Management

Vice President, Business Unit Manager

Charles R. Smith, III is Vice President and Business Unit Manager of NSI-MI Technologies (NSI-MI), a wholly owned subsidiary of AMETEK, Inc. AMETEK acquired NSI-MI in 2021.

Prior to the acquisition by AMETEK, Charlie was part owner of NSI-MI and held the management position of EVP & CFO. NSI-MI, itself, was the result of a merger in 2016 of NSI, Inc. and MI Technologies, LLC. In 1997, Charlie was one of the founders of MI Technologies, formed to acquire the assets of Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.’s microwave instrumentation business.

Charlie is active in a number of industry and community service organizations. Past affiliations include the Financial Executive Institute, the Atlanta Treasury Management Association, where he served as president, TechAmerica (formerly AeA) and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). He is also an active member of several community organizations in the Atlanta area.

Charlie holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University. He also completed the Harvard School of Business’ Corporate Financial Management Program.

Vice President, Far-Field Systems and Chief Technology Officer

Daniël Janse van Rensburg serves as Vice President, Far-Field Systems and Chief Technology Officer and is responsible for all far-field, compact range, radome, RCS, and target simulation systems.

He is a graduate of the University of Pretoria, South Africa where he earned a PhD in Computational Electromagnetics. He joined NSI in 1998 as Applications Engineer and assumed the role of Sales Manager in 2006. Upon NSI merging with MI Technologies in 2016, he was named CTO of NSI-MI Technologies.

He is a Licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada and Fellow of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA). He was the recipient of the AMTA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2015 for his contributions to near-field technology. He remains actively involved in academia and was appointed Adjunct Professor in the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada in 2005 and continues to provide post graduate student supervision there. He is the author of more than 80 journal and conference papers; regularly contributes to industry courses on antenna test technology; and is co-author of the IET text: Theory & Practice of Modern Antenna Range Measurements.

Vice President, Precision Products

Jeffrey A. Fordham is Vice President of Precision Products where he is responsible for company product sales, production, and supply for microwave instrumentation, antennas, software, and standard mechanical positioners. He also manages the Testing Services business area.

Jeff holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He was awarded the Edmond S. Gillespie Fellowship by the Antenna Measurements Techniques Association (AMTA) and served on the AMTA Board of Directors as the host of the AMTA 2004 symposium. Jeff has been a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society since 1987. He also previously served as Chapter Chair for the Atlanta chapter of Antennas and Propagation/Microwave Theory and Techniques. Jeff is currently Chair of the IEEE 149 Standard Working Group, a committee responsible for updating the IEEE Standard Test Procedures for Antennas.

Vice President, Near-Field Systems

John Demas is Vice President of Near-Field Systems. He is based in the Torrance, CA office and oversees the near-field antenna measurement business activities. Prior to this assignment, John was the Vice President of Operations for Nearfield Systems, Inc (NSI) located in Torrance, CA, and managed all manufacturing, development, engineering, and program related activities.

John earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with a minor in economics in 1978 from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He has been an AMTA member since 1982 and has published numerous technical papers and served on various committees. He served on the Board of Directors as Vice President in 2015. John also is a member of the IEEE.

Vice President, System and Products Services

John Hatzis is Vice President of System and Products Services and oversees post-delivery customer needs. He previously was a service manager at Nearfield Systems, Inc. (NSI) overseeing the customer support activity and actively managed support contracts. John has more than 20 years of experience in the radar and antenna test industries. Prior to joining NSI, John was a project manager and later a sales & marketing manager at Selex ES, now Leonardo.

He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science in Energy Systems from the Aachen University, Germany. John is current member on the Customer Experience Program Advisory Board at the University of California, Irvine. He is fluent in Italian, German and Greek, and is a United States Air Force veteran.

Vice President, Operations

John M. Ward is the Vice President of Operations, which includes chamber construction, antenna measurement system manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, procurement, fabrication, machining, assembly and wiring of standard products, reflectors, and antennas. He has held this position since 2009. Additionally, he handles special projects and business development to enhance our product offerings. John joined the company in April 2007 as the manager of Mechanical Engineering, a position where he was responsible for all the company’s mechanical product design, analysis, documentation, and testing.

John holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. John is a Georgia-certified Professional Engineer and is a Six Sigma Green Belt. He holds a patent for his work in the development of particle size measurement techniques and instrumentation.

Vice President, Sales & Marketing

Michael W. Murphy is Vice President of Sales & Marketing for NSI-MI and is responsible for providing the overall leadership and management of the business unit’s worldwide sales, marketing, and business development efforts. NSI-MI was acquired by AMETEK in 2021 after having been formed by the merger of NSI and MI Technologies in 2016. Prior to that merger, Mike was Vice President of Sales for MI Technologies, having been appointed to that position in 2005 after serving as Vice President and Business Manager of the Commercial and Communications business area. Mike joined NSI-MI in 1999 as Director, Customer Support.

Over his career, Mike has been active in a number of industry and professional organizations, including the National Management Association, the Air Force Association, the Army Aviation Association, the Precision Strike Association, the Navy League, and the Antenna Measurement and Techniques Association.

Mike holds a Master of Business Administration in Business and Operations management from The Ohio State University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from the University of Notre Dame.

Vice President, Engineering

Stephen Blalock is Vice President of Engineering at AMETEK NSI-MI. In this role, he oversees all electrical, mechanical, software, chamber, and systems engineering activity for the development of sophisticated measurement systems.

Stephen has more than 20 years of experience in antenna, radar signature, and materials characterization using a variety of test systems including compact range, free space and resonant cavity materials measurement apparatus, image plane antenna range, near-field and far-field antenna ranges. In addition to system development and operation, he lectures for short courses in the area of radar cross section measurement methods.

Stephen holds a master’s degree in Applied Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology as well as a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the Southern Polytechnic State University. He also is a vetted reviewer for the National Radar Cross Section Measurement Facility certification program.