Professional Pilot, May 2019
OPERATOR PROFILE Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Electrical equipment manufacturer flies 4 Cessna Citation X twinjets to visit customers worldwide 30 PROFESSIONAL PILOT May 2019 SEL Founder President Chief Technical Officer Dr Edmund Schweitzer III In early 2019 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame shortly after being awarded his 200th patent The SEL flight department ensures that its people get to any of the 164 countries where the companys products can be found in furtherance of its mission to make electric power safer more reliable and more economical Photos by Brent Bundy T he electrical grids that provide power for millions of people around the planet have become an expectation When we plug in our devices flip on a light switch or step into a cooled room we assume that uninterrupted energy will fulfill our needs For the past 35 years Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories has made sure that the current is flowing in the most efficient protected way possible Founder Ed Schweitzer has also made sure that his employees have had the most efficient access to their global interests and he has done so with business aviation Birth of technology Hailing from the northern suburbs of Chicago IL Ed Schweitzer was born into a family with electricity in their genes My father owned a company that made faulted circuit indicators and my grandfather was a pioneer in high voltage electrical fuses They each had around 100 patents for their work he recalls While it seemed their destiny to be in this field each Schweitzer has stood on his own merits I never worked for my dad and he never worked for his dad says Schweitzer He graduated from Purdue University in 1968 as an electrical engineer and later received his PhD from Washington State University After time spent as a professor in electrical engineering at his alma mater and Ohio University he started his company in the basement of his Pullman WA home This was the beginning of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories SEL which shipped its 1st digital protective relay an invention of Schweitzers in April 1984 From that first relay in Schweitzers basement SEL has grown into a company employing more than 5100 people at upwards of 60 facilities across the US and 52 international offices providing service to the 164 countries where the companys products can be found It didnt take long for Schweitzers groundbreaking inventions to permeate the global market It also didnt take long for him to realize that in order to provide the level of service he promised early on for his customers reliance on commercial travel was not ideal In 1995 his fathers patent attorney Gene Cummings invited Schweitzer to the annual NBAA convention I flew commercial into Chicago then Gene took me to Houston in his Falcon 10 That was my 1st exposure to business aviation and I was hooked Schweitzer relates By Brent Bundy Phoenix Police Officer Pilot AS350 AW119 Cessna 210 182 172
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