Wayne BLair

Although Wayne Blair is an expert machinist and welder, leading global teams toward solutions for our customers is where he really excels. Wayne’s leadership journey began in the U.S. Navy where he spent 11 years building the skills that have defined his career today. When he joined Flowserve, he found an opportunity to use his military values to guide impactful, global projects.

“My military experience gave me a real passion for building leaders and guiding them to become excellent problem solvers. I love the world of machinery and to work for a company that recognizes the importance of that work, that is the best inspiration. I enjoy the dynamic nature of managing 10 Quick Response Centers across North America. Everyday there are multiple solutions to be explored at each site and supporting my teams in delivering for our customers is rewarding.”

Before Flowserve, Wayne started and managed several machine shops. In the almost 5 years he’s served at Flowserve, he has continued to build on his experience by taking on four different roles, learning and growing from each role. This accomplishment is something he is very proud of.

“My favorite thing about working for Flowserve is that I get to network with a global team. I have met people all over the world who I have been able to call on for their expertise and support when needed. I love the team spirit you feel no matter which part of the world you are working with.”

Casey Chandler

From a young age, Casey dreamed of becoming an electrician. Casey won a Christmas tree in elementary school and was shocked when he plugged it into the wall. His parents were concerned, but for him it unlocked a lifelong interest in electricity!

Casey enjoys working with his hands to diagnose and repair electrical and mechanical projects. “I love taking things apart and putting them back together. I’m curious about how things work, and I have always fixed my own machines. Part of my job is working as a mechanic and the other part is being an electrician, so I can see the stages of how something is created.”

He gets to accomplish his projects each day alongside a team that enjoys working together and supporting each other. Casey has been fortunate to have mentors but also lead critically important work for Flowserve.” We respect each other at work and are there to help each other. We have open communication, and we use our experience to help motivate each other.”

Outside of Flowserve Casey is a successful bowler. Traveling with his bowling leagues exposed him to different parts of the U.S. and ultimately brought him to Pennsylvania.

Dale Christensen

Dale has nearly 20 years of experience as a Machinist at Flowserve. He was first referred to Flowserve by a friend and in the time since he has become an expert in the role and now trains others on site.

“I’m inspired each day by working with a machine product I truly enjoy alongside a great team. I run both horizontal and vertical lathe machines daily, and my proudest accomplishment is learning to run CNC lathes.”

Dale supports the Machinists onsite in improving their skills and delivering products that exceed our customers’ expectations.

Cinnamon Christian

“In my role I get to create drawings, run analysis on performance of our designs, and do 3D modeling, which make it possible to put the plans into production. It’s great to see a project on paper then be able to stand in front of the real thing. We question and test what’s possible often. We’re always expanding our knowledge-base as a company.”

Growing up in a family of engineers, Cinnamon Christian developed an early passion for math and science and was interested in how she could apply these things in a practical way. She joined Flowserve’s R&D team in 2012, and the ever-changing environment for developing solutions for customers has given her a mix of experience within the team.

From product development and design to a specialized focus on solutions for pump hydraulics, the challenge of creating something new is what excites Cinnamon the most. #CareerSpotlight #Flowserve

Margie Lewis

With 20 years at Flowserve, Margie Lewis brings deep expertise to our Lynchburg, VA, valves operation. In her role as a Precision Assembler, she collaborates with her peers, supervisors and engineers to build actuators and assemble parts orders.

“With each unit that I build, I challenge myself to deliver beyond customer expectations with quality products. In my role I also troubleshoot units to find solutions for the best way to assemble the product,” said Margie.

On a typical day, Margie’s toolbox consists of hammers, drills, a press, and air guns. No matter the task, she lives Flowserve’s Ownership value by being accountable and doing what is best for our customers.

Interested in joining the Flowserve team? You can learn more and apply to our open roles on FlowserveCareers.com! #Flowserve #CareerSpotlight

Kanagavel Mathivanan

For Kanagavel, stepping into his role at Flowserve was the realization of his goal to build a career in the mechanical design field. Bringing innovation to life from concept to final product motivates Kanagavel to be a part of the Flowserve team and deliver beyond our customers’ expectations each day.

Through the years, Kanagavel has built his product knowledge to apply across several different industries. Finding ways to apply his expertise to develop new solutions fuels his passion for the work that he leads.

