Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Brian Kupchella, CEO of Clarience Technologies, about Truck-Lite’s move to Knowledge Park. Originally recorded Sept. 16, 2022.
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Brian Kupchella, CEO of Clarience Technologies, about Truck-Lite’s move to Knowledge Park. Originally recorded Sept. 16, 2022.
Welcome to Behrend Talks. I'm Dr. Ralph Ford. And today my special guest is Brian Kupchella, the CEO of Truck-Lite and Clarience Technologies and also a Penn State Behrend grad. Welcome to the show, Brian.
Brian Kupchella:Thank you, Dr. Ford.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, let me I'm going to run through your bio here a little bit and tell people about your very storied career...I'll say. And a lot of the things that you've done... You're CEO actually technically of Clarience Technologies, and it is a global transportation company, with 19 locations around the globe. And we're gonna get into this discussion today. I know your company, at least pretty well. And I'm always just amazed by the amount of innovation going on there, how you're pushing your team forward to develop new ideas. And you recently moved your company here into Knowledge Park, your corporate headquarters. It's a big deal for the community. We're very grateful for that. I'd be remiss and not saying that you are a Penn State Alumni Fellow. And that's a really special designation, only 1% of our alumni achieve that designation. You are also a member of our Council of Fellows board of directors. So anyways, I don't want to embarrass you too much, Brian, but again, welcome to the show. Well, you know, I always love to hear about your path. How did you end up at Penn State Behrend? You didn't start here, but you finished your degree here.
Brian Kupchella:That's correct. It's almost by luck. So I had finished my my associate's degree in Altoona, and was accepted into the ceramics program at University Park. And I was down there for a summer in a go through a foundry class. And I quickly realized that maybe that environment wasn't best for me. A friend of mine was was coming to Behrend to finish up his engineering degree. And I just tagged along with him, and came on campus in mid-August. I went into the admissions department, and they asked me if I was aware of the plastics program, which I said I was not. So they put me in front of Paul Cook, Professor Cook, and I graduated with a with a plastics degree shortly thereafter.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, Paul Cook was founder of the program, advocate, and you know, just really quite persuasive.
Brian Kupchella:Yeah, it was a great guy along with John Bowman.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Yeah, they really built the program up and had an influence on so many. So did you immediately take to plastics? You know, was it a little foreign? Or was you were hooked on plastics as soon as you started the study?
Brian Kupchella:No, I think I grasped it pretty quick. It was an interesting program, you know, the polymer side of it. You know, it was still a bit of a hands-on design, application sort of program, which was of interest to me. Which is what I wanted to do. And no, I think the professor's kept it interesting. It was early on in the program. So we were the second graduating class at that time. So I think it was still evolving as it grew. And that helped quite a bit. So it was just the one-on-one with the professors. That went a long way for me.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You were pioneers. We had actually completely different laboratory facilities at that time. It looks a lot different than it does now. But you were also classmates with people who then became faculty members here. That's correct. Jamek Lee and probably Jason Williams was around at that time. So anyways, you studied here at Behrend, you graduated in 1990, I believe and started at Truck-Lite. Tell us a little bit about who is this company Truck-Lite, it's a lot more complicated than lights for trucks.
Brian Kupchella:It is. So Truck-Lite was was founded in the late 50s by George Baldwin. And he was a truck driver, and his lights were failing on the back of his truck because there are bulb replaceable products. So he designed a light for himself that had a shock mount inside and got a patent on that technology actually made them in his in his home. It was a cottage industry. People would...ladies and men would come in and and pick up components and go home and build them in their homes and then bring the finished goods back and he would then distribute those. Over time it was picked up by Quaker State, in the mid 60s. And then sold to Penske Corporation in November of 1997. And that business has evolved from a truck lighting company to a telematics off-road, marine fuel filtration electronics company over the last 30 years. It's really transitioned from an electrical company to a pure electronics company.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And you were the first (if I'm not mistaken) you were the first company to really introduce LED lights into the automotive industry.
