Awarded September 2012

Magni-Power Company was established over six decades ago in a small brick building, producing plate magnets for the cotton and feed industries. It has grown into a multi-division operation, providing products and services for the transportation, telecommunication, power distribution, and other various industries. It has a combined production space of over 270,000 square feet, 300 employees, manufacturing magnets, Thermoformed plastics and doing metal fabrication. The Magnetics Division serves the manufacturing, textile, ceramic, plastics, food-handling, foundry, and mining markets. It also provides skilled custom fabrication of metal parts and assemblies. It is located at 5511 East Lincoln Way near Wooster, and also has a larger plant in Texas.

Accepting the award was Executive Vice President Laks Venkataraman, along with Lisa Biddle and Jerry Troxel.  More than 30 percent of Magni-Power employees are Career Center high school or adult ed alumni, including Ken Troxel, Vice President of Operations, and Jerry Troxel, Engineering Manager. Bala Venkataraman is CEO and president of the company.

Magni-Power was nominated for the award by former Engineering Technologies instructor Lynette Boggs, and Welding Instructor Jeff Mehling. The company hires Career Center students and graduates, has members on advisory committees, makes significant donations to the school, participates in externships, and provides field trips and judges for student skill contests.

“Magni-Power has been a true ally of the Wayne County Schools Career Center over the years,” said Lynette. “They have worked with the engineering program in many ways. They have hired and supplied externship experiences for our students in their Engineering department. They supplied the entire class with field trip experiences to their manufacturing facility so that they could see firsthand the processes that they had been studying. They have supported the program through Lisa Biddle’s service on the advisory committee for many years. Lisa has also served as a contest judge for our SkillsUSA competitions. Magni-Power has been a consistent, reliable and valuable supporter of the Career Center for many years.”

Welding instructor Jeff Mehling said, “Magni-Power Company has been a long-standing supporter with hiring students from the welding program, donating metal, cutting parts for competitions, providing job shadowing opportunities, and serving on the welding advisory committee. They have always been willing to support and help Career Center programs any time they need help.”

We thank Magni-Power for their ongoing support of Career and Technical Education in Wayne County.