Get to Know Jake Walroth, LowFlow Valve Product Manager

What is your Job title and when did you start at Richards?

Education and work backgrounds:

- I graduated from Miami University in 2013 with a BA in International Relations/Business and a minor in Mandarin. Before Richards Industrials, I worked in Northern California as an Account Manager at a chemical manufacturer for Industrial Laundry.

What part of your job is most intriguing to you?

- Relationship building with our sales partners in the United States and abroad.

Favorite Cincinnati activity?

- Going to a Cincinnati Reds Game (hopefully to see a W) and riding bikes out on the Loveland Bike Tail.

Favorite thing about coming to work?

- The people at RI – the feeling that we’re making important products for processes all over the world with great people.

What do you consider your technical specialty or niche?

Cool thing most people don’t know about you?

Favorite thing to cook or eat?

- Favorite thing to cook is goetta and potato hash. Favorite things to eat are usually things I can’t cook at home… so probably barbecue and sushi.

What do you like about working with our clients (or producing products for our clients)?

- I love getting to help a wide range of companies and industries accomplish their goals in creating something, whatever it is… We have valves on propulsion stands at SpaceX. We supplied next day valves to ventilator manufacturers in the heat of the pandemic. We have valves in DOE facilities helping in Renewable Energy research. It’s exciting to be able to work with our channel partners to help grow our presence in these important and exciting industries.

Do you have any hobbies, especially ones that translate (even remotely) into an aspect of your job?

- I’d say bread-baking has taught me a lot about time….. and how good things ultimately take some time to develop. Our business has a longer sales cycle than what I was used to in my previous work… there’s very little immediate gratification, and opportunities take real time and work to develop… kind of like bread. With bread, you have to get everything ready the night before, then you carefully mix portioned ingredients in a certain order, then you fold the dough over itself every 20 minutes for 3 hours, and then you put it in the fridge for 24-36 hours. Then, you bake it and still have to wait 2 hours to eat it! Like our work in the valve industry, good things take time. They take careful coordination and communication, and even still, a sale may be 6mo-1year down the line. But if you keep with it, you’ll eventually reap the rewards.

What makes the work day go faster for you?

If you could be a student forever, what would you study?

Dream trip and why:

- Bhutan- it’s an extremely isolated country that has only opened up recently to visitors. More than 50% of Bhutan is made up of National Parks and Ecological corridors. And because it doesn’t engage in much trade with the outside world, its forests and natural land remains relatively untouched. Its one of the few places you can still see tigers in the wild.

What do you view as your primary contribution…at work or elsewhere?

What’s your super power?

Goal at Richards Industrials?

On the job training advice: