An accomplished physicist and business executive, Mark Thek has served as president of Esterline Power Systems for more than two decades. As president of the Los Angeles-based firm, Mark Thek leads a specialized manufacturing organization that provides a range of products for aerospace and defense companies around the globe. In a recently released statement, Esterline Power Systems announced the launch of a new manufacturing site in Kortrijk, Belgium. Focused on advanced display and visual systems technologies, the cutting-edge engineering and manufacturing operation opened after Esterline invested more than 15 million Euros toward upgrading and consolidating existing facilities in the country. During a grand opening event, Esterline leaders and officials from Belgian trade organizations and government agencies toured the facility, which will help the company better serve the needs of global corporations such as Boeing, Honeywell, and Lockheed Martin. The event also featured the unveiling of a plaque honoring American pilot Murray Kenneth Spidle, who went missing in Belgium’s West Flemish region during WWI. The facility will be named the Spidle site in recognition of the lieutenant’s sacrifice. For more information about the new facility or Esterline’s work in the area, visit esterline.com. Since 1995, Mark Thek has served as president of Esterline Power Systems in Los Angeles. Outside of his work in the aerospace engineering industry, Mark Thek enjoys surfing, snowboarding, and spending time with his family. He also maintains an interest in the work of his late uncle, Paul Thek, a renowned artist. An innovative painter, sculptor, an installation artist, Paul Thek first attained critical success in the mid-1960s when he created his Technological Reliquaries series, which featured realistic wax sculptures of flesh and limbs displayed in Formica and Plexiglas containers. Later in his career, Thek left New York City for Europe and shifted the focus of his work from small sculptures to ephemeral environments made of throwaway materials such as newspaper, flowers, and candles. In the mid-1970s, Thek returned to New York to find that, despite success in Europe’s art community, few people at home remembered his work. Although Thek continued to create innovative pieces until his death in 1988, he never was able to reenter the art world and was forced to support himself by working menial jobs. Since his untimely death at the age of 54, Thek's reputation and popularity have grown considerably. His work can be seen in collections at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. Thek has also been featured in several books and cited as an influence on a number of subsequent artists. |
AuthorPresident of Esterline Power Systems - Mark Thek Archives
February 2021
Categories
All
|