Brian Kupchella:That's correct. We launched the first LED stop Why did it take so long for LEDs to be accepted? talent turn lamp in 1992. So if we think about LED technology, it is relatively new. It's 30 years old. It's older than the shock mounted lights that were developed in the in the 60s. At this point in time, we launched the first stop telling turn lamp. We launched the first amber Ford park and turn light. We were the first to take LEDs at the forward lighting in the transportation industry. So in 2012, we launched the first Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard legal, high beam/low beam LED headlamp system in the world. And we put it on class eight trucks running around the United States. Now since then it's taken off globally, and it's on passenger cars, medium duty, and heavy duty trucks. The technology wasn't bright enough. It took a while for the diodes to evolve to the point where they could give off enough light and not too much heat. Heat reduces the light output. So the circuit board design along with the heatsink design was critical in overcoming the heat in order to pull the heat out to keep the lights bright enough. But the diodes themselves needed to evolve, to give off enough photons of light to be legal.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You know, one of the things that always fascinated me when I visited your plant was how many different technologies there is. It's not just plastics, it's not just electrical, you have everything from optics, to heat dissipation thermal. I mean, truly this is...a multidisciplinary approach is necessary. And not everybody probably can see across all those boundaries.
Brian Kupchella:No, that's right. The business is very vertically integrated. Both in manufacturing and in how we go to market. So you know, we buy raw wire, we make our own wire harness systems, we buy individual electronics components, we assemble our own circuit boards, we buy raw plastic, we manufacture our own plastic components globally. We do the same thing within our engineering department. So we we completely design the prototype, we do all the thermal analysis work, all the mold flow work, electronics development, work internal, protect that as much as we can. And so we're vertically integrated on both ends of it.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So you have a real clear culture of innovation. I mean, where'd that come from? How do you how do you build it and maintain that?
Brian Kupchella:It's not easy. You need the right people in place around you. They have to have the vision. You've got to be out in front of the customer, understanding what their needs are, you know. Knowing what the problems are in the industry. We don't invent technology. So Clarience Technologies, Truck-Lite, and all the other subsidiaries, we're not technology, inventors. We go out and look for an issue or problem in our marketplace. And we try to apply technology that exists to that. There's not solving that problem at that point in time. So we apply existing technology to current problems. It allows us to get the market a lot faster.
Dr. Ralph Ford:But you do it in a way that your competitors, obviously, are always keeping up with you.
Brian Kupchella:They're always chasing us. And we're mindful of
Dr. Ralph Ford:And I mean, how does that happen? Do you have a that. good process? Or how do you hire people? And what are the skills and behaviors that you're looking for?
Brian Kupchella:Well, that's evolved over time. So as a company, it has transitioned from electrical to electronics, you know. Mechanical, industrial engineers were important, for example, but as we evolved, it's, you know, we're not hiring firmware engineers and, and software development engineers on top of mechanical and polymer, and electrical electronics engineers. So you know, we work hard to make sure that we're keeping our talent pool in check with where the industry is going and what the industry's needs are. It's not easy to always find that. We've, most recently, as you mentioned, in the beginning of the program, we've moved our Truck-Lite headquarters out of Jamestown, New York, to here on campus. Which has been a great win for us, you know, to have the relationship not only with Behrend, but with the professors and with the students for internships and potentially hiring in the future. We moved our corporate headquarters into Southfield, Michigan, and our R&D Center into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just off the Carnegie Mellon campus. You have access to again, students, engineers, professors, and technology to help us stay ahead of where things are going.
Dr. Ralph Ford:In all three of those locations. I know like in Michigan, you're right next to a university. Here in Erie, you're right next to a university and the same thing at you know, obviously in Pittsburgh as well.
Brian Kupchella:That's correct. We try to partner with the local universities to help us.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So how is it? I know you've only been here a few months in Knowledge Park, but how's it going?
Brian Kupchella:It's going great. So we're finally all moved in. The team is all together, we're in one location on the third floor, a very open environment, access to each other is very easy, comfortable. Where we were in our past, and our past building, and the morale was much better. It's beautiful park nice and bright, and just easily accessible.
Dr. Ralph Ford:One of the things I've noticed in both your Michigan headquarters and here is that you pay a lot of attention to the design of the office space itself. It's not the old cubicle world. And I think this means a lot to you, you personally get involved in that design. What are you looking for there?
Brian Kupchella:As the business again, has evolved, we need a different level of talent. And you know, we tried to create that west coast feel, and that's where a lot of the talent comes from. So you know, it's a very open, bright environment with coffee bars, and relaxation areas, and workout centers that are available to all of our staff. But our customer base is very conservative. So we've tried to stay away from the bright colors you might see in Google or in Uber. And we've sort of dumbed it down a little bit and made it more conservative with our color palette and our carpets, or furniture, etc. So you still have that nice, bright open environment in a more of a conservative feel.
