Founder & CEO of Cauffiel Technologies Corporation

Whether it’s finding new, efficient ways to process metal or meeting the challenge of improving education among public school students, entrepreneur Ford B. Cauffiel likes to remember the words of legendary automotive inventor Charles F. Kettering:
      “This problem, when solved, will prove simple.”

It’s an attitude the founder of Cauffiel Technologies has cultivated across a career that began in 1952 in the engineering department at Ford Motor Company, but soon expanded into an entrepreneurial effort to service the dynamic needs of the metal processing industry with new machinery and equipment.

Well before American consumers and machinery manufacturers became conscious of the need to conserve industrial resources, Cauffiel found a niche building metal processing equipment for metal service centers in the 1960’s.

Finding creative solutions with respect to many metal markets also inspired Cauffiel’s founding of his American Steel Products in 1986. The company helped revolutionize residential and commercial construction by replacing wood framing components, such as two-by-fours, with durable steel. Innovative Cauffiel solutions continue to this day, among them: A recent contract to design and build a complete plant process for producing sheet and coiled radiation shielding as used in atomic powered navy ships and airport security systems, and a rolling mill to convert high strength titanium powder into sheet for the U.S. Army.

Ford Cauffiel has also put together a group of scientists to develop aviation fuel from algae and has been approved for $12.5 million from Huntington Bank.

Meanwhile, Cauffiel Technologies continues to build and install metal processing systems in plants throughout the world. Ford Cauffiel holds twenty patents and has founded five subsidiaries. He serves on the advisory board of the MBA program at the University of Toledo and has embarked on numerous trade missions to countries in Asia. In 2008, he received the Ohio Governor’s “Excellence in Exporting” Award, and in 1974, he received the Presidents “E” Award, the highest given by the U.S. Government to a business, for outstanding achievement in expanding exports. He’s also been named “Entrepreneur of the Year” sponsored by Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, and Inc. Magazine.

Above those honors, Cauffiel considers his founding of the non-profit Students For Other Students (SOS) program in 1989 his most rewarding accomplishment. SOS pays students $8 an hour to tutor their fellow students in many public school districts. The program, which has helped more than 10,000 students, has spawned similar peer-tutoring efforts elsewhere, including most recently, Cleveland Public Schools.

“Kids not learning, falling through the cracks, not having role models has always been a problem,” says Cauffiel. “And, on the other hand, you have the kids who do excel academically and who often find jobs hard to come by, particularly in the tough neighborhoods. A big problem. But the answer was right there in front of us by simply putting the two together. The problem, when solved, was simple.”