Southwest Manufacturing News • April 21 • GTI Appoints Two to Leadership Team

GTI Spindle Technology, Inc. has announced the appointment of Eric Huston to its leadership team as a Vice President and the appointment of Yuri Khazanov as Chief Technology Officer.

In addition to his new position as Vice President, Huston also serves as Chief Operating Officer of the GTI Predictive Technology subsidiary.

“We are fortunate to have Eric join us to help both GTI Spindle and Predictive brands evolve,” said Tom Hoenig, President. “Eric’s track record of developing leading-edge solutions while remaining passionate about customer success is paramount to helping us achieve our strategic goals.”

At GTI Spindle, Huston will drive the development and launch of subscription- based business solutions for machine tool spindle repair enabled through digital transformation. At GTI Predictive, Huston provides leadership and focus encompassing the whole value chain with emphasis on customer excellence, sales, marketing, business and product development.

“I am excited to join the leadership team of GTI Spindle Technology as we embark on the development of new go-to-market approaches for machine tool spindle repair business through implementation of servitization, digitalization and outcome-based business models,” stated Huston.

Earlier in his career, Huston gained experience in industrial aftermarket services and digital transformation in both domestic and international markets. Prior to GTI, Huston has held executive positions with increasing responsibility at Schaeffler, SKF and Honeywell (Measurex) after starting his career as a maintenance engineer with International Paper (Champion International).

Huston holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine. He is a member of several professional organizations, having served as Vice Chair, Manufacturing Technical Group; and Chair, Plant Engineering and Maintenance Division for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is currently a member of the Best Practices and Benchmarking Committee for the Society of Reliability and Maintenance Professionals (SMRP). Eric is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP), and a former Certified Energy Manager (CEM) through the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE).

Khazanov as Chief Technology Officer leads GTI Predictive’s research and development for both hardware products and software. Additional responsibilities include product portfolio roadmap and customer technical support.

“GTI Predictive was founded to help others by developing and supplying cutting edge predictive solutions. I am pleased to have Yuri on board to help accelerate our technology and further our mission,” said Hoenig.

In his previous role with John Crane, Khazanov headed a global engineering team, specializing in developing prediction solutions for pumps and compressors. There, he researched new machine learning methods for identification of failure modes in industrial assets using sensor data.

“I am excited to be joining GTI Predictive, a well-respected leader in the predictive maintenance technology space. I am looking forward to applying my knowledge and experience to developing innovative solutions for the customers and contributing to the continued growth and success of GTI,” stated Khazanov.

Previously, Khazanov served as president and principal engineer at InCheck Technologies, a company he co-founded. While there, he led development of a cloud-based system for machine health monitoring and automated fault diagnostics for industrial machines using vibration data.

Khazanov was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. He obtained his combined Master and Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute” (MPEI). He immigrated to the United Stated in 1990. Khazanov has been a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Illinois since 1994. He is a named inventor on four U.S. patents and has published articles on machine reliability.