Dr. Ralph Ford:But you don't have like a, I've seen some
Brian Kupchella:The product has to be what the customer needs. companies, they have a separate conference room where you don't even see the plant yet. And they wonder why you would do that. It needs to be a product that solves a problem, a major You don't do that. You bring them right in. Yeah, that seems like the right way to go. Well, let's go back, though, for a second to innovation and product development. I've heard you say a lot in our conversations, that it's not enough to be first with problem, you know In our industry downtime, you know, a product. What do you mean by that? tractor and trailer downtime will kill a customer. So you've got to keep that equipment up and running all the time. So we're constantly looking for products, innovation, that keep the customer up and running. And to have them want to pull the product through, have them specify our product on their equipment. And that's the way to do it. You can be first with something. But if nobody wants, it doesn't relate to nobody, right? It's got it has to solve a major issue.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So how do you how to get your team out there? How do they figure that out? I mean, you got to have a formula for doing that.
Brian Kupchella:We're out in front of the customer all the time. So we're out in front of all the major fleets around the country talking to them on a regular basis about what their issues are. Or cause you're looking for solutions to solve that, we work very closely with the OEMs whether it's the truck OEMs, or the trailer OEMs, or the automotive OEMs, or the marine OEMs are staying close to them also on what their issues are. I'm trying to bring new technology to market as quickly as possible.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, you've also talked a lot about the fact that electric vehicles are coming. This isn't hypothetical. So why don't you tell us what you see? What's coming? And what are the implications of that?
Brian Kupchella:Sure. So you know, I tell our team all the time, whether we like it or not, they're coming. Look, there is the issue is trying to be resolved with the infrastructure. But if we can put the infrastructure aside for a minute that needs to be in place, all the major OEMs are going down that path. You can see that the big three in the United States right now. You know, in Europe, all the car companies in Japan mentioned five years ago, what their goals were for electrification all their major cities throughout their countries. So you know, right now, what you hear is GM plans to be 100% Electric by 2035. Most of the European car manufacturers are planning on being fully electric by 2030. When you look at the heavy duty market, the big class eights, they're projecting 20% of the class eights will be electric by by 2030. And 30% of the medium duty trucks will be electric by 2030. And then 100% of both class eights and medium duties will be electric by 2040. It's not that far away.
Dr. Ralph Ford:No, it isn't. Is there enough? You know, there are a lot of components to that but when we hear about in the news is the battery technology itself? And you know, the minerals and the rare earth minerals that are needed. Is that a problem? Or is that being solved? And I know that's not necessarily what you do. But it seems like that's a key.
Brian Kupchella:I think it's an issue. I think it's an issue today, I believe that they're working through that. So with a lot of discussion as to how they'll handle long haul versus short haul on the commercial truck application. So there's a lot of discussion around hydrogen fuel cell for the long hauls, which is is not new technology. It was used on the Apollo mission back in the 60s and early 70s to go to the moon and so they generate their power back then. So it's just taking that technology and modifying it for long haul applications. But even think about medium duty in short haul. You know, day cab applications for trucks are going out and back the same day. Your electrical work will work fine. It's just working through the details of the battery technology today.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And the work that Truck-Lite does and Clarience Technologies. You said it's not necessarily even about LED lights, you're all into reducing power consumption across the board. So what's that translate into?
Brian Kupchella:So we put together an initiative called A to Z which is amps to zero. So when we first launched the LED
Dr. Ralph Ford:You know, it's a fascinating space. So if our technology, we were able to reduce the diameter off from an incandescent lamp anywhere from 50% to almost 80% and reduce the amps. Our goal today is to take that reduce it another 50% over students here are at Penn State Behrend come to campus. They can the next five years. Or take it as close to zero as possible. Parasitic loads on an electric vehicle will kill battery life. Lights are a parasitic load. A radio is a parasitic load, windshield wipers are parasitic loads. So reducing the amp draw is absolutely critical, which puts us in a really good spot get a job working for anything, start their career working for because almost everything we manufacture today is has an LED in it and a circuit board. So you know, I believe that businesses are really good spot to help support both the automotive off road, marine and heavy truck market going forward, as this technology evolves. you. We'd love to talk to them. They'd be working on these problems.
