Meet Dan Bacon

Dan Bacon has been at Elm Electrical since 1982. He says he joined the company after brother, Bob, “talked me into it.”

Turns out, it was a great decision. Dan is a controls project engineer working on industrial machinery controls.

“A machine is supposed to do ‘X’ and I’m the guy who makes it do ‘X’ – from an electrical standpoint,” Dan explains. “We do PLCs, survos, drives, motion control, pneumatic controls – anything on a machine that has motion, or a sequence, that’s what I do. We do it from the interview with the customer, all the way to making it work after it’s designed and programmed.”

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Bob Bacon | Dan Bacon | Keith Saltmarsh | Mike Holmberg | Pat Reinhardt

Dan says when he started at Elm in the early 1980s, there were maybe 3-4 journeymen and he was one of 4-5 helpers.

“Everybody knew everybody, we were always behind on our projects, but Elm has always kept our customers reasonably happy,” he said. “We do what we say and other than making them sweat getting it done on time, we do what we say and the customer doesn’t get beat up with extras. That’s been our philosophy from the very beginning. We make it work for the customer. A lot of people don’t really care what they pay as long as they have fewer problems in their life. We don’t really fang them, so it’s a win-win.”

Over the years and with incredible company growth, Dan – an avid golfer – has noticed that people at Elm seem to stick around, which is a testament to the company’s culture. “When I first started here, once you got to be in your mid-30s and you didn’t want to climb up ladders anymore, you went and you got a job in a plant,” Dan said. “That doesn’t happen anymore at Elm. People stay. People actually retire from here now, which I think is amazing. In the first 10-15 years here, nobody made it to retirement at Elm.”