Master Electronics - Jennifer Paukert

2021 Women in Engineering

Jennifer Paukert

Vice President, Sales Master Electronics

In her role as vice president of sales

for Master Electronics, Jennifer Paukert is responsible for overseeing Master’s sales efforts and business development strategies. Prior to this position, she served as regional sales director for the Central region of the United States. She joined Master in 2011 as a fi eld sales account manager and has since held a variety of sales roles throughout the years including direct responsibility for Master’s top customers, as well as running Master’s value-added manufacturing division

Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women in engineering and automation?

I believe inclusivity starts at the top and the founders of Master Electronics have elevated women since the beginning of the company over 50 years ago. The core values of the company that were established are built into every aspect of hiring, onboarding, and review process to this day. The core values are “we care, we are dedicated and loyal, we are entrepreneurial, and we are visionary thinking.” As the company scales, the importance of diversity of thought and ideas become even more relevant and benefi cial. I was fortunate to curate and sponsor our fi rst Employee Resource Group, Women at Master. The purpose of this group is to advocate, develop and empower the woman at our company. No matter what gender, race, background, every person has a voice and is empowered to use it and execute on their idea. With over 50% of our employees being female, this type of curated environment is especially empowering to be a part of as a female in a primarily male-dominated industry.

Describe a recent company project (in which you were involved) that went particularly well. How did you and your team go about ensuring success?

There is no quesiton the trade war between the US and China has heavily impacted the electronics industry. When tariffs fi rst rolled out, there was a lot of uncertainty within the component distribution industry on how to address tariffs with our customers. After re-evaluating our initial strategy and determining a course correction was needed, I was faced with spearheading the change both internally and externally. Everything from internal programming enhancements, to training, to external messaging was needed. Every internal business unit was affected on some level. I started by uniting everyone around the common goal, identifying the problems and all possible solutions. I had to learn to speak programming language and set regular check-ins with all BUs to assure the project was moving forward. We tested our changes for all potential breaks and tested again and again. When it was time to go live, all internal businesses were trained on our strategy changes and process changes. We were able to go live with no disruptions to our customers or internal processes while solving a massive business problem. Collaboration, alignment, organization, and a great team of people were key to the success of this project.