SPE COO takes charge of US market

Seal supplier SPE has appointed its COO Yi-Chieh Huang to oversee all US market segments.

Huang, who is originally from Taiwan and holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, has worked in machinery manufacturing sectors for over 14 years. She holds more than 30 patents covering over 20 types of mechanical seals and sealing systems.

Huang’s mechanical engineering expertise includes leading product development and technology commercialization of dynamic sealing systems for machinery manufacturing and energy industry applications. She has also provided executive oversight and strategic guidance for marketing, supply chain integration and organizational innovation.

For more than a decade, Huang has responded to local governments' environmental policies by developing seal products that met lower energy consumption standards, resolving VOC emission for rotating equipment such as industrial pumps, mixers, and compressors, and improving mechanical seals’ MBTF (mean time between failure) reliability.

Huang’s sealing solutions have resulted in an average of more than US$4 million annual cost reductions for customers. She has led cross-functional teams to provide technical support in alignment with customization specifications of various market segments and coordinated with vendors and end-users to complete plant expansion projects.

Huang also led a team to execute seal technology upgrading for an expansion of a chemical plant in Ningbo, China. This team successfully improved the performance of hundreds of pump seals, reducing maintenance costs by US$3.6 million in three years and enabling the end-user to reach an annual production of more than 40 000 tons.