MUKILTEO, Wash., December 19, 2023—Approximately 500 employees, their families and guests, attended the annual Electroimpact MAC Christmas Party on December 9, featuring a breathtaking Christmas light display, photos with Santa, and numerous activities for kids.
Perched atop its main, 4-story building, a 50-foot, 180-pound Christmas tree shines above the Mukilteo skyline. For years, Electroimpact’s annual Christmas Party has displayed a light studded Christmas theme for the entire city to enjoy.
This year’s event was organized by Electroimpact employees Amanda Bogart and Kaitlyn Simester with Jeff Hino carrying on the tradition of Christmas lights and the Dancing Tree display. This doesn’t include the many hands-on deck that helped with setting up the large room where the event took place, and those responsible for providing food.
The 2,300-light (7,000 lumens) dancing Christmas Tree is a longstanding tradition based on an idea employee Jim Ellis had in 2019 for a Christmas display that would be “large” and impressive. He decided to make the site’s flagpole into a Christmas tree – which has evolved over the years to “dance.” The Dancing Christmas Tree joins Electroimpact’s annual Christmas light display which neighboring businesses have decided to join in on this season.
Electroimpact’s annual MAC event is named after former employee Mac McLendon, who hated how “serious” the workplace was, Electroimpact CEO Peter Zeive explained, and was always trying to lighten the mood by organizing uplifting events like wooden boat making.
One day, in 1992, McLendon came into the workshop to cook Christmas breakfast for everyone. Some people told him to get back to work be he just continued cooking breakfast saying, “it’s Christmas, I’m cooking breakfast,” stubbornly. The next year he did it again, however a year after that he unfortunately passed away from a stroke. At that time, now retired, Brett Huffer decided to continue the tradition McLendon started naming it in his honor.
Today, it has grown to a smorgasbord of food by four cooks, occasional serenading from Kamiak Barbershop Choir and this year a solo guitar performance. Event activities included photos with Santa; arts and crafts; a youth lab where kids have fun programming, designing and playing with robotics; and kids crane games.
“Matt McLendon didn’t like Electroimpact but it was the only job he could get,” Zieve joked.
During the event, Zieve gave a heartfelt presentation dedicated to all the employees that have passed since the company’s inception. Following this, Zieve announced the addition of a new building in the United Kingdom, UKHB2, which brings the total square footage of the facility to 400,000. Zieve also announced that profit sharing for employees totaling $5,740,552 that will be dispersed amongst paychecks. In total, Electroimpact has paid $167,510,149 in profit share to employees since it started in 1992.
Zieve further mentioned that one of the business’s concerns is a lack of sales from Boeing resulting in a drop of the company’s backlog from $130,084,373 in January 2023, to $98,957,138 in December of 2023.
United Airlines ordered 100 Boeing 787’s with 100 options and Emirates ordered 55 77-9’s this year. Thai Airlines, additionally, is gearing up to order 80 787’s. All these orders are unprecedented for Boeing with profits in the billions, Zieve noted. However, this doesn’t mean much for Electroimpact since Boeing dropped from 50-60% of the company’s business to about 10% in recent years.
Electroimpact is an international automation and tooling solutions aerospace supplier. Its customers include Airbus, Boeing, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fuji Heavy Industries, Spirit Aerospace, Vought, Northrop-Grumman, Israeli Aircraft Industries, Xi’an Aircraft of China, Bombardier and Embraer among others.
The aerospace and automation manufacturer is currently accepting full-time and part-time engineering interns at its Mukilteo location. Interns work closely alongside experienced engineers, actively contributing to both the design and assembly of the company’s cutting-edge equipment.
Globally, Electroimpacts employs approximately 500 people, with 80% of its workforce consisting of degreed engineers. It is a unique engineering firm, where engineers enjoy a significant degree of autonomy and vertical responsibility.
This year, in 2023, the company hired 71 new employees to its U.S. facilities (including interns) – 48 of which are still active, 13 new employees in France, and 14 in the United Kingdom.
“At Electroimpact, we continue to shape the future of engineering and aerospace innovation, offering exciting opportunities for both aspiring and experienced engineers alike,” said Doug Howell, Chief Operating Officer at Electroimpact.
Electroimpact also houses Mukilteo Robotics, a club that burst into the competitive scene last season, achieving multiple tournament victories and sending two out of four teams to state championships last year.
The two high schools that comprise Mukilteo Robotics, Kamiak High School and Mariner High School, simply didn’t have the capacity to host a robotics club that could support a competitive schedule. Electroimpact began allowing the club to meet and practice robotics on site. A supporter of the craft, the manufacturing company has since donated $70,000 to local robotics clubs within the last year.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
