The People Who Work Here: Dr Chalo Aoun Research Director

When the finish on your client’s products can mean the difference between booming sales and no sales, it becomes critical to make sure all runs well for them in their manufacturing processes.

“The proprietary additives our clients buy from us’ represent one to two percent of their total manufacturing cost, but can mean all the difference between a sale and no sale,” Dr. Chalo Aoun said. “If the color or brightness of a finish, for example, is poor , the end customer may choose another product based on appearance.”

“Our clients rely on us,” Dr Aoun said.

Dr. Aoun is Research Director for A Brite Company. A Brite Company is the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

Dr. Aoun is responsible for research and development of A Brite’s line of products. A Brite is customer driven and does invest in research even in old technologies. . She does everything from improving existing products to creating new proprietary additives in order to solve specific problems or to achieve a desired finishes for the end client.

A Brite makes things happen and happen better. In raw materials shortage, we find alternatives, if the client’s specifications change, we modify and adapt, if new finishes appear on the market we compete. We do not sleep on our laurels.

And breakthroughts they can be. In the time she has been at A Brite, Dr. Aoun has helped grow the nickel product line from a single product to a list of 10, the zinc processes were created and many other surface finishing processes. Customer need and requirements have driven A Brite to create new products that improve the end product or increase efficiency.

Dr. Aoun has been with A Brite for 17 years. She earned her PhD in Chemistry from University of Texas at Dallas. She also has earned a BS in Chemistry and holds two Master’s degrees in science.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work for a company that sees the whole of the process,” Dr. Aoun said. “A Brite listens to the customer and works side-by-side with them to ensure their success. This environment has enabled me to understand the science behind a process, build a fund of formulas and back them with chemistry,.”

Dr. Aoun and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website.

The People Who Work Here: Jackie Frank, Chemical Purchasing Inventory Manager

When she was a girl growing up on a ranch in North Texas, Jackie Frank learned a lesson that she hasn’t forgotten to this day.

“When we were kids, my cousin was filling a tank on my grandparents’ ranch,” Jackie recounted recently. “However, she forgot to take the hose out after she was finished and the water in the tank was siphoned out by the unattended hose. The tank had chemicals in it that were toxic and the siphoned water polluted by grandparents’ well,” Jackie recalled.

“They had to dig a new well.”

That lesson of paying attention to detail has stayed with her. In the metal surface finishing business, a missed keystroke on order can destroy a customer’s system.

Jackie is responsible for the inventory and ordering a raw materials for A Brite Company. A Brite Company is the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

“We maintain a just-in-time inventory,” Jackie said. “I order raw materials based upon orders so that we can contain costs in the warehouse,” she said. Jackie also maintains stock of products of other manufacturers A Brite distributes.

And that’s not all Jackie does. “I arrange all of the prepaid and inbound freight for the company,” Jackie said.

Jackie is a veteran of the chemical and surface finishing business, having come over to A Brite in the ACI Chemicals acquisition. She has worked on the A Brite premises since 2004.

“I started as a temp and worked my way through the company,” Jackie said. “I love what I do and can’t imagine working anywhere else.”

Jackie and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website at www.abrite.com.

The People Who Work Here: Craig Hassell, Customer Service Manager

Being a visual guy in a company full of chemists can have its advantages. Or so it is with Craig Hassell.

“I produced the first ad for the company that didn’t look like it came from our industry,” Craig said. “”While I understand the industry and have worked here for 15 years, I still have an ‘outsiders’ point of view.”

By ‘outsider’ Craig means he isn’t a chemist. He has a degree in Visual Communications. But he is a veteran of the industry because of his work at A Brite Company.

Craig is the Customer Service Manager at A Brite Company. A Brite Company is the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

“When I was first hired on by the company,” Craig continued, “they were looking for help designing ads and a website. I am proud to say we were the first company in the metal finishing industry with a website,” he said.

Since that time, Craig has served several roles with the company until being named Customer Service Manager in 2008.

“My knowledge of the industry and the company comes from having worked in quality control and as ad manager before taking on this assignment,” Craig said. “Thanks, to Frank, I’ve had the opportunity to build my skills and help the company.”

Frank is Frank Dunigan, the CEO of A Brite.

Craig and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website at www.abrite.com.

