Corporate Leadership

William R. Jones - CEO is Solar Atmospheres’ founder and owner, and a pioneer in our industry.  A graduate of Penn State with a degree in electrical technology, Bill has more than 40 years of experience developing vacuum furnace and processing technology.  He is a Life member American Society of Materials (ASM) Fellow, and received the national Eisenman Award for applications of vacuum technology for outstanding contributions in industry in the personal application.  He served as President of Abar Corp. for five years, and in 1978 founded the Vacuum Furnace Systems Corporation (VFS) to engineer and build vacuum furnaces.  In 1983 he and his son, Roger, formed Solar Atmospheres to make use of the technology advancements of VFS.  He holds numerous patents related to vacuum furnace design and application.  Mr. Jones also has written numerous technical articles and authored technical papers for ASM and the Metal Treating Institute, MTI, and Industrial Heating Magazine.

Roger A. Jones - Corporate President has served as Corporate President for the past 16 years. He has been with Solar since its inception in 1983, then serving as founding Vice President. During Roger’s tenure in corporate leadership, the company has seen remarkable expansion that now includes more than 140 employees and more than 40 vacuum furnaces.

Roger has made significant professional contributions to the worlds of materials science and thermal processing, giving talks and publishing technical papers in Industrial Heating, Advanced Materials and Processes, and Heat Treating Progress. He has served in both ASM International and the ASM Philadelphia “Liberty Bell” Chapter in offices such as Philadelphia Chapter Chairman, Education Chair, Technology and Programming Chair, and currently as an appointed ASM/HTS International Board Member. Roger’s numerous contributions to the Metal Treating Institute include holding the office of President in 2004-2005, serving a nine year term as the Technical Program Chair, as well as currently serving as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Roger has many times been recognized for his industry contributions, most recently receiving the 2009 Distinguished Service Award from the Metal Treating Institute (MTI). Other awards include the MTI 2009 Dedicated Service Award and 2002 President’s Award, as well as the ASM Society for Materials’ 2004 Distinguished Service Award, the 2001 William Hunt Eisenman Award, and the Delaware Valley Materials Person of the Year Award in 1998.

Roger is also heavily involved in serving his community and is a life member of Perkasie Fire Company #1. He has held various executive and line officer positions with the company and is currently President.

Robert Hill Jr. - President, Western PA has over 30 years of metallurgical experience involving a wide range of heat treating methodologies. During the past ten years Bob has specialized in the development of large vacuum furnace technology and titanium processing capabilities for Solar Atmospheres.

In 2000, Bob took on the responsibility of starting Solar Atmospheres second plant located in Hermitage, PA. At this location there are twelve vacuum furnaces, including the world’s largest vacuum furnace, which is 36 feet long with a weight capacity of 150,000lbs. This 60,000 square foot facility primarily services the titanium industries that are used in the aerospace, medical, and power generation arenas throughout the world..

Bob has been a member of ASM since 1980. He has published numerous articles on vacuum technologies and vacuum heat treating applications. Bob has publicly presented these papers at the National ASM Heat Treating Conference, SME events, and at various local chapters throughout the country..

In 2000-2001, Bob served as the Chairman of the Philadelphia Liberty Bell Chapter of ASM. Additionally, he co-chaired the 2003 and 2005 ASM Heat Treating Society Conference and Exposition. In 2009 Bob was bestowed International Titanium Association Achievement Award. In 2010 he was appointed to the ASM Board of Trustee’s. He received a B.S. from Millersville University and a degree in Metallurgy from Spring Garden College.

Derek Dennis – President, Solar Atmospheres of California joined Solar Atmospheres in the summer of 2008 to develop the start-up of Solar’s newest vacuum heat treating facility in Fontana, California. Derek is a life long resident of Southern California. He has spent the last 13 years in the Aerospace industry, whose duties included Manufacturing Manager, Director of Operations and many other supervisory and support roles. Derek spent seven years serving as a proud member of the U.S. Marine Corps; he served in many billets to include Boeing CH-46E Crewchief, Weapons and Tactics Instructor, Night Vision Instructor and Squadron Flight Safety/NATOPS coordinator. Derek is a member of the ASM (LA Chapter), MTI and annually attends the ITA conference.

A. Bruce Craven - President of the Hatfield Plant has devoted 20 years to developing ion nitriding equipment and processing at Solar Atmospheres. His previous experience also includes engineering at Air Products and Chemicals for air separation and gases.  Bruce has published Principles of Ion Nitriding (1989), The Advantages of Ion Nitriding Gears (1997) and other articles on titanium nitriding and job costing.  He is a graduate of Widener University with a B.S. in Engineering.

Don Jordan - Vice President Technology, Souderton, PA and Corporate Metallurgist oversees the R&D Technology Center at Solar for the improvement of current vacuum services and the development of new processes.  Don has over 30 years experience in metallurgical engineering, which includes six years as Chief Metallurgist for STORK MMA Laboratories, a commercial materials testing laboratory.  Don also has 15 years experience in design and construction of nuclear powered submarines with General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division where he was Head of Materials Engineering.  Don has a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1979.  Don was Chair of the ASM Philadelphia "Liberty Bell" Chapter in 2002–2003 and is a member of: ASMI, NACE, SAE, AMEC, MTI, and APMI.

