Zebulon Solutions is a leading product design and supply chain services company focused on getting products out of R&D and into stable manufacturing. Our services include product design and development, supply chain optimization, and operational consulting. We have a unique focus of integrating design with supply chain teams that ensures products are high-quality and can be manufactured on time and on budget.
Who We Are
Zebulon Solutions is made up of seasoned professionals with breadth and depth in all aspects of product development. Our team averages twenty years of industry experience, ranging from startups to global giants like Hewlett-Packard, Flextronics and Vestas. We’ve worked in high-tech, clean-tech, consumer products, and medical industries, among others. We’ve designed hundreds of products and put hundreds more into production.
Management
Chuck Hodges – President and CEO
Chuck was one of the original founders of Zebulon Solutions and is currently the President and CEO. He has over thirty years of engineering and operations management, and is an expert in product development, with over seventy successful product launches under his belt, including iconic products like the Xbox. He started and built up Flextronics International’s engineering services business unit, as well as managed various operations and global design teams. His experience spans both successful startups like Palm and Therasense as well as global leaders like Ericsson and Johnson & Johnson. Chuck has an MSEE from Stanford University and BS in EE and Physics from Rice University.
In between writing proposals and reports, Chuck writes science fiction. Just in case we ever want to set up manufacturing on the moon.
Dr. Todd Hochwitz – Lead Electrical Engineer
Todd was the founder of Technical Mandala, a design services company acquired by Zebulon Solutions in 2012, and is currently Zebulon Solutions’ lead engineer. Todd is an expert in analog and mixed-signal design with nearly thirty years of product development experience. His knowledge spans theoretical modeling, hands-on engineering, hardware development, system design, firmware, and product compliance testing. He has designed and put into manufacturing products for diverse applications, including industrial, agriculture, environmental monitoring, and chemical analysis. Todd has a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and a BSEE from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
When he’s not in the lab or designing the next big, smart thing, Todd raises bees and makes them manufacturing-ready. Or at least honey-ready.
Jenney Loper – Director of Operations
Jenney founded JSL Solutions, an operations consulting company that Zebulon Solutions acquired in 2019. Now Zebulon Solutions’ Director of Operations, she specializes in helping start-up companies build their operational business infrastructure for scalable growth. Jenney brings nearly two decades of experience, ranging from startups to multinational companies such as Vestas and JDSU. Her extensive operations expertise spans supply chain management, new product introduction, manufacturing transition, quality resolution, and manufacturing process development. She relishes the challenge of managing multiple projects in a variety of roles.
When she isn’t ramping-up factories, Jenney manages the operation of multiple musical instruments and plays in a local community band.
Joseph Steinman – Lead Mechanical Engineer
Joseph had been working as a contractor for Zebulon Solutions since 2017 and officially joined the Zebulon Solutions’ engineering team in 2021. He has previously developed complex products for all sorts of industries, ranging from toys to electric cars. His expertise includes medical devices, internet of things, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications, and more. Joseph has also worked with a number of start-ups. His familiarity and experience with so many industries and products make Joseph a real asset to the Zebulon Solutions team.
When he’s not busy engineering prototypes, Joseph tinkers with time: restoring 100-year-old pocket watches and putting them into custom wristwatch cases for resale.
Teresa Neeley – Supply Chain Manager
Teresa was Zebulon Solutions’ first employee. She manages our global supply chain development and optimization activities, and helps out with project management and even in the lab when needed. While at Zebulon Solutions, she has investigated many scores of contract manufacturers, from local specialty shops to multinational giants, and helped our customers set up manufacturing all over the world. Prior to Zebulon Solutions, Teresa managed supply chains for large contract manufacturers such as Flextronics and NEO, where she worked with demanding clients like Hewlett-Packard and Northrup-Grumman. She’s run her own business and worked with startups as well.
In her free time, Teresa manages a salt-water reef aquarium, featuring corals as diverse as her supply chain.
Zebulon Solutions’ team includes engineers of various disciplines, supply chain specialists, business analysts, project managers and lab technicians. We have electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers, software and firmware developers, as well as industrial, process, and manufacturing engineers. Our supply chain managers have worked with vendors on six continents (sorry, we don’t do Antarctica, yet); our analysts have solved all manner of vexing problems. We have a tooling expert and a polymer scientist, a couple of physicists and even a woodworker, just in case. Some are employees, some are contractors, which gives us additional flexibility and impulse-response capability to meet your product development needs and schedule.
We make products manufacturing-ready.
Our DNA
The Zebulon Solutions team has collectively launched well over a hundred products into volume manufacturing throughout our careers. Along the way, we’ve conducted hundreds of DFx reviews, delivered close to a thousand test systems to factory floors around the world, and validated scores of tools. We’ve had many successes, and some failures too, but we’ve learned something each time.
Notable examples of product development success stories that our staff members have made significant contributions to include: developing over five-hundred test systems for Xbox; industrializing three generations of Palm Pilots; ramping up the manufacturing of wind turbine blades for Vestas; and tooling blood glucose meters for Therasense. We’ve done work for or with a wide variety of companies big and small, including Hewlett-Packard, Bell Labs, General Motors, Schlumberger, Avery-Dennison, Ericsson, Lifescan, Microsoft, Northrup-Grumman, and Cisco as well as hundreds of startups.
Palm Pilots
We industrialized three generations of Palm Pilots.
XBOX
We developed over five-hundred test systems for Xbox.
Vestas
We ramped up the manufacturing of wind turbine blades for Vestas.
Friends, Partners
We work in cooperation with many great companies both here in Colorado and around the world. Sometimes we collaborate on projects, sometimes we refer business to one another, and sometimes we’ll just meet over a cup of coffee and share war stories.
Where We Are
Our office is in Longmont, Colorado, a half hour drive from Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins or Denver International Airport. We have 300 days of sun, world class skiing and riding in the nearby mountains, and an open space preserve in our backyard. Just because we are based in Colorado doesn’t mean we’re at home all that often. We’ve set up manufacturing in China; provided systems engineering on-site in Australia; collaborated with a design house on the English coast; worked with a venture capitalist in Sweden; and shipped test fixtures to India. We get on a lot of airplanes because making products manufacturing-ready takes hands-on work.
Specific Questions or Needs?
Email us at [email protected]
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