The People Who Work Here: James Greer, Purchasing/Equipment Manager

The phone rings. It is a customer with a problem with his metal finishing process equipment. But wait, you sell process chemistry.

Hmmmm.

If James Greer is on the answering end of that call, the answer always starts with “How may I help you?”

James is the Purchasing and Equipment Manager at A Brite Company. A Brite Company is the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

“After more than 20 years in the oil fields of Texas and Oklahoma, I knew what a customer was asking for when they described their problem,” James told us recently. “I found I also understood when they asked for one part and the problem they were having was really needing another part.”

Being able to communicate with the customer and then meet their needs quickly is James’ stock in trade.

“Our customers are dealing with real time,” he said. “If their line goes down, it costs them money. We have to react quickly by diagnosing the problem and getting them the part.”

While A Brite sells chemistry, it also provides solutions to their clients to make sure their lines are up and running. That’s where James comes in.

“I also know when to not sell them something,” James added. “We want happy customers and honesty is a part of what we do. Sure I can sell many parts, but if that’s not their problem, then I won’t,” he said.

James and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website at www.abrite.com.

The People Who Work Here: Tom Hyman

From the posters on his office walls and his dry sense of humor, you would think Tom Hyman was a joker, a world-class kidder.

You’d only be partly right.

While Tom enjoys a good joke and his golf game, when it comes to the work he and his colleagues do at A Brite Company, they take it seriously.

“I’m the inside guy, the troubleshooter,” Tom said. In his job as Technical Services Manager, Tom oversees the portion of the lab that processes client samples.

A Brite Company is the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

“In addition to providing our clients with the right chemistry and equipment, we also help them monitor their processes and report back to them,” Tom said. “We are their external quality control.”

Tom should know: he’s been with A Brite for all but one year of its existence. A graduate of Case Western University in Ohio with a BA in Chemistry, Tom came to Dallas with ROHCO in 1981. It was there he met Frank Dunigan. Frank founded A Brite in 1982. After much back and forth and cajoling, Tom joined Frank at A Brite in 1983.

“And the rest, they say, is history,” Tom said. Tom went on to describe why he’s been at A Brite for most of his career. Thre are two reasons, he said.

“First of all, we have Frank,” he said. “There are few people in business who understand, like Frank does, that family comes first. Frank has always cared for me and the rest of the A Brite team,” Tom said. “To him, we are his family.”

That family ethic has helped keep the A Brite team together. With an average tenure in the company of around 10 years (there are some youngsters on board who have less than five years’ service who bring that number lower), working at the company is a long-term assignment.

“Secondly, we are a small, flexible company with experienced, talented people,” Tom continued. “We can respond to the customer much more easily and quickly and with the answers they need. There is less bureaucracy.”

Tom and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website at www.abrite.com.

The People Who Work Here: Dan Dunigan

Computer. Check. Catalogue. Check. Customer list. Check. Cowboy hat. Check? T-shirt from an Irish Festival. Check?

Wait a minute…just whose list is this?

Dan Dunigan is about as serious as the next guy in the plating and surface finishing industry. But he also knows what it takes to have fun and get things done.

“In my time at A Brite, I’ve learned that life is a balance,” Dan said. “We know our customers well and because of that, they trust us,” he said.

Dan is responsible for technical sales and service for A Brite Company, the leader in the metal finishing industry for process chemistry and equipment. A Brite is based in Garland, Texas.

“Take as an example our annual trip to the National Association of Surface Finishing (NASF) SUR/FIN trade show,” Dan said. “It is serious business to go and interact with our peers and competitors. But we also have fun and enjoy ourselves while we work.”

The trade show and conference are an annual occurrence for A Brite. Each year the company chooses a theme for its exhibit and each year it draws more people.

“We have competitors and customers alike calling and asking us about our theme before the show,” Dan said. “But even after all these years of doing the show, no one has yet to copy our idea of a themed booth,” he continued.

A graduate of Louisiana Tech University, Dan has a degree in marketing.  But his responsibilities go far beyond just marketing the company.  He is responsible for maintaining critical relationships both within and outside the company.

The industry as well as the company is built on relationships, Dan told us. “The surface finishing industry is like a family, not unlike our company. We all know and care about one another,” Dan said.

Dan and the rest of the A Brite family can be reached at 214-291-0400 or through the website at www.abrite.com.