About Us

President,
ESCO Division of Weir

Sean Fitzgerald

Sean Fitzgerald joined The Weir Group as President of the ESCO Division in December 2022 from A.P. Moeller Maersk, where he was Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Container Industry (MCI).

Sean began his career as an Officer in the U.S. Army. After the Army, Sean joined Bain & Company, followed by nearly 10 years with General Electric (GE) as the General Manager of Onshore Wind Turbines.

He left GE in 2011 to join Komatsu Mining Corporation (formerly known as Joy Global) as the Americas’ Regional Vice President for Underground Mining and later as President for the China region, before joining MCI in 2018.

Sean holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, a Masters of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration.

Vice President,
Strategy
ESCO Division of Weir

Anna Thames

As Vice President of Strategy, Anna Thames leads and owns strategic planning and execution for the ESCO division. She is responsible for driving initiative alignment, resource planning, balanced scorecard deployment, enterprise risk management, business development and M&A opportunities. This senior-level role also includes execution of continuous improvement initiatives.

Prior to this, Anna served as Vice President of Global Operations. Anna’s contributions in manufacturing operations started early in her career. She became Manufacturing Manager at ESCO’s oldest and most complex foundries in Portland (Main Plant), and after just two years in that role, she was promoted to Operations Manager. With 250 team members to lead, the plant manufactured critical, patented mining products so essential to our customer’s operations. By 2013, Anna became ESCO’s first female Site Manager for the Portland foundry (Plant 3). She most recently served as Vice President of Operations for North America.

Anna’s impact also includes the launch of ESCO’s joint venture foundry in Chile in 2008. As Technical Manager, Anna assumed a new role with virtually no experience in the country. While building the capabilities of her people, Anna successfully led the construction of the technical lab, built out processes and set the stage for a successful operation. Today the joint venture remains an integral part of ESCO’s global foundry strategy.

She also served as Director of Infrastructure Products, delivering record construction adapter and bucket sales and overseeing the growth of ESCO and Ultralok brands.
Additionally, she has almost two decades of experience in operations, engineering and products with ESCO. Anna is known for building high-performing, engaged teams, many from the ground-up, and she is a strong advocate for STEM, career growth and development at Weir.

Anna serves on the steering committee for Weir Group’s inclusion and diversity initiatives and is actively involved in Weir ESCO Women’s Network. She earned an MBA from the University of Oregon and holds a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from Oregon State University. Anna is a second-generation ESCO employee.

Vice President,
Innovation and Technology

Christopher Carpenter

Chris Carpenter began his career with the company in 1986 working in the Gage Engineering Team as a design engineer. He has contributed in a variety of technical and leadership roles in the company for over 30 years. More than half of his career has been dedicated to the development of new technology and products for the mining and infrastructure markets. In his tenure, Chris has been awarded 27 U.S. patents, with several more currently pending.

Chris’ contributions have pushed the boundaries of product innovation, developing technologies utilized in ESCO’s K-Series, Ultralok Construction and Mining, and the award winning Nemisys Lip System. In his current role, Chris is focused on developing disruptive technology that will create new and expanded opportunities for Weir. The first of these products include customer-facing mobile applications, integrated G.E.T. sensors for condition monitoring, and semi-automated G.E.T. removal and installation.

Vice President,
Global Products & Engineering

Kevin Stangeland

Kevin Sause Stangeland, P.E., is currently the Vice President of Global Products and Engineering for the ESCO division.

Kevin has held various engineering leadership roles for the division’s mining, construction and industrial products groups. He spent many years as NPD team leader and led the development of the Nemisys™ cast lip system, which earned recognition as the “Most Innovative Product for Surface Mining” from Mining Magazine in 2012.

Prior to this, Kevin spent seven years in construction expendables where he worked his way up to lead engineer. He started at Weir ESCO in 1998 as a gage design engineer. Most recently, he was the senior director of engineering for new product development.

Throughout his career, Kevin has brought a unique blend of engineering skills, passion, fun, curiosity and drive to always improve our engineering culture. Most recently, Kevin successfully completed an assignment as the commercial integration manager for the Motion Metrics acquisition.

Kevin graduated from Oregon State University (OSU) in 1998 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and is the Board Chairman for the MIME industrial advisory board at OSU. He has been a registered professional mechanical engineer (P.E.) in the state of Oregon since 2003.

Vice President,
ESCO Global Supply Chain & Weir Motion Metrics Operations

Mike Funke

Mike Funke has more than 20 years’ experience in supply chain, operations, strategic planning and lean implementation. He first joined legacy ESCO in 2011, with a primary role in enterprise-level continuous improvement and the advancement of our ESCO Business System (EBS). In 2015, Mike returned to supply chain where he incorporated lean tools and a customer-focused approach as the company’s supply chain planning director.