Bob Sandora - Vice President of Operations, Western PA has more than 34 years of experience in building, installing and maintaining vacuum furnaces.  Bob moved from Solar’s Souderton facility to Solar Atmospheres, Western PA in January 2001 to develop the company’s newest facility in Hermitage, PA.  In 2006, Bob oversaw the Western, PA plant expansion from 24,000 to 65,000 square feet.  Bob currently oversees the operation of the facility and the maintenance of the equipment.  He has been keva member of ASM since 2000.

Calvin Amenheuser - Vice President of the Hatfield Plant has overseen development of the Braze Department at Solar Atmospheres since 1988. Under his management, Solar Atmospheres Brazing Department has received numerous awards including Hewlett Packard’s award for "Outstanding Support" and Brooks Instruments "Processor of the Year." Calvin personally received the Metallurgical Engineering Assistance Award from ASM International, Philadelphia Chapter.

Ken Bauhof - Vice President Special Projects joined Solar in 1998 with over 30 years of experience in engineering, control software design, plus sales and marketing of advanced process control systems for electric utility automation.  He has a B. S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alaska earned in conjunction with working in operations at a NASA satellite tracking facility. As Vice President of Special Projects, Ken works closely with current and potential customers in new business developments that expand the scope of applications that can be performed utilizing the technologies inherent to vacuum thermal processing. These applications are often non-typical processes that are not related to the traditional metals heat treating methodologies. Some new application technologies consist of applying ceramic coatings on a graphite substrate, nano-materials thermal reactions, high temperature chemical compound reactions, sintering advanced powdered materials, purifying powdered metals by degassing, hydriding strategic metals and alloys for embrittlement, bonding rare earth metals for the development of new types of radioactive isotopes. Ken is also Solar’s contract administrator negotiating customer and vendor contractual terms, non-disclosure agreements, long term partnering agreements and building leases.

Michael A. Moyer - Director of Sales, Souderton brings over brings over 22 years of vacuum furnace heat treating and brazing experience to the Senior Sales position at Solar Atmospheres. Mike is a member of AMEC (Aerospace Metals and Engineering Committee), an SAE committee organized to provide oversight and resources to the AMS specification committees.  He is also a member of ASM International, Chairman of ASM Liberty Bell Chapter, and recipient of the 2002 Metallurgical Assistant’s award. Mike was Corporate Quality Manager from 1999-2011, where he led multiple Solar Atmospheres locations to accreditation in NADCAP (National Aerospace Defense Contractor’s Accreditation Program) for Heat Treating, Brazing, NDT, and certification to ISO 9001, ISO 9002, AS9000, & AS9100. Mike took on the role of Director of Sales for the Souderton facility in November of 2010.

Jamie Jones - General Manager of Operations, Eastern PA has worked in various departments at Solar Atmospheres for the past 15 years.   He started out as a shipping assistant in 1994, and then moved to brazing technician a year later.  In 1999, Jamie was promoted to group leader.  Following that, he was promoted to Sales Engineer at Plant A in 2003.  Jamie was added to the management team in 2006, along with getting promoted to General Manager of Operations.  He is a member of ASM and MTI, and has taken a number of metallurgical and heat treating courses through the training program.  As General Manager, Jamie oversees day to day heat treating operations in Souderton, PA and is involved with customer service.

Kevin Bekelja - General Manager, Western PA has been with Solar for over 12 years. He has extensive vacuum heat treat experience with running and maintaining Solar’s state-of-art vacuum furnace equipment. Kevin is responsible for overseeing the day to day heat treat operations at Solar in Western PA. Kevin started with Solar at their plant in Souderton and then moved in 2001 to help start up Solar Atmospheres of Western PA. Kevin graduated from Elizabethtown College with a B.S. in Sociology/Anthropology.

Michael Drakeley - Director of Sales has over 18 years of experience in the heat treating and brazing industry.  Mike spends much of his time working with customers to help them solve their heat treating problems.  He also gets involved early in the design review process to help customers design parts for vacuum brazing.  He is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and ASM.

Susan Wolske - Accounting Manager has been managing Solar Atmospheres’ corporate finances for over 15 years. She is a graduate of Messiah College and previously worked for Niessen, Dunlap & Pritchard, P.C. Sue works with the finance team to facilitate the accounting at Solar Atmospheres of Eastern, PA and Western, PA.

Brittney Dhein - Manager of Human Resources has been with Solar since 2006. She has a Psychology degree from Franklin and Marshall College and a Master’s Certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. She is also a member of The Society of Human Resource Management and ASM.  Her responsibilities include managing all personnel needs for Solar Atmospheres, Solar Manufacturing and Magnetic Specialties. This task includes employee communications, benefits, insurances and employee processing.

Josh Isaak - Corporate IT Manager has serviced the computer networks at all Solar plants for the past 10 years.  He oversees hardware and software development and other electronic controls and devices in the company.  His roles include Server & PC Architecture and Maintenance, Software Integration and Implementation, Video Editing, Photography & Videography, Graphic Design, Networking & VPN, Web Design, Virus removal & Prevention, Computer Optimization along with Data backup and recovery.  Josh earned an AS in computer science from Montgomery County Community College and has received various certifications for computer software and hardware.

Laura Edwards - Marketing Manager has over 20 years of experience in business-to-business Marketing and is a double graduate of Penn State University with a B.S. in Marketing and a Masters of Business Administration. In addition to freelance consulting, she has worked with a variety of marketing agencies and businesses. Laura is focused on providing strategic direction for all of Solar's marketing activities such as corporate branding and communications; advertising; website development; tradeshows; public relations and social media.