Arthur Ackerman led Mini-Circuits’ quality management program for nearly 30 Years. Now he’s guiding a key transition for the company’s future success.
“Quality is not a department.” Anyone who’s been fortunate enough to attend a Quality training session with Mini-Circuits’ emeritus VP of Quality, Arthur Ackerman will remember that maxim. For nearly 30 years, Arthur has been a champion and leading influencer of quality not as a discrete function, but as a habit and a culture that runs through every area of our business. A natural teacher, his equanimity in sharing his knowledge with anyone who shows the desire to learn has made him an invaluable resource and mentor to countless team members and an example of what borderless leadership looks like in practice.
The reputation he’s earned as a trusted authority and collaborator to partners across the organization is partially rooted in the history of his role as an architect of Mini-Circuits’ industry-leading Quality Management System. By the early 1990s, Mini-Circuits had undergone explosive growth as a byproduct of the first generation of commercial cellular networks rolled out between 1983 and 1990, a trend that would continue with the transition to 2G networks on a new Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), starting in 1991.
With this steep rise in demand and production volume came more stringent and sophisticated standards for quality. Certification to the ISO 9001 quality standard was now a barrier to entry for suppliers serving the biggest customers for RF and microwave components, and Mini-Circuits’ founder, Harvey Kaylie understood that establishing a best-in-industry program for quality management would be the next strategic milestone in the company’s evolution.
This was the context in which Arthur joined Mini-Circuits. An electrical engineer by education, he’d built his career to that point in the textile industry, experience which conferred substantial knowledge of manufacturing processes and quality management. Arthur initially interviewed and was hired for an open role assisting Mini-Circuits’ Production Control department at the Neptune Avenue facility. Within a month of starting, however, he was tapped to stand in and fill a gap left when the manager of the Test department unexpectedly left the company. Showing his aptitude and adaptability in such a short time soon positioned Arthur at the top of Harvey’s list to take on additional responsibility for QA while a search was conducted for a permanent QA manager. But Arthur took to the role naturally, ultimately making further search unnecessary.
Arthur worked closely with Harvey to stage a transformation that would reshape the business and has defined how we operate to this day. In 1997, Mini-Circuits became the first company in Brooklyn to earn its ISO 9001 certification, and the first again to achieve certification to the ISO 14001 environmental standard in 2001. In 2007, Mini-Circuits extended its quality management program to add the stringent AS9100 standard for the aerospace industry to its portfolio of quality certifications.
Each of these accomplishments entailed exhaustive effort by every member, extensive training, thousands of pages of structured documentation, and vast collections of data. Advanced tools and methods were employed to establish rigorous processes for failure analysis and RMA disposition. Hundreds of internal audits were conducted each year to maintain conformity with the requirements of our QMS. This was the work that made Mini-Circuits’ brand synonymous with quality, reliability and trust, and a notable reason the business has thrived continuously for nearly 60 years.
For someone with fingerprints all over success at this level, those meeting Arthur for the first time find him refreshingly approachable. His quick wit and sometimes sarcastic sense of humor are disarming to even the toughest customers, and the intelligence operating under the surface come to bear in the pragmatism and sharp attention to detail that only a builder can bring to his own work.
Arthur’s example of ownership and accountability extend beyond the nominal scope of his role. His record bears the marks of a leader who genuinely cares about the community and the long-term health of our business. His tours of our Brooklyn facilities for new hires and visitors are legendary. When things get tough, from extreme weather to the leadership transition in 2018, to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he’s been among the first to the table to keep the business resilient and help guide the organization to higher ground.
As Mini-Circuits evolves into the next phase of its growth, true to form, Arthur has been a force for continuity in reinforcing the high standards that characterize our quality management while guiding a successful transition to a new generation of leadership. Krishna Shah came aboard in December of last year as the company’s new Senior Director of Quality to keep quality at the center of our culture and lead the global organization further down its path to continued excellence.
“Arthur is an excellent teacher with a wealth of knowledge,” said Krishna. “New hires quickly learn that his door is always open, and veterans know they can count on him when a tricky audit or any customer issues arise. His training style is uniquely engaging, blending humor with clear informative content, and he never makes anyone feel small for asking a question. He has seen processes evolve, standards tighten and technologies change, yet his focus has never wavered: do the right thing, do it well, and help others do the same.”
Arthur’s commitment and collaboration in welcoming Krishna to the helm and supporting the quality organization through a smooth transition goes beyond how many leaders approach succession. When one’s work transcends individual ambition and specific goals or objectives to the higher aim of service and stewardship to their community – that’s more than leadership; that’s a legacy. And perhaps without consciously intending to, Arthur has made a lasting one and plans on continuing to do so.
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