an action-packed game of volleyball, a fast-paced downhill trip of skiing, a relaxed hour of reading or just some fun time with her family.

Before Doug entered his to-date 25-year career designing and integrating packaging automation equipment, he first put his newly degreed engineering skills to work supporting the sale of hot dogs in rather unconventional ways. As designer of custom vehicles, he helped propel the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile into the 20th century. With hot dog sales in high gear, shifting to packaging automation seemed like the next logical step.

But before he returned to the food and beverage industry, Doug spent nearly a decade with pharmaceutical packaging company, Serpa. As a mechanical and later controls engineer as well as engineering manager, he obtained extensive experience integrating complete packaging lines for the pharmaceutical industry. He then dedicated the following decade to designing and integrating robotic systems at Pearson Packaging Systems, where he also received FANUC’s Master certification for Service Providers before transitioning to the Systems Integration Group, now Syntakt Packaging Integration. For the past six years, he has now focused on the integration of complete end of line packaging solutions.

Working on conveyor systems for Michelin, R&D for a next-gen ketchup packet filling machine, HMI and PLC updates for BMW – Ernest gathered lots of diverse hands-on automation experience while working on his Electrical Engineering degree at Clemson University. After graduation in 2010, Hartness International scooped him up as controls engineer for their systems solutions group. Working on many large-scale, high-speed canning and bottling lines must have been what ignited his interest in beer brewing. Being a true engineer however, he wasn’t satisfied with a dinky home brew started kit, but instead designed and built an impressive all-electric home beer brewing system. Welding and metal fabrication, otherwise a hobby used for his many karts and buggies, came in as handy skill for this project.

In 2018, Ernest joined Pearson’s Systems Solutions Group, now Syntakt Packaging Integration, where he supports the mechanical design of the systems, specifies electrical hardware, determines the electrical panel configuration, and works closely with vendors to ensure proper communication and functioning of all system components.

After graduating in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Kansas State University, Ross started his career at Tyson’s Amarillo TX plant as an industrial engineer spearheading the plant’s yearly $4M cost savings objectives, including an ergonomics program to effectively reduce injuries. With a thorough understanding of the importance of efficiency optimization, he eventually made the switch to packaging automation, first joining the Dennis Group and later Pearson’s Systems Solution Group. Now part of Syntakt Packaging Integration, Ross ensures our line layouts work for customers’ facilities, develops spec documents, qualifies vendors to meet our requirements and designs or selects parts needed for integration. He is also onsite to support FAT’s and SAT’s.

Being at home in the city of 70-degree weather, 70 miles of pristine beaches and a dazzling array of world-class family attractions, Ross takes full advantage of the outdoors, enjoying everything San Diego, CA has to offer.

Not sure what made Gabriel decide early on that packaging was the place to be, but we are glad he did. And so did the Dennis Group, who eagerly added him to their team upon graduation as Packaging Engineer from the University of Central Florida. After four years of integrating systems for some of the largest consumer brands in the food and beverage industry to help expand their production capacities, Gabriel finally joined our team. 

Born in Caracas, Venezuela – Florida is what he calls his home. Having grown up in Daytona Beach, this now all-American sports fan is a loyal follower of the Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat and Atlanta Braves. When it comes to food though, he fondly remembers his cultural heritage and prefers the bold flavors of the Venezuelan cuisine with Arepas on the top of his list.

Helping to design new cars may be a dream many aspiring engineers have, but for Todd that is exactly where his career started. However, after working in Product Engineering and Engineering Management, Todd eventually discovered that his outgoing personality prefers to interact with people especially from diverse backgrounds, making plans and seeing them come together, creating sensible balances between small details and the big picture and eliminating obstacles on the road to success. Working at automotive supplier powerhouses Siemens Automotive and Synerject/Continental Automotive, Todd laid a robust foundation following systems like ISO and QS and interacting in a global project management system. After finding his true career calling, the packaging automation industry offered a new challenge for Todd’s competitive spirit.

And there is no slowing down after work either. ‘Work hard. Play hard.’ is Todd’s motto, which he lives up to by competing in recreational league ice hockey, racing down ski slopes and showing his 20-something year old son who’s boss on the golf course. When Todd is on your team, you can be assured that failure is unacceptable.

Desert Storm veteran Tony loves to get his hands dirty, both figuratively and literally. From installer to senior level tech and maintenance manager, for many years Tony continued to move across the country to follow wherever work took him. Eventually, material handling systems became the focus of his career. For over 12 years, he serviced and maintained some of the most elaborate and complex conveying systems in the world – airport baggage handling systems, before joining us in 2019 as Site Installation Manager. Well prepared to handle whatever challenge may arise, he will be onsite with you as we install, test and validate your new packaging automation system.

Back at home, the north-central Texan cowboy doesn’t rest much either. Busy working on classic vehicles and running a small cattle ranch, Tony is a 24/7 hands-on problem solver.