Forest City Gear Hires New Managers

Forest City Gear Company (Roscoe, IL) hired Erik J. Spurling as their director of sales to oversee the activities of their nationwide network of direct and independent sales representatives and to lead sales strategies that meet the growing demands of a wide and diverse customer base throughout the world’s gear-making industries. Spurling brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience and a deep familiarity with all facets of inside and outside sales and customer service processes, along with a strong background in manufacturing.

This background, combined with his extensive sales and marketing leadership skills, made him an ideal candidate for the new position, according to Wendy Young, the president and chief executive officer of Forest City Gear. “Manufacturing the world’s best gears has always been our focus, and Erik will help to elevate our sales efforts to that same level,” she said. “Our sales force, and the customers they serve, will benefit greatly from new strategies and methodologies that make the sales process faster and more efficient.”

The company also hired John Young as their quality assurance manager to oversee the activities of their Quality Lab and help manage the latest quality systems for aerospace, medical and other precision gearing applications. Young brings a wealth of quality lab management experience and a deep familiarity with the latest inspection technologies, practices and systems used by companies producing precision parts for the aerospace, military, energy, automotive and other industrial markets. He is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Advanced Master Black Belt and certified in project management and strategic organizational leadership from Villanova University, as well as a certified metrologist/inspector from the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

“Finding a quality assurance manager is a little like searching for a needle in the haystack,” said Young. “Our criteria is particularly challenging: vast quality experience, familiarity with all the latest quality management systems and certifications as they relate to our core customers, an understanding of gear-related quality issues and, rarer still, someone that customers and quality staff alike would enjoy working with. Fortunately, John is the perfect fit.”

Since 1955, family-owned Forest City Gear has been one of the gear industry’s leading sources for the development, manufacture and inspection of the highest quality gears for use in applications that range from medical devices to motorcycles, airplanes to automation, even including the Mars Curiosity Rover.

www.forestcitygear.com