Meet the Executives: Alan Blankshain

Gary Wollenhaupt

Executive Vice President of Engineering



For Alan Blankshain, a graduate of Duke University, every meeting he goes into starts with a good-natured chorus of boos.

Braidy Industries Chairman Craig Bouchard loves to introduce Blankshain as the token Duke alumni to play off the historic basketball rivalry with the University of Kentucky.

“Every meeting I’m in, Craig introduces me as the Duke alumni and polite boos go around the table,” Blankshain said. To add insult to injury, the team often dines at the Kentucky Hall of Fame restaurant at the Ashland Town Center Mall.

A native of Oak Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, Blankshain spent 24 years in various senior operational and management positions in metals fabrication. He was recently president and CEO of Midland Stamping and Metal Fabricating.

He and Bouchard met years ago when they played tennis together. After graduating from Duke and earning his MBA degree from Northwestern University, Blankshain took a job in New Jersey with a company that used lasers to weld jet engine turbine blades. There, he met his wife Linda, also a Chicago native. After getting married and living in New Jersey for a few years, they relocated to Buffalo Grove, Illinois. The couple has two grown sons. Linda is a teacher and plays the guitar in church programs.

Blankshain is responsible for selecting the equipment and contractors and securing the environmental and other permits necessary to build the new plant.

“It sounds like I’m doing a lot, but we have great support around us in terms of a good legal team and some environmental consultants and people like that,” he said.

Often, large industrial projects face environmental and community hurdles, but the Braidy plant has been welcomed by the community.

“Usually, you have to fight through different levels from cities to counties to the state to get your permits, and here, everybody has been helping us get through this process and stay on schedule.”

It’s been helpful that the region has a history of heavy industrial operations such as AK Steel and the Marathon refinery. Many people in the workforce are accustomed to these types of jobs and are eager to get back to work.

“It’s been a hard hit area, but it’s clear folks still have a lot of pride and they’re just good people to work with,” Blankshain said. “We hope we can be the economic engine to help rebuild the area and attract other companies here.”

The people of Kentucky, both locally and at the state level, have been welcoming to the Braidy team and made it possible to build the plant within a very short timeframe.

“Everybody we’ve met have been very nice and supportive,” he said. “They say, ‘How can we help and what can we do?’ It’s been pretty special for us.”