Richard Kobor
Mr. Kobor is a senior executive with 30 years of experience in engineering-driven industrial companies. His background includes a mix of general management, financial oversight, and engineering positions at domestic and international businesses, including Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller privately-held enterprises.
Mr. Kobor was named CEO of Colson Group in 2021. Mr. Kobor was also the former CEO of Edge Industrial Technologies and former CEO of Petrosmith, LLC, both Blue Wolf portfolio companies as well as served on the Board of Directors for both. Mr. Kobor also serves on the Board of Directors for Blue Wolf portfolio company, Colson Group. Immediately prior to joining Blue Wolf, Mr. Kobor served in succession as President, Power and Specialty Tools and President, Equipment Worldwide at Snap-on Inc. In those roles, he drove strong growth via targeted acquisitions, developed new products, and reduced costs through standardizing design and rationalizing the supply chain. He also previously served as a Managing Director at Bitzer SE in Sindlefingen, Germany, where he helped to steer a $700M global company through the recession. Before that, he was president of Bitzer’s North America division. He has also been EVP of Operations at Harbour Group-ACS Group/AEC, Inc., and Director of Operations in the Carlyle Compressor Division of United Technologies-Carrier Corporation. He began his career as a Welding and Shipfitting Supervisor at General Dynamics- Electric Boat.
Mr. Kobor holds an M.B.A. and M.S. in Engineering with Distinction from Northwestern University, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management/Robert McCormick School of Engineering, and a B.S. in Structural Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, College of Engineering.
John Smithies
John Smithies joined Colson Europe in 2014 as the European finance director and earned the additional role of general manager of Colson UK Limited in 2017. Leading the UK and finance team within the European market with more than 20 years of manufacturing experience, Smithies specializes in finance and commercial activities, with strong inventory and working capital management skills.
Prior to joining Colson, he served as chief financial officer at Gardner Group, a manufacturing business in the aerospace sector based in The Midlands, UK. In this role, Smithies managed the business’ Global Finance function and financing activities. He also served as strategy planning manager for MG Rover Group, where he was responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management.
Smithies earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Sheffield University in South Yorkshire, England.
Mike Titizian
Mike Titizian joined Colson Group Canada, Inc. in 1997 as president and general manager of Colson’s Canadian operations. In this role, his responsibilities include positioning the operations for strategic growth and profitability through four distribution facilities located in Cambridge, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Montreal, Quebec. With over 35 years in the manufacturing industry, he specializes in market and product development strategies to penetrate target markets, global sourcing and supply chain management, and business process improvements to facilitate customer service experience excellence.
Prior to joining Colson, Titizian served as general manager at Tampa Hall Limited, a manufacturer of pre-fabricated, engineered building components in Ayr, Ontario. His role focused on the operational profitability of the business through a wide network of dealers and distributors of its products in Ontario. Titizian also served as the entrepreneurial owner of AGM Carpet Products Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of floor covering installation materials and products, servicing commercial, institutional, and residential trades in the housing market. Prior to entering the private sector, Titizian spent three years working for the Federal Government in Ottawa, Ontario.
Titizian has authored many market-specific articles related to the caster industry in the following publications: Ontario Business; Animal Laboratory News, USA; Healthcare Purchasing News, USA; MRO Magazine; Kinecor (Wajax) Connections; and Plant Engineering & Maintenance (PEM) Magazine.
Titizian currently volunteers as an advisor on the Executive Council of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, and is an active member of the Armenian Community Centre of Cambridge, Ontario. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, a Master of Arts from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and earned his Honors in Bachelor of Arts from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.
Tomasz Wilczynski
Tomasz Wilczynski joined Colson Group Poland in 2002 and advanced to a general manager in 2013, where he focuses on developing international business in Central and Eastern Europe and leads sales activities in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Eastland, Czech, and Hungary. With 15 years in the castors industry, he oversees all functions of the organization and specializes in business and strategic planning, product development, marketing strategy, account management, forecasting, and P&L and inventory management.
Wilczynski joined Colson Group Poland as a branch manager, where his responsibilities included setting up a company from scratch, building up a sales network, product and inventory management, business analysis, book-keeping, and controlling functions. Prior to joining Colson, he served as sales and marketing manager at Belet, one of the largest material handling companies in Poland, where he focused on leading sales and marketing activities and driving global sales in the East of Europe to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic States.
Wilczynski earned his master’s degree in marketing and management from the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan Law School.
Ernst Jan Venema
With 10 years of experience in sales, Ernst Jan Venema serves as general manager for Colson Europe B.V. in Veenendaal, Netherlands where he is responsible for operations and purchase management.
Venema joined Colson Europe B.V. in March 1996 as a sales manager, where his responsibilities included leading the sales team and managing key sales accounts. Prior to joining Colson Europe B.V, Venema most recently served as purchase manager at Mitutoyo, a Japanese precise measuring instrument manufacturer in Veenendaal, Utrecht, Holland from 1991 to 1996. During his time there he lived for 6 months in Japan in order to start up a new plant to manufacture coordinate measuring machines in Holland. He also served as purchaser for Yokogawa in Amersfoort Utrecht, Holland, a leading company in the oil and gas industry.
Venema earned his bachelor’s degree in purchasing in Utrecht.
Dennis E. Jones
Dennis E. Jones is Colson Group’s vice president of global product engineering, bringing more than 33 years of manufacturing-based experience to the company. In this role, Jones specializes in advancing Colson Group’s global technology and new product development process.
Prior to his current role with the company, Jones served as the vice president of operations for Colson Group USA under the One Colson initiative from 2012 to 2014. He began his career in the caster and wheel industry in 1994, when he joined St. Joseph, Michigan-based Shepherd Caster Corp. as the director of operations. He was later promoted to vice president of sales and marketing in 1998 and advanced to president of the company in 2001.
Before joining the caster industry, Jones served as manager of manufacturing engineering from 1984 until 1994 at Detroit Steel Products, a Tier 1 automotive supplier to the medium- and heavy-truck industry in Morristown, Indiana. In this role, he oversaw all aspects of the manufacturing engineering support group, including machine and plant automation, industrial engineering, tooling engineering and management of a three-shift maintenance and tool room crew.
Jones has been active with the Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce in St. Joseph, Michigan, where he was named Entrepreneur of the Year – Manufacturing Sector in 2009 and was recognized by the State of Michigan for his work at Shepherd Caster Corp. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.