MTD Micro Molding Hires Chad Nikel as CEO

MTD Micro Molding has named Chad Nikel as its new chief executive officer (CEO). He took office on May 11.

Nikel boasts extensive leadership experience, having been in the president and CEO role of a global medtech manufacturer. Before that, he served at Haemonetics for 13 years, elevating to president of Global Plasma and Blood Center.

He also led a specialized medical device contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) serving OEM customers and also managed those partnerships from the customer side. MTD said he understands what OEMs need from a specialist manufacturing partner and the cost when a partner can’t deliver—about a third of the company’s programs are either rescues from work that stalled at another molder or as programs other molders wouldn’t attempt.

“What drew me to MTD is specific,” said Nikel. “I looked at the capabilities—the tooling, the metrology, the cleanroom production—and they are impressive. But what immediately stood out was the culture: the team’s genuine passion for working together to solve today’s most complex manufacturing challenges. MTD has always been the first to invest in what micro medical manufacturing requires next. My job is to continue building the capabilities and expertise that let us take on the programs others can’t.”

Peter Wojtas, a certified Master Molder with a Plastics Engineering degree, has also rejoined MTD with over three decades of process and automation experience. John Clark, who first joined the company in 2008 and later oversaw completion of a facility expansion that doubled its manufacturing footprint, touts over two decades of tooling experience and has returned as director of operations.

A new addition to MTD, Randy Guertin brings 30 years of medical tooling design and leadership, and Nick Scenna adds expertise in managing specialized manufacturing. Lindsay Mann was promoted to director of commercial strategy and Maggie Beauregard to director of quality as well.

“There’s already an expectation that every customer, every program is a long-term partnership,” said Nikel. “Our primary focus is to continue expanding upon the precision, innovation, and responsiveness customers have come to expect.”

This culture Nikel describes was established by Dennis Tully, a posthumous inductee into the Plastics Hall of Fame. Tully transformed MTD into a globally recognized specialist in micro medical manufacturing.

“Chad understands that the culture my late husband built—the expectation that we solve the hard problem, not the easy one—is the asset worth protecting most,” said Darlene Tully, owner of MTD Micro Molding. “Companies like MTD earn customer trust through technical performance, not through promises. That’s what our people have delivered for more than 50 years, and Chad’s addition to this team strengthens our ability to keep doing it.”

In October, the company grew its in-house metrology capabilities by adding a new optical 3D metrology system. With this investment, the company hopes to deliver faster, more precise, and fully traceable measurements for small and complex medical device components.