Our Team

Management Team

Chris Brown – President

Chris Brown is the president of Clayton Controls and is responsible for all aspects of the company's management. An eighteen-year veteran of Clayton, Chris has held many positions in sales and operations.

“When I started with Clayton, I immediately liked that it had a small company feel with big company expectations,” Chris said. “That is what makes Clayton such a unique company and sets the tone for our culture.” Chris is very involved in the company's day-to-day operations and works closely with customers and suppliers. “We have a great team of professionals who make it happen everyday for our customers,” he said. “That level of dedication and service is invaluable to our success and the success of our customers”.

John Allard – Vice president

John Allard is the vice president of Clayton Controls and oversees the company's sales, technology support and marketing strategies.

“I've seen a lot of changes during my 23 years at Clayton but our company culture and customer relationships have remained the same,” said John. “Our focus is on serving our customers and putting together the right solution for their specific need.” John played a key role in delivering the company's electronic product lines and expanding their offering to customers.

Ric Leyva - Branch Manager, Northern and Central California; Northern Nevada

Ric Leyva is the Branch Manager of Clayton Controls Northern and Central California; Northern Nevada and has been in the Automation industry since 1990 with experience ranging from Application Engineering to Sales and all levels of corporate management.

“Our focus in Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada is to assist our customers in getting to market faster than their competition by leveraging our decades of combined experience in automation, motion, robotics, vison, sensor and pneumatics. The customer is the expert at their process and we are experts at applying the latest technologies to achieve their manufacturing goals. It used to be the BIG that ate the small, nowadays it’s the fast that eat the slow! Let us help make you the fastest in your industry! ”.

 

Mike Angotti - Branch Manager, Arizona/Southern Nevada

Mike Angotti has been in the Automation Industry since 1994. Holding many positions from Sales, Pnuematic Specialists, and Sales Director. He also spent two years as Director of Sales in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand stationed in Singapore.

“I have been working with Clayton Controls since 2008 and am excited to now be part of the team. My goal is to help expand the Clayton Controls footprint into the Arizona, Southern Nevada Market. The focus will be to provide first class service along with superior customer support to solve our client's needs. Our breadth of knowledge on the industries served and the technologies offered will help put our customers' needs first and allow them to achieve thier goals ”.

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Clayton Engineered Solutions Management Team

Don Allen - Manager

Don had 10 years of experience in Packaging and Automation prior to coming to Clayton in 1994. He enjoys problem solving and works closely with the sales department, reviewing projects to ensure it fits with their core competency. Once the project is accepted, he works directly with the customer to provide a quote based upon the BOM customer drawings, digital images and assembly instructions. Don draws upon his experience to discover the best way to build and manufacture the product in a timely and cost efficient manner.

Ingo Ruppert – Project Manager

Ingo has been working in the Automation Industry since 2006 with a high focus on building lasting connections with his customers. Having been in multiple executive roles from engineering to sales for component manufacturers allows him to see the big picture and focus on what makes a project a success.

“Before starting my role at CES, I worked with Clayton Controls as a vendor. Here I had a chance to get to know the team. One of the driving forces for me accepting this role is to support the CES team that breathes the Clayton Controls spirit of building long lasting relations with customer and earns a seat at the table as trusted advisor. If the customer is successful, we will be successful.”

 

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Sales Team

Southern California

Sean Julian - Territory Manager, Inland Empire

Sean has been working in Industrial Automation distribution and Manufacturing for over 20 years. First in the San Francisco Bay area assisting large companies in the Semiconductor, Bio Medical, Clean Energy & Pharmaceutical industries. And the last 5 years in Southern California working with Aerospace, Packaging, Food/Beverage, and Electric Vehicle companies.

“I have worn many hats in my 20 year Automation Career. Inside Sales, Project Manager, Assembly Tech manager and for the last 10 years Field sales. I enjoy meeting new customers and working with them to find the best fitting solution for their automation applications. I’m very excited to be part of the Clayton team.”  

Farhan Mahbub – Territory Manager, Los Angeles, CA

Farhan comes to Clayton Controls with over 10 years in the machine vision industry. 

He brings a level of experience and expertise that is rare and has already proven to be extremely valuable to increasing the success of our customer's machine vision projects.  We invite you to contact Farhan to discuss or review your machine vision applications.

Arun Alagappan - Territory Manager, Orange County

Coming from an engineering background in the medical device industry, Arun is excited to make the transition into technical sales. He started out as a Biomedical Engineer for large medical device corporations in both Northern and Southern California. His technical background and expertise will further help him provide the most efficient solution for his customers.

“I have always enjoyed interacting and building positive relationships with people. Having experienced the engineering side, I am ecstatic to transition into a role where I can help customers and provide them with solutions while creating long lasting relationships. Having worked in larger corporate companies, I feel Clayton Controls is the perfect fit for my growth in a team and family oriented environment. I am beyond excited to take on this new journey with a forward thinking company that’s continuously finding ways to affect positive change in the industry.”

Ken Crilley - Territory Manager, Ventura, Santa Barbara and North Los Angeles Counties

Ken has been working in Industrial Automation and Aerospace/Defense Manufacturing for over 20 years. Ken has been involved in Vacuum Automation and Robotic End of Arm Tooling technologies the last 5 years serving Automotive, Food/Beverage, Aerospace, Medical and Packaging companies.

“Having worked with Clayton Controls in the past as a manufacturer representative, I was continually impressed with their ability to provide the right solution rapidly for the customer. I’m excited now to be a part of that Clayton Controls team leveraging years of knowledge and expertise within the organization delivering a powerful result for our customers.”

Northern California/Northern Nevada

Jason Bauman - Territory Manager, Mid Valley/I-80 Corridor, Northern Nevada

Jason has been involved in helping customers with their automation and fluid power needs for over 18 years. His background as both a salesperson and business owner has provided Jason with a unique perspective of all aspects of the business and helps him understand the needs of our customers.

“I love Clayton Control’s dedication to our customers.  There is a real family atmosphere and a can do attitude throughout the company.   We have an awesome team!”

 

Sonu Singh - Design & Application Engineer

Sonu a recent graduate joined the Clayton Controls team with a background in product design and development. He has a Master’s in engineering and will be working closely with our CES team to support them on projects that require his engineering expertise right from design thru assembly. He will also work and support our applications and technical support team.

“I enjoy working on different projects and to learn something new from each one of them.”