Mike has led the global supply chain organization since September of 2016, and significantly improved the development, coordination, and implementation of divisional global supply chain strategic initiatives. Most notable are the improved client-customer relationships across our global regions, a direct result of Mike’s collaborative leadership style.

He completed the successful integration of Motion Metrics into Weir in 2022. Now in an expanded role overseeing ESCO’s supply chain and Weir Motion Metrics (WMM) operations, Mike leads WMM manufacturing, sourcing, supply chain, human resources and finance.

Mike earned a B.S. in Production and Operations Management, and a B.S. in Management Information Systems from University of Idaho, and an M.B.A. from Portland State University. He currently serves on the board for Friendly House, one of Weir ESCO’s legacy partners.

Vice President,
Global Sales
ESCO Division of Weir

Randy Jones

Randy Jones is an experienced, results-driven leader, who brings a depth of knowledge about Weir ESCO’s markets, brand and products. Randy was appointed vice president of global sales in 2021 to oversee all regional management teams, digital products and product marketing.

In 2019, Randy took on the role of vice president of products and marketing. He owned the strategic vision and execution of ESCO’s product roadmap and drove profitable growth and customer demand for our global, premiere brand.

Prior to this, Randy successfully led our North American (NA) Sales region as general manager. Under his leadership, the region achieved significant sales growth of Ultralok, construction attachments, oil sands and industrial products. He previously served as director of construction & industrial products and as site manager in Phoenix, Arizona.

Randy has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics from Baylor University.

Chief of AI,
Weir Motion Metrics

Dr. Shahram Tafazoli

Dr. Shahram Tafazoli founded Motion Metrics in 1999 as a Canadian mining technology company that specializes in artificial intelligence and machine vision after completing his thesis in Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Since 2004, Shahram has grown Motion Metrics into a leading company with more than 100 employees with offices in Canada, Chile, South Africa, and Australia.

In 2021, Motion Metrics was acquired by the Weir Group, making Shahram the new Chief of Artificial Intelligence at Weir’s first Centre of Excellence for AI and Machine Vision. Dr. Tafazoli is an avid inventor holding several patents, an adjunct professor with the UBC Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), an angel investor in several promising Canadian technology start-ups, and an associate member of the Creative Destruction Lab at both the University of Toronto and UBC.

Vice President,
Finance & Accounting

Todd Abel

As Vice President of Finance & Accounting, Todd has led many enterprise projects having oversight of ESCO’s global and operations finance, accounting, financial planning and analysis.

Todd was promoted to Vice President of Accounting after serving two years as Vice President of Finance to manage operational finance for ESCO’s then newly created Construction & Industrial Division. He brings more than a decade of experience in a similar role at The Greenbrier Companies. His increasing financial and business leadership experience at ESCO have resulted in several substantial process improvements that have positioned our company for strong financial success worldwide.

Interim Vice President,
Human Resources
ESCO Division of Weir

Jen Rabing

As Interim Vice President of Human Resources, Jen Rabing currently oversees all regional human resources functions, in addition to learning and development, and communications. In this role, she is actively involved in the strategic execution of global people processes and initiatives for the Weir organization.

Jen joined Weir ESCO in 2014. She is the Director of Organizational Effectiveness, overseeing ESCO’s strategy and delivery for succession planning, learning, talent and performance. Prior to joining the ESCO division, she worked as a business consultant for various organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Jen also currently serves as the Portland Chapter President of the Weir Women’s Network. She earned a Master of Arts in Education from Western Governors University and a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Washington.

Jen is passionate about connecting with people. Her background in education and anthropology enables her to understand how to effectively engage with, retain and support people’s growth. Her skilled approach to authentic partnership has enabled Weir to deliver strategic business results, enable a positive workplace culture, and open up learning and development opportunities for all employees.

Vice President,
Global Operations
ESCO Division of Weir

Dan Kearsley

Dan Kearsley joined Weir ESCO’s senior leadership team in 2023 as Vice President of Global Operations, assuming responsibility for all of Weir ESCO’s operations, manufacturing support, metallurgy and materials development.

He joined the ESCO division in 2014 supporting products and operations. His strong financial capabilities, strategic thinking and operational execution have opened up opportunities to assume responsibility for, and successfully execute, enterprise-wide initiatives related to foundry capacity and value realization.

Most recently, Dan was General Manager of Operations, overseeing foundry and fabrication sites in Bucyrus, Ohio; Covington, Kentucky; and Xuzhou, China. Under his leadership, these sites have demonstrated high levels of performance in safety, quality and production. Dan has also positioned the business to build the largest greenfield operation in Weir history, which will transition the Xuzhou facility and team to a new space and increase foundry capacity.

Prior to Weir ESCO, Dan served in various management roles at Precision Castparts in manufacturing and engineering. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Notre Dame University.