Chris Tyler
TyTek Industries President

President Chris Tyler has worked in international business for his entire career, but after playing Cassio in Shakespeare‘s “Othello” in Rome, Italy, with a student theater company, he almost joined Britain’s National Youth Theatre and a life of “treading the boards.” Theater’s loss was the business world’s gain.

Instead he joined Foseco International Ltd., a specialist in chemical and mineral additives for the treatment and processing of all molten metals, in product development and marketing, attending Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham UK for one day and three evenings per week sponsored by his company. Tyler: “In those days, these were great programs if you could score one — being able to see and put into practice what one learnt at college the next day at work was, in my opinion, a huge benefit and advantage. These programs are pretty well non-existent today in the UK, but were terrific for both the ambitious employee and the company.”

He was transferred to the company‘s US base in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969, later becoming Technical Sales Engineer for the Detroit Metropolitan area. Most of this time was spent developing and running field trials of the various foundry coatings at the “big three” auto foundries there and in particular the gigantic Rouge River Complex of Ford Motor Co. at Dearborn. “My three years in the USA were like an added qualification when I returned to the UK division in the early 70’s. Having American business experience from a boom town like Detroit in the 60’s/70’s at such a young age, was a terrific plus at a time when many British companies looked up to American business practices.”

In 1974, he was appointed Sales and Marketing Manager of Dynacast International Ltd., a precision die casting company, manufacturing in 10 countries. Dynacast was the engineering division for the $4.42 billion Coats Viyella Group. During his 22 year tenure with that company, Mr. Tyler held General Management positions in the manufacturing operations in Milan, Italy, Montreal, Canada and Chicago. He formed the Magnetic Material Division of the Dynacast Group whilst in Chicago and led the acquisition of two flexible ferrite magnet companies in Ohio, which were combined to become Flexmag Industries Inc.

In 1995 he was appointed president and CEO of the oldest magnet producer in the States, Stackpole Magnets, later renamed Kane Magnetics. During this period he was responsible for expanding the company both organically and through the acquisition of two magnet companies in Sheffield UK and Dijon France. He was a frequent speaker at international magnet conferences and for many years was the first and only non-Japanese member of the Japan Association for Bonded Magnets based in Tokyo.

With his current company, TyTek Industries Inc, which he founded in early 2001, he finds himself heavily involved in many of the markets he has grown up with: automotive, business machines, electronic, electrical and appliances. More recently, the military and civilian medical device and rescue products business. TyTek Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary is based in Ningbo PRC and was founded in 2004. Chris frequently speaks to business students on commerce with China and SE Asia.

Both a US and British citizen, he was honored with the Freedom of the City of London in 1981.