Jeanette Preston has an office at Smithers Quality Assessments Inc. in Akron, but it can be tough to find her there.
She spent about two-thirds of her work days on the road last year, visiting dozens of companies, evaluating their internal practices and quality-control systems and helping to set up Smithers’ office in China.
Preston is president and lead auditor at Smithers, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month.
Smithers Quality Assessments measures the performance of companies against quality, environmental and safety standards.
“We have a myriad of clients,” Preston said. “We have a hospital that we’ve certified, we have manufacturers, service companies. We even worked with a commercial snow removal company. When they first called me to ask to help develop standards, I thought someone was playing a joke on me.”
Many of Smithers Quality Assessments’ customers are in the auto and aerospace industries. It’s about a lot more than bragging rights. Those industries mandate that suppliers meet quality standards.
Preston moved up from vice president to president at Smithers this spring. She oversees a staff of 12 at the company’s Akron headquarters, as well as 50 auditors in the field.
She also oversees Smithers’ office in Suzhou, China, which opened in January. Smithers hopes to open an office in Europe sometime soon.
Preston joined the company about six years ago, leaving an auditing/certification body, SAI Global.
Preston said she “kind of fell into” auditing after receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cleveland State University in the 1980s.
At the time, the quality management field was in its infancy, Preston said, and “no one in my generation chose this profession ... we have grown into it.”
Her first job out of college was working in the accounts payable department at Applied Industrial Technologies Inc., an industrial parts distributor in Cleveland. She soon got her start in quality management, working in the fledgling quality department at Applied Industrial, then called Bearings Inc.
After about 10 years, she went to SAI Global, where she spent about 12 years, moving to Smithers in 2007. She thought she’d go back to school, but with all her traveling for work, time has been limited.
“With the jobs I’ve had, you always travel,” Preston said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t keep educating ourselves. We’re required to in this business.”
She did find time to raise two sons. One graduated from Cleveland’s St. Ignatius High School this year, and the other is a student at Cleveland State. She has two adult step-children and is married to Michael Preston, who works at Applied Technologies.
Preston said that as Smithers celebrates its 20th year, there are lots of opportunities for growth. In North America alone, she said, only about 8 percent of the companies who are eligible have received certification. Smithers Quality Assessments is part of the Smithers Group, which began in 1925 as an independent testing company for the tire industry.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.