Our Team

Leadership

Kevin Carr

Kevin Carr

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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Kevin has dedicated most of his career to enhancing the nation’s manufacturing sector, with a focus on improving the competitiveness and profitability of small and medium-size manufacturers. Kevin comes to FloridaMakes having led the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP). Joining NIST in the first year of this experimental program, Kevin became the first NIST MEP Director, building the program from just 7 pilot states to a nationally integrated system serving manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Under his leadership with state and federal policymakers, Kevin has worked to increase manufacturers’ access to appropriate advanced manufacturing technology and resources through the federal labs and centers of excellence, and has challenged the MEP system to cultivate best practices, best-in-class services, and promote increased use of existing public and private resources to improve the foundation and future of American manufacturing. Upon his departure from NIST in 2005 to join the private sector, Kevin was recognized by Senator Hollings, the program’s namesake, for his efforts in transforming the pilot program to its current national scale. To date, MEP has worked with nearly 80,000 manufacturers, leading to $88 billion in sales and $14 billion in cost savings, and has helped create more than 729,000 jobs.

As at home on the shop floor, as he is in the C-suite, Kevin has provided management and strategic planning consulting to individual manufacturing companies, boards of directors, economic development organizations, trade associations and more. He has been recognized as FloridaTrend's most influential in Florida and as a finalist for the Service to America for Business and Commerce and Harvard’s Innovation in Government Award. He was awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal for building MEP’s national system and was recently inducted into the NIST Gallery of Distinguished Scientists, Engineers and Administrators for “outstanding leadership of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership and implementing it into a model federal program with national impact on business development, innovation and job creation.”

Kevin studied electronics engineering at Widener University and technology management at the University of Maryland.

Kevin was appointed to the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees in December 2016.

Connect with your FloridaMakes Business Advisor

Learn how FloridaMakes works with Florida manufacturers - and how we can help unlock growth opportunities and cost savings for your business.

By Phone:

407-450-7206

By Email

info@floridamakes.com