Brian Kupchella:They sure would.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You put them right in there, don't you?
Brian Kupchella:We have our corporate laboratory here on campus also. So there's a lot of testing going on. The engineers are designing it right here on campus. And at the headquarters we're doing the test work right next door. In our factories, in ourTruck-Lite factories are in Coudersport, Wellsboro, and McElhatton, Pennsylvania, just a few hours away, we're actually doing the production.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Let's talk a little bit more about the lab you have. So you moved your corporate headquarters, you got a great office as well, but you're actually in several buildings. So you built that nice laboratory facility up there and got a long test tunnel. So what happens there?
Brian Kupchella:So everything we manufacture is mandated by the federal government and has to meet federal testing requirements. So most of our products fall under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, or FMVSS, 108, which requires a high degree of testing. Whether it's photometric, testing, dust, moisture, vibration, etc. So everything we manufacture has to be tested initially and approved for production, and then everything we manufacture has to be recertified on a regular basis for due care. So that laboratory is testing new designs, new concepts, helping do that whole process up front. But it's also verifying that what we manufacture in our factories every day is still meeting federal regulations.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And somebody's interested in designing new products, they get involved in that as well?
Brian Kupchella:Sure, absolutely.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Yeah, it's a real great value proposition. I like to say to our students, we're bringing the co-op to campus. So you work for a world class company like Truck-Lite right here, and we can't beat that.
Brian Kupchella:We have a history of hiring Behrend engineering grads, most recently, we've been trying to take advantage of the resources for summer intern work, which we welcome. And then that's a good opportunity for us, to work with the students and see if there's a fit for the long run when they
Dr. Ralph Ford:So beyond that, you know that the hiring, which graduate. is super important, we know that we're proud of the many graduates there. You know, what does Truck-Lite get out of it? And beyond that, in this whole open lab philosophy that we've got here?
Brian Kupchella:Well, we're bringing students in as first-time employees with a very strong hands-on background and experience. So in some cases, we're not having to teach them some of the basics of park design, or how to run a molding machine or test a molding machine or test a part that's being run on a molding machine. They're getting that experience here in the Open Lab at Behrend. And that's just with the plastics we've seen with electronics in other degrees. So that hands on experience goes a long way in being able to hit the ground running when we bring them on board.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And, you know, we I don't know what the number is. But would you estimate how many how much of your workforce are Penn State grads?
Brian Kupchella:Today? It's probably...at Truck-Lite...it's good question, Ralph. It's probably 25 or 30%. At least.
Dr. Ralph Ford:I know, it seems quite significant when I go up there. Well, let's switch to, uh, you know, you created and you led this effort to create an early career professorship here at Penn State Behrend. And we've got a faculty member who now holds that title. Why don't you talk about that?
Brian Kupchella:To kind of give you a long answer to that Yeah, if you didn't do that, so powerful, question. Absolutely. So we talked about like electric vehicles earlier, and electric trucks. In order to have an electric truck, or in the future in autonomous truck, you have to have a smart trailer. And trailers are the last bastion in the world. They have no intelligence and most everything we have on our bodies that we carry with us or we drive in or we will utilize is smart trailers today are still dumb. And if you think about a trailer hauls 75% of the country's manufacturing goods and food products on a daily basis. 75%. Only 20% is hauled by rail, and there's there's 5% that's other. And that trailer, which contains all that material has no intelligence to it. we don't know where it's at, we don't know how that trailer is performing. We don't know how the goods are inside that trailer, for example. So as we're getting more involved in we're developing more products Very powerful. So we thought the best way to start would be to for the trucking and automotive industry with electrification. It's forcing us to figure out ways on how to make that trailer smart. The truck has to know what the tire pressure is, otherwise, the tire pressure is low, you can have roll resistance, right? And that's going to reduce the battery life. It's nice know if its lights are working properly, or if it needs to reduce the lights to improve the battery life on the tractor. So there has to be communication between the tractor and the trailer. So as we're doing that, and we're partner with Behrend to try to get the early professorship getting data to our customers, and we're telling them what their issues are. They're now approaching us and saying it's program in place and start educating students on the whole great that I know that I have a problem. Can you start telling me when I'm going to have the next one? And that requires data analytics. So as our businesses is grown in the telematics space, specifically on trailers at this point in time, we're trying to figure out a way that we can take that data, analyze that data and start to do predictive analytics. So that we can give our customers a heads-up to make a modification to a component on their on their vehicle before it actually happens. concept that hopefully in the future, we will be able to utilize either in summer intern jobs or full time employment.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Well, I think you couple that with faculty member in the School of Engineering, who's going to be working on that. We've got the data analytics program coming online next year, we already have a number of faculty with that expertise. So we're excited to see where it goes.
