Grady Cope, President of Reata Engineering & Machine Works, Englewood, CO, was installed as 2011 Chairman of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) on March 5, during The MFG (Manufacturing for Growth) Meeting in Chandler, AZ.
In 1993, Cope bought a manual mill and lathe with $6,000 on his credit card and launched Reata Engineering & Machine Works, Inc. at night while working days at Gates Rubber Co. In February 1994 he left Gates and hired his first employee.
Reata Engineering & Machine Works is a contract design and manufacturing firm. Reata provides design engineering, prototypes, tooling, production machining, assembly, and testing. It serves various industries including aviation/aerospace, medical, semiconductor capital equipment, consumer goods, automotive, industrial, optics, lighting, fluid handling, and material handling to name a few. Reata also manufactures and distributes its own products to the plant maintenance industry.
Cope first got involved with NTMA through the local Rocky Mountain Tooling and Machining Association, where he was President in 2005 and 2006. He began serving on the NTMA Executive Team in 2008. Cope believes that the NTMA has contributed a great deal towards Reata’s success as a company while at the same time contributing to his personal development.
As NTMA’s Chairman, Cope will preside over the organization’s Board of Trustees, which consists of representatives from each of 45 local NTMA chapters. He also will head the NTMA Executive Team, which consists of three other elected members and the immediate past Chairman of the Board.
During his travels around the country as NTMA Chairman, Cope's message will be “Marketing Manufacturing to America.”
Cope is currently a member of the University of Colorado–Denver Engineering Advisory Board, and has served on the University’s Alumni Board. In addition, Grady volunteers for the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs of Metro Denver, where he has served on the selection committee for the Junior and Senior Youth of the Year.
Cope and his wife, Anne, also raise grass fed beef on the family ranch in Elbert County, CO, where they reside today.
Also installed to NTMA’s 2011 Executive Team are:
Vice Chairman of the Board, Roger Atkins, MIC Group, Brenham, TX
Treasurer, Robert Mosey, Moseys’ Production Machinists, Inc., Anaheim, CA
Secretary, Theodore O. Toth, Jr., Toth Technologies, Pennsauken, NJ
The National Tooling and Machining Association is a nonprofit, industry-led association comprised of more than 1,300 member companies in the business of precision custom manufacturing. Founded in 1943, the Association has 45 local chapters in cities throughout the United States.