Nils Peter Mickelson, P.E., CMfgT
Mr. Mickelson studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Case Institute of Technology, where he obtained his Baccalaureate of Science specializing in Mechanical Design. During college, he held jobs with Branson Ultrasonics working as an electronics technician, with Schupack and Zollman as a drafting assistant in the field of prestressed concrete structures and with Ohio Bell as a frame technician.
Mr. Mickelson served with the U. S. Navy from 1966 to 1971, where he acted as Division Officers for Material Control and for Ground Support Equipment. In these positions, he gained first-hand experience with the complex Naval Supply System, and with the electronic and mechanical equipment used to maintain and support operational aircraft squadrons. His significant contributions included streamlining and improving accuracy of physical inventories on divers equipment types dispersed to multiple locations, and implementing several safety- and cost-related design changes to aircraft support equipment.
Mr. Mickelson's operational duties were as the Tactical/Mission Commander on board SP-2H and P-3B multi-engine patrol aircraft, whose primary mission was aerial ocean surveillance and anti-submarine warfare. This mission took his aircrew from Maine to the Azores, Spain, Sicily, Crete and Iceland, and his duties entailed complete responsibility for mission readiness, briefing and in-flight mission and aircrew command. He was granted SECRET clearance and spent time aboard submarines as an observer of tactical exercises. He resigned with honor in 1978.
Mr. Mickelson joined GTE Corporation in 1972 as a new product development engineer supporting the development and production start-up of a new hazard warning flasher. In this capacity, he interacted directly with automobile manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, and with production and quality assurance teams at GTE. His training enabled him to study in detail the physics and mechanics of this very low-cost but highly complex device used in virtually every automobile.
After certifying the hazard flasher with the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and with Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and American Motors, Mr. Mickelson commenced development of a new turn-signal flasher. The acceptance of this product positioned GTE to become the preeminent supplier of halogen automotive lighting. Mr. Mickelson has also been a member of a task group examining the feasibility of all-electronic flashers.
In 1981, Mr. Mickelson was asked to lead the development of a new line of surge arrester products for telecommunications lines. Initially, these were to use gas tubes manufactured by GTE's Claude group in France in products installed both at the subscriber's and at the central office location. Within two years, the favorable reception of these products opened the door to a wide series of some 1600 related products for which GTE has become known as the leader. Of particular note are the world's first solid-state protectors, sealed RJ-series connectors and modular distribution frames, the latter of which won Mr. Mickelson the prestigious Leslie H. Warner Award for Technical Achievement based on its estimated $33-million operating savings to the GTE worldwide telecomm system.Mr. Mickelson has been awarded eleven U.S. patents, and has several patents currently pending. In addition, he has extensive patent action experience, has represented GTE in patent litigation, and is himself a registered agent for practice before the U.S. Patent Office. Through his involvement in the flasher products, he personally developed a high-speed wire winding mechanism, a high-precision welding fixture controlled to increments of microinches, an on-line force transducer system for real-time monitoring of critical snap spring forming and a world class on-line thickness and curvature gauge for thin strip steel which continuously measures and records thickness and cupping within ten microinches.
As Engineering Manager since 1986, Mr. Mickelson was exposed to and involved in many aspects of telecommunications, notably those of the future network. He supported GTE's line of fiber optic products and was a participant in the Cerritos test bed project. He was a recognized and invited speaker on the subject of protection before a number of industry panels, and was the primary interface to the Federal Communications Commission, Underwriters Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association, as well as to GTE's valued customer base. He has been repeatedly commended on his presentation of technical material for non-technical audiences and for his professional skills.
Among other technical fields, Mr. Mickelson has gained first-hand experience with Total Quality Manage-ment, Project Management, Process Re-Engineering, Lean Manufacturing, Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Design of Experiments and Statistical Process Control. He was a part of GTE's ISO 9000 qualification team.
When GTE sold its manufacturing operations in 1993, Mr. Mickelson took the position of Principal in the consultancy TBM Associates, where he provides services in the new product development field. In 1997 he helped establish NEXTEP Incorporated, a Portland-based design and manufacturing company presently building and distributing HearFonestm for the music and speech therapy markets.
Mr. Mickelson is a registered Professional Engineer, a registered U.S. Patent Agent, and a Certified Manufacturing Technologist, a member of UL's Industry Advisory Council on Protection and Communica-tions Circuit Accessories, and past-Chairman of the local chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Mr. Mickelson is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and serves on the directing board of the Maine Modernization Partnership and local school districts' Technology Committees. He resides in Maine with his wife and two children.
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