Charlie Klein '83 is the recipient of the 2015 Kettering University Engineering Achievement Award. Klein is the Vice President, Vehicle Engineering General Motors Europe, based in Ruesselsheim, Germany. The Engineering Achievement award recognizes graduates who have made specific contributions with positive and lasting effects in the field of engineering. The 2015 Alumni Awards Banquet will be held at the Troy Marriott, 200 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48084. The reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dinner and the awards ceremony will follow at 6:30 p.m.

The small central Michigan towns of Fowler and Hubbardston, located about 10 miles apart, are farming communities built on a strong work ethic.  But the connection between these small towns, located on M-21 (Corunna Road) between Owosso and Ionia is where the professional journey of Charlie Klein ‘83 began.

Klein was one of the 54 students in his high school class and despite living in the heart of Spartan country, he wanted to attend Kettering University (then General Motors Institute).

“My father worked for General Motors Fisher Body Division in Lansing and our neighbor was the Plant Engineering Director at Oldsmobile in Lansing and he attended GMI,” Klein said. “Both of them encouraged me to apply.”

Klein applied, but lacked a required corporate sponsor for work section so he was unable to attend Kettering right out of high school. So he attended Michigan State University for his first year of college. A year later, while preparing to return to MSU for the second year, Klein got a call from Tom Shiels, the Personnel Manager at Oldsmobile who had interviewed him a year earlier for a co-op position. Shiels was from Hubbardston, Michigan, and remembered Klein because of the proximity of their hometowns. This time, he offered Klein a co-op position in Lansing which opened the door to transfer to Kettering.

“I knew that the co-op experience was so highly valued that I took it as a real opportunity.  Looking back, it worked out really well,” Klein said.

Klein is currently the Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at General Motors Europe based in Ruesselsheim, Germany and will be honored with the Engineering Achievement Award at the Alumni Awards Ceremony on October 22. Klein’s engineering achievements result from the breadth of knowledge and experiences he accumulated on the factory floors and engineering offices in Lansing, Flint and Detroit en route to his current global managerial position.

Learning from the Bottom Up

Klein’s first co-op job at Oldsmobile Lansing was to file paper copies of purchase orders and eventually led to opportunities in manufacturing engineering and powertrain manufacturing. Klein joined Oldsmobile full-time after graduating from Kettering with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1983.

In 1986, Klein participated in the General Motors Fellowship program which allowed him to obtain a Master’s of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After graduating in 1987, Klein weighed other opportunities

“Technology was rapidly expanding at the time and there was a broad range of companies from industrial to electronic to software that were pursuing the graduates,” Klein said. “I thought anybody can write software so the stability or security of a company in software would not be high. A car company has higher barriers of entry and is therefore more secure. It turned out that companies such as Microsoft that were expanding at that time did pretty well.”

Klein returned to his roots at the Oldsmobile Assembly Plant in Lansing. This time, he worked the afternoon and midnight maintenance shifts in the Assembly Plant.

“I have to admit that coming back to work midnight shift was not exactly what I had imagined I would do after graduate school,” Klein said. “But it gave me great hands-on experience and a foundational understanding of the operations. It provided me an invaluable perspective that has served me throughout my career. ”

Klein’s early career experiences grounded him in the business aspects of engineering which continue to benefit him to this day.

“A lot of times there is this great race to get ahead. If you do that, you lose the chance to learn the fundamentals and basics of the business,” Klein said. “My early career experience gave me a more grounded view and enables better decision making.  If you move up too quickly, you lose the chance to gain a deeper understanding.”

Klein also took advantage of his evening shifts by returning to school to get his master’s in business administration at Michigan State University during this time.

“As I was working midnight shift, my days were open,” Klein said. “Sleeping during the day is pretty tough. You realize quickly if the neighbor decides to mow the lawn, you can’t go to sleep so you might as well go to college.”

In 1991, Klein moved to Advanced Engineering in Warren and worked on major product launches from 1994-1996. In 1996, he became the Director of Manufacturing Planning which developed capacity plans and manufacturing footprint for the US based Plants. From 1997-2000 Klein became the Area Manager for General Assembly at Detroit Hamtramck.

“It was a major operation with approximately 750 people per shift during that period and we launched five new vehicles,” Klein said.

In 2001, Klein returned to Flint as the Vehicle Line Director for the Cadillac Seville.

“My career is an example of how GMI opens up a world of opportunities,” Klein said. “Every day is a winding road.  You cannot predict all the twists and turns your career and life may take.  What you can do is prepare by getting a great education, work for a company that allows you to do great things, and apply the knowledge you get from every experience along the way.”

In 2007, Klein was named the Global Director for energy, mass and aerodynamics.

“That was my first global job where I had leaders and managers in different regions around the world,” Klein said.

In April 2012, Klein moved to Ruesselsheim, Germany full-time and in January of this year became the Vice-President of Vehicle Engineering at General Motors Europe and a Member of the Board of Adam Opel AG.

“Kettering and GM gave me countless opportunities.” Klein said. “I am very appreciative of my family that was so supportive and the people – the professors, peers, and leaders- who took their time to invest in my development and entrusted me with additional responsibilities”

The Future of the Transportation

Based on his own experiences and the rapid evolution of new technologies, Klein understands that working in automotive might not be seen as the most glamorous industries for the next generation of engineers but he still possesses an unwavering belief in the power of traditional industries.

“Places like Flint, Lansing and Detroit had a very powerful period. They were very influential and have served their communities as major employers for decades.” Klein said. “The automotive industry and many industrial companies remain very influential. They have a positive influence in our society in terms of mobility, community development, education and employment.”

Klein cites the rehabilitation work GM is doing in Detroit and the investments they’ve made at Kettering as just a few examples of the positive impact that the auto industry has in communities. He believes that automotive is an industry that will continue to grow over the next 10 years as patterns of mobility and technologies rapidly evolve.

“The automotive industry is more exciting today than the day I started. The technical and business challenges have never been greater,” Klein said. “With emerging technologies like autonomous driving and active safety, transportation will undergo dramatic change in our lifetime.  And we get to be a part of defining that future.  Why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that?”