Greystone Machining & Plating began as a Rhode Island plating shop in 1932 and has evolved into a global manufacturing partner serving automotive, medical, aerospace, defense, and semiconductor markets. Today, Greystone is roughly split between machining and finishing operations, a balance that allows it to address challenges that many suppliers only encounter after problems arise. We talk with Leif Walther, Vice President of Sales, and Jesse Bussiere, Global Market Manager, about how the...

James Simonelli’s is executive director of the Metal Finishers Association of California, a role he assumed on January 1. Simonelli’s leadership comes at a time when collaboration across the metals industry has become essential. Over the past several years, companies have increasingly joined both MFAC and the California Metals Coalition, where he has spent much of his career advocating for the broader metals sector. California’s metal finishing industry found itself in the middle of one of th...

Jason Brassard is the owner of Brapsard Powder Coating in Franklin, New Hampshire, and grew his powder coating business the same way many others have: a small setup, a lot of trial and error, and a passion that quickly outgrew the garage. When Brassard was approached by a friend to help him remember his late brother, he developed an unusual way to immortalize loved ones through his craft: embedding their ashes into the powder coating to finish unique parts that would hold them dear to their f...

James DeDeus is President of JMD Industries in New Hampshire, which recently acquired Massachusetts’ Patriot Coatings. The Patriot Coatings acquisition, finalized at the end of 2025, represents the most significant expansion in JMD Industries’ nearly 50-year history. JMD Industries’ roots trace back to 1977, when the company was founded in Lawrence, Massachusetts, by DeDeus’s parents. In its early years, the business focused heavily on restoration work, such as chrome plating automotive...

Stephen Walters is CEO of Progressive Coating, a Chicago-area job shop that has evolved from a thermoplastic coating specialist into a multi-process supplier supporting automotive, electrical infrastructure, and electric vehicle markets across North America. That performance-first mindset has guided Progressive Coatings through more than four decades of operation—and through one of the most ambitious expansion efforts in the company’s history. Founded in the early 1980s, Progressive Coatings ...

Dallas Cooley is Chief Servant and CEO at Georgia Powder Coating in Gainesville, Georgia, a company approaching its 27th year in business and prepares for a facility expansion that will more than double its footprint. For Georgia Powder Coating, the decision to prioritize customer experience was not based on industry precedent. In fact, there was little to draw from within manufacturing itself. Instead, the company looked outside its own industry for inspiration. “You can think of hotel chain...

Stephen Sharretts is the CEO and third-generation leader of Sharretts Plating in York, Pennsylvania, an electroplating operation that has lasted 100 years and weathered the industry’s many storms. Founded in 1925 as Charles D. Snyder and Son, Inc., the company has evolved from a small polishing and repair shop in Harrisburg into a cutting-edge surface finishing operation serving global industries. Sharretts Plating specializes in alloys and finishes that most finishing operations prefer to ig...

Natalia Stephen is owner of Compound Metal Coatings and CEO and Owner of PVD Advanced Technologies, both located in Ontario, Canada, and looks forward to her 25th anniversary in 2026. Stephen founded CMC in 2001, after a career that took her from her birthplace in Romania to college and her first job in South Africa, where she sold chemistry supplies, and eventually to Canada, where she was on the supplier side as well. Along the way, she has become well known for her expertise in corrosion p...

Marko Duffy is Managing Director at TDF Metal Finishing in Danvers, Massachusetts. He took the job in 2021 after a lengthy career on the supplier side of the finishing business and has transformed the once family-owned company in just a little over four years. Duffy has helped the shop, founded in 1984, become accredited by the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program and has added new finishing lines and more processes. More importantly, he won over the 30 employees b...

Imran Shamsi is Vice President at Premier Metal Processing in San Diego, which offers anodizing, electrolytic nickel, bright tin, chemfilm, electroless nickel, electropolish, passivation, and zinc to customers across various industries. The company serves customers in the aerospace and defense, medical, electronics, oil and gas, connectors, microwave, nuclear, automotive, and commercial sectors. The diversity of business sectors among Premier Metal Processing’s customers has been a sign...