Brian Kupchella:So that's great work. We're excited to it. It has a bright future, everything's going that way.
Dr. Ralph Ford:One of the things I've always been impressed about in my conversations with you, is how much you've grown the company, the numbers, since when you started to where you're at today. And you did that by internal growth. But you've also figured that out through acquisition. nd you went from Truck-Lite to Clarience Technologies, which is a much larger company. How'd you do that?
Brian Kupchella:Yeah, so since I started at Truck-Lite, we've acquired 12 companies over that period of time. But look, we're out trying to grow in this space that we're in. We're out trying to grow in areas that we don't have relationships today. We're applying similar technology, similar methods, similar design methods, but maybe a different form. We got involved in the off road market with lighting, it's a little bit different than the trucking market. But it's the same components. It's manufacturing methods. It's just a different look. And a different customer base, we branched out into the marine market, also into telematics, and we branched out globally. But look, we're not looking for good companies that number one, have a strong team. I mean, that's the first thing we look at, we look at the team, look at the brand, or there's a well respected brand in the industry, we're not, we're not looking to buy the bottom guy, we're looking to buy that top guy that has a relationship that we can build upon. And utilize synergies just help you help grow the business. And then we share technology across all the businesses, also on a regular basis, which helps us grow.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So it's really the team that makes it the right fit. And of course, the technology in the light. If you had any acquisitions that didn't go as well, well, in all the years, you don't have to name them. But you've had 12 successful ones.
Brian Kupchella:We did, we had, we had one business in Europe that we sold off a few years ago, that it was a similar type of product in a different application. It just wasn't wasn't the right fit. And we found a good home for it. But it's the only business that we've ever sold off in 30 years.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Still that's an awfully good record. How would you describe, you know, switching things up on you a l little bit here? Tell me a little bit about how you lead. And if you were to explain to somebody, what's your leadership style and philosophy?
Brian Kupchella:It depends on who you ask.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Fair enough.
Brian Kupchella:But I always try to lead by example. I would never expect anyone in ths part of the whole Clarience Technologies organization to do more than more than I do. And I try to show that. I'm very engaged with the employees. I try to get around to the business as much as I can. And I try to be in the details as much as possible without without getting out of the way. Because I think you've got to be in the details, or you can get in trouble. And at the end of the day, you know, everybody is looking for direction. And I feel I'm going to be the guy that has to set that initial direction. We've got a great team that can run with it. And a lot of times that direction comes working together, obviously. But then, you know, making sure that the team has the resources that they need, whether it's capital resources, or its its headcount, resources or, or manufacturing, whatever that might be to achieve the target.
Dr. Ralph Ford:And you have to make sure that they're always looking to the future. That's not always an easy conversation.
Brian Kupchella:No, that's right, because sometimes we get wrapped up in the tactical issues of the day. Now we have daily staff meetings, we get together for half an hour every morning, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And then we put we put aside every week, almost two hours where we just sit and talk strategy to keep that in focus.
Dr. Ralph Ford:Brent, can you tell us a bit about what's been the impact of COVID? We talked about that a lot, but particularly, you know, the supply chain disruption, we're dealing with inflation, how are those impacting your business? What do you see is the future prospect?
