RESILIENT NH
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Empowering Others to Help Meet Challenges After Wendy Tirollo unexpectedly became a CEO, she turned to a trusted team to help her BY L I I SA R AJ A L A
TONY TIROLLO was the founder and CEO of TRM Microwave for 40 years. “I had no initial aspirations to take over the company because Tony’s attitude was he loved the job – designing RF microwave components,” recalls his wife, Wendy Tirollo. “He said, ‘Wendy, we’ll be here till we’re 80 or 90.’” But in 2006, Tony unexpectedly had a heart attack, “and it rocked our world and got us thinking about the company’s future,” says Tirollo. “Tony was a methodical person. He always planned things out and he said, ‘If this doesn’t go our way, we have several choices: We could either position the company to be sold, or if you would like, I could poise you to take over and have you run the business someday.” “My response was, ‘Tony, I need some time to consider this huge responsibility, to be accountable for all our employees’ lives and their families is a huge undertaking,’” she says. But it was the rapport and close relationships Wendy had
developed over the years with TRM’s employees that led her to take on the role and the subsequent challenges they faced. And it was her leadership and the team’s collaborative approach to problem-solving that lined the company up for the next step in its growth plan, to deliver mission-critical electronics components as part of the new company, Quantic. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Tony mentored Wendy for five years before she was officially appointed CEO in 2010. Wendy had joined the company in the mid-1990s and served as director of HR for a decade. “Tony was referred to in our industry as the ‘Microwave King’ and my biggest concern was that I didn’t have a degree in electrical engineering,” recalls Tirollo. “I recognized the fact that I had to be savvy enough to understand the approaches and direction my engineers would ultimately want to take the company.”
TRM Microwave’s now former CEO Wendy Tirollo (right) and Chief Operating Officer Mark Schappler stand in front of the surface mount line at their headquarters in Bedford. (Courtesy photo) 28 RESILIENT NH 2021