“One of the most significant projects I have led consisted of upgrading 12 pumps from single mechanical-seal to dual-seal to meet environmental guidelines. I was the Project Engineer on the team and partnered closely with Design Engineers and Production. The project was completed on time and resulted in one of the proudest moments in my career.”

Adjan Matthijssenn

In the 10 years Adjan has been a part of the Flowserve team, he has found excitement and motivation in learning to work across several industries from oil and gas to renewables and water. Through Flowserve’s extensive training opportunities, Adjan has been able to sharpen his skills and grow in his role.

“My role is focused on general assembly activities like balancing, hydrotesting and torqueing equipment. We have an effective team at our site and our work changes from day to day. In fact, many colleagues have helped shape my career. One of my proudest accomplishments was working as a team to turn around a customer request in a matter of days."

Elvis Nditafon

For Elvis Nditafon, “it is a joy to work for an organization that values and encourages innovation.” Such an environment is well-suited for engineers like Elvis who dare to reimagine the impossible. Elvis first became interested in automation of engineering analyses over a decade ago, a concept that was at one time deemed impossible. Ten years later, he says that “seemingly impossible engineering automation may indeed be complex but is simply a case where it has yet to be done. Creativity and innovation may be required in the process of automation, but it should not be thought impossible simply because it has never been done.”

Elvis was recently able to set his passions for automation of engineering analyses into motion when our team in Mezzago, Italy determined there was a need to reduce finite element analysis lead times for leakage simulations. After several discussions, Elvis and the team decided it would be most beneficial to develop an automated analysis application that addresses common ball valve analysis needs. The application was designed for ease of expansion and the ability to accommodate standardiz and non-standard engineering designs. The result of this innovation is consistent, high-quality analyses, reduction in cost, error and lead time. There is also the added benefit of providing engineers the freedom to focus on more critical tasks that bring value to Flowserve. All of these benefits are passed directly to our customer. The success of the application is only getting started as Elvis hopes to expand the application to include other processes and with automated reports.

Elvis has emphasized that such a successful innovation would not have come to fruition without the collaboration between the teams involved. “The importance of collaboration across engineering functions cannot be overlooked. Collaboration is essential to ensuring full utilization of the differing skills, knowledge, and experience of team members, and usually results in faster completion of projects with more innovative solutions to problems.”

Sarah Purawic

From a young age, Sarah Purawic had a knack for creativity and critical thinking to solve problems. “Math and science were always my favorite subjects. I would ask for 101 Science Experiment books and spend all day in the kitchen trying to carry them out.” With her father being a mechanical engineer, Sarah knew she wanted to enter the family business.

When she began exploring opportunities to jumpstart her career after graduating from Penn State in 2019, Sarah was intrigued by Flowserve’s early career development program, IGNITE. IGNITE offers a robust curriculum, three-year rotational program in different regions across different business functions and diverse project assignments. Sarah says she was not only attracted to the opportunity to fast track her career, but also to Flowserve’s values as an organization.

Sarah has worked on several projects ranging from material, quality and process code standardization to her most recent, an initiative focusing on cross-alignment and change management across Flowserve for several new enterprise tools. “As part of a change campaign, I’ve assembled a team to create videos explaining the needs and benefits of the new systems in a fun, creative way. The film is called Enterprise Endeavor, a superhero movie where Enterprise Mindset, the hero, needs to introduce new tools and standards to save Flowserve from Misalignment.” Sarah’s creative work on this specific project is not only directly impacting Flowserve’s strategy, but also allowing Sarah to utilize her skillset and exercise her passions in a professional setting.

Now in her third year of IGNITE, Sarah feels that her diverse experiences and projects have provided her “the best understanding of Flowserve in three years and the opportunity to develop [herself] as a team member and leader.” We are proud to offer development opportunities to young leaders at Flowserve, just like Sarah.

Tom Wheeler

Tom Wheeler joined Flowserve the day after ending a successful Navy career. While serving, Tom specialized in repair and replication of pumps, valves and marine systems, which made the transition into his role at Flowserve a natural fit. For almost 30 years, Tom has received several certifications and become an expert in machinery across a range of industries.

"My favorite part of my role is the variety. Some machinists work in production shops where they make thousands of the same parts. At Flowserve, the variety of what we do affords me flexibility to work across multiple products and machines.”

Each day, he makes it a priority to impact his deep knowledge of machinery on the next generation of Flowserve innovators.