Benjamin DePompei is the President of Transtar Manufacturing. Ben joined Transtar Industries, Inc. in April, 2012 as Executive Vice President, CHRO. Over the past 7 years Ben had increasing levels of responsibilities including direct management of Transtar’s remanufacturing operations, Chief Administrative Officer & Legal, Nickels Performance, and Alma Products and ATCO. Additionally, Ben served as Interim CEO of Transtar upon emergence, while transitioning to the current management team. Currently, Ben serves as President of Transtar Manufacturing which includes Remanufacturing (RECON), Alma Products, ATCO, and Transtar Autobody Technologies.
Prior to joining Transtar Ben held executive leadership positions with privately-held E.P. Management Corporation (formerly Eagle Picher Corporation) for 15 years.
Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources and Operations Management from The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business, and attended the INSEAD Global Executive Management Program in France.
Tom DeMille is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Transtar’s US Distribution business and is responsible for regional and branch management across all US regions, Transtar’s marketing efforts, and the Pro-King retail business. Tom graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1992 with a BS in Accounting and is a 26-year veteran of the transmission industry. He began his career at Metran Automatic Transmission Parts, a regional transmission parts company in New York. Tom was promoted through positions of increasing responsibility with Metran until its acquisition by Axiom Automotive. During his tenure with Axiom he served as Regional Vice President and then joined Transtar from 2002 until 2013 where he served as Regional Vice President and then Vice President of Sales & Branch Operations. Tom became Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Transmaxx, LLC, a start-up transmission parts distributor until 2017 when Transmaxx was acquired by Transtar. Tom rejoined Transtar in 2017 in his current role. He is a member of the Ohio State Center for Automotive Research (CAR) External Advisory Board. Tom is married to Nicole and they have two children. His hobbies are golf, cycling and hockey.
Kevin Rozsa is the Vice President of Supply Chain, and has been employed by Transtar for 18 years. He has held several leadership roles with the company, originally hired by Monte Ahuja in 2001 as VP, Corporate Marketing, and later named VP, International Sales. Throughout Transtar ownership and CEO changes, Kevin was asked to lead other areas of the company, including Pro King, Nickels Performance, Category Management, and for the past two years, Supply Chain. In this role, he is responsible for Purchasing and Inventory Management, as well as Product and Content Management, the Cleveland Distribution Center, International Sales and eCommerce sales.
Prior to joining Transtar, Kevin held sales, marketing and product management leadership positions with Schaeffler, a supplier to Transtar since the mid-1980s when he first introduced the Schaeffler LuK RepSet program to the company. Kevin joined Schaeffler in 1985, and worked there for 16 years.
Kevin Rozsa earned his Executive MBA from Kent State University Graduate School of Management and his Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration, from Washington and Jefferson College. Kevin is married to Debbie and they have 3 grown daughters. In his spare time he enjoys social activities with his family and friends at their lake community in Silver Lake, OH, traveling to college swim events to watch their youngest daughter compete for Ohio Wesleyan University, and watching football games, especially as an avid Pittsburgh Steelers and Ohio State Buckeye fan.
Bryan Chaikin is the Vice President of Technology at Transtar Industries, where in 2 years, his accomplishments include developing transend™, a proprietary ecommerce solution, and migrating datacenters to a virtualized cloud environment, saving the company millions year over year.
Bryan’s technical acumen was honed through launching several technology-based businesses, most recently founding and co-operating eFuneral, a software startup that was purchased and commercialized nationally. From eFuneral, he helped launch Transmaxx, where he held the title of Vice President of Technology. Bryan earned his BS in Computer Science from Kent State University and his MS in Computer Science from Case Western Reserve University.
Bruce joined Transtar’s Canadian distribution arm – King-O-Matic Industries – in 2015 as National Sales Director, and became General Manager of the business in 2018.
He received his B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and is a licensed Professional Engineer. He received further training in Sales, Marketing and Operations Management at Penn State University’s ISBM, York University’s Schulich School of Business, and Air Academy Associates.
Since taking on the lead role in King-O-Matic, Bruce has focused on growing sales, adding product lines, improving operational efficiency, expanding service and building on King-O-Matic’s already strong customer relationships. In his first year as General Manager, the company has made significant gains on all of these fronts.
Bruce is 58 years old and lives in Markham Ontario with his wife Daphne, a 30-yr veteran of the wine agency business in Canada, and their two children. He enjoys playing the piano, skiing, driving, investing, and wine tasting.