Accelerating from Vehicle Test Engineer to CEO

Dee Kivett is the president and CEO of NextGen Supply Chain Integrators, a company she started in 2010 that combined her unique skills and experience in operations, management, and manufacturing. She is also the undergraduate academic program director in the Department of Automotive Engineering at Clemson University.

The explosive economic growth in South Carolina’s Upstate region along Interstate 85 has helped Kivett’s firm reach revenues of $35 million. But the southeastern region of the United States—a new hub of automotive manufacturing in the United States—is also facing a widening talent shortage. “With a projected gap of up to 150,000 workers, it is more critical than ever to ensure that we have a talent pipeline developed to support this critical industry,” Kivett said.
 

Automotive engineering

Kivett began working for General Motors right out of college. “At GM I worked as a vehicle test engineer,” she explained. While at GM, she earned a master’s in engineering science. GM eventually led to a job at General Electric, and Kivett built her expertise over a 30-year career in quality engineering.

NextGen Supply Chain Integrators helps firms that are upgrading their quality management system primarily to specialized standards like ISO 9100, IATF 16949, ISO 13485, as well as special certifications for medical devices, calibration testing, and ISO 17025. The Greenville, S.C.-based company enjoys a healthy business. In fact, it was featured as one of 25 fast-growing South Carolina companies in the Greenville Business Magazine.

But Kivett grew up at the racetrack and was around cars all the time. Her family founded the Wood Brothers Racing Team, which has a seven-decade history in NASCAR. She knew her favorite job would always be “related to cars.” She may have given up the “dream” of becoming a race car driver when she was five, “but I always knew I wanted to work with them,” she said.

Kivett began her journey at Virginia Tech, where she earned a mechanical engineering degree. Now she works to help Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), whose campus is situated along the Interstate 85 corridor, a 15-minute drive from BMW’s Spartanburg plant. “We share a campus with their U.S. research facility, and they are one of the biggest partners in sponsored research,” Kivett explained.

The newest degree offered to students at Clemson is “purely automotive engineering,” she explained. For her, the study of automotive engineering was a passion she always wanted to pursue. She described the incredulity of friends and family who wondered why she would pursue a doctorate after already enjoying success in business.

Discover the Benefits of ASME Membership

As a doctoral student, Kivett taught, and she stayed on after graduation as a lecturer, and busy as she was at her day job, she was also teaching students about product development, automotive quality systems, and advanced quality systems.

Kivett is now the academic program director for Clemson’s newest undergraduate engineering program. “It’s the only degree in the nation where a student graduates with automotive engineering on their diploma. It’s not a mechanical engineering degree with an automotive specialty. It’s a purely automotive engineering degree. And that’s what makes us different,” she explained.
 

Optimized ice

For Kivett, optimizing the internal combustion engine is on the front burner. “We aspire to no carbon emissions,” she said. “But a lot of coal has to be burned to create power. We can't support an all-electric vehicle fleet with the power grid that we currently have, not in South Carolina, and pretty much not anywhere in the United States,” she said.

Clemson teaches a class in its undergraduate program called "Energy for Mobility." And although technical, it also considers the soft level skills of research toward helping students understand the total life cycle impact of making energy-efficient cars. “They study what it takes to get that lithium out of the ground. And then all the energy that goes into producing the batteries. And then our poor ability to recycle them,” Kivett said.

She teaches, in part, because she enjoys working with students. “Their energy and passion are contagious, and I am impressed with their creativity,” she added, noting that they have found ways to use today’s technology tools to leapfrog into new levels of creativity and innovation.

Today’s students also value hands-on experiential learning. “They are not afraid to get their hands dirty, and they have a high level of respect for the skilled trade professionals that they will collaborate with in the workplace,” Kivett said. “The days of engineers just sitting behind a desk in the office are gone. Today’s new engineers like to be building, creating, and innovating.”

Cathy Cecere is membership content program manager.