Brian Kupchella:Probably the biggest issue we've seen out of COVID really has been the supply chain. We worked through all the personnel issues with COVID and how to protect our employees. But still today, you know, there are still ships parked offshore. The driver shortage is worse than it's ever been. Because of the lack of supply of components globally. They cannot produce enough tractors or trailers to haul for rate. So it's, it's So in addition to smart trailers, how about autonomous really sped up our development of our telematics products, which we talked about earlier. They're necessary for an electric truck in order to make the trailer smart. But you know, knowing where that trailer is before it gets loaded. Knowing if it's ready to be driven on the road... road ready. And then tires are inflated, if the lights are legal, etc. If the doors open, if it's loaded or unloaded. There's 5 million trailers out supporting 1.8 million tractors. So two thirds of all trailers are sitting idle, disconnected from a tractor trailers? is that in our future? tractor at any given point in time. In order for all those trailers to be efficiently managed, and on the road as much as possible due to the driver shortage. Telematics systems are going to be necessary here going forward. So the the pandemic has really driven the need for smart trailers here going forward. It is are a lot of companies out there testing developing that technology as we speak, it'll take a lot longer than than the electric vehicle. You know, I think they're they're projecting 2040 to 2045. We'll start to see more than on the highway. But it's absolutely coming. I think we'll see. We'll see it in areas off highway to begin with. You'll see in yards, fleets where they're moving trailers around to get them loaded will probably be autonomous. Maybe some food delivery will be a little bit of autonomous on sidewalks, for example, as they as a test that technology but it's absolutely coming to the on-highway market.
Dr. Ralph Ford:So we're getting close to the end. But I got a few more questions. I wanted to come back. And I love to hear about the leadership philosophy, by the way. And I mean, it's clear that you're always driving this vision of growth. And I like to try to make sure we understand that at Behrend. But our students need to see that that's what they're going to be expected to deliver when they get out there. So where I'm going with this question is, for students who are looking at a career in engineering or coming to Behrend, what are the things that you would tell them? What advice do you have for young people?
Brian Kupchella:Well, look, I believe we're going to see more change in the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50. If you think about where technology is going today, just in transportation, which drives the economy, in the United States, the transportation industry drives the economy, and electronics and digital technology is in everything that we do. My first piece of advice is be prepared because things are going to move fast. You know, we have a slogan moving at the speed of light, internal right now that our marketing department came up with. And we're in, we're trying to do that with everything that we do. In the way we think. You need to be smart about it. But we've got to move quickly, because the world's moving fast. The other piece of advice I would give new students is, don't be afraid to stick around for a while to build a foundation. You know, a lot of successful individuals I see out in the industry and in our business are the ones that are willing to stick around through the good times the bad times, and learn how to deal with complex issues within the business, or within their own departments, or within the technology that they're developing. When times are good. And when times are bad. A lot of times you see some of the newer students coming out wanting to just continue to move forward, which is great. And we should all have goals to do that. But you need to learn how to manage in good and bad times, whether it's economically or within the business cycle itself. Just to have that strong foundation.
Dr. Ralph Ford:I think what you're saying too, is there's no overnight success. Behind every success story, it's usually a lot of hard work and failure to get you there as well.
Brian Kupchella:Anything worth having is hard to get. I mean, I think if people were letting individuals realize that, they'll see more success.
Dr. Ralph Ford:You know, you also serve on our Council of Fellows board of directors. A really important group for driving this college forward. And, you know, why do you do that? What do you get out of it? And, you know, tell us what you do there on the board? Well,
Brian Kupchella:look, I really enjoy it, I enjoy working with you and your team and seeing where the school is going. And just being part of that, and just using whatever experience I have, or that I've been fortunate enough to glean from some of the mentors I've had throughout my career. Trying to pass that on, on to see if it helps. I want to try to give back. Behrend gave me a lot in my career. And just simple little things I've learned here early on, you know, I still try to apply today. And I'm hoping to be able to give back to help the school grow and benefit future graduates for their their careers.
Dr. Ralph Ford:We appreciate it. And we get a lot out of it as well. Well, we're coming to the close here. So do you have any closing thoughts, things you want to add? Well, we're so excited about the partnership.
Brian Kupchella:No, I appreciate you giving me the You know, we've been partners with Truck-Lite for a long time. time this afternoon to talk with you a little bit about our So I'll just add a little bit more to the story. People ask business, and my career, and what we're doing. And I think having our headquarters here on campus, as I said, is something that is gonna be beneficial to us. And I hope beneficial to the students. And we encourage them when they have any questions to me, well, how did you get Truck-Lite there? And a similar reach out and we'd love to talk with them. thing I say is, "Well, you know, we worked with him for 20 years and we became good partners. And then when the opportunity was there, they decided to relocate in knowledge Park". So that's why I have a lot of confidence in what's going to happen in the long term. You've been listening to Behrend Talks. I'm Chancellor Ralph Ford. My guest today has been Brian Kupchella, the CEO of Clarience Technologies and Truck-Lite Corporation here in Knowledge Park at Penn State Behrend. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Ralph.