PBN 2023 Business Women Awards
TECHNICAL SERVICES INDUSTRY LEADER: Kelly Mendell | MIKEL Inc. president
MIKEL INC. PRESIDENT Kelly Mendell was inspired to pursue a career in engineering in the 1990s, long before there was a concerted effort to encourage young girls to go into science, technology, engineering and math careers that exist today.
Having a supportive father certainly helped. “He was my mentor, and he has always encouraged me to stick with things that are challenging,” Mendell said.
Before becoming the leader of the military innovative solutions provider, Mendell worked alongside her dad, Brian Guimond, who founded the company in 1999. Guimond was previously a tactical analysis director for the U.S. Navy’s underwater fleet in Pearl Harbor. Guimond developed MIKEL’s proprietary SystAdmon, Audit, Network and Security technology after seeing the technological shortcomings of submarines’ ability to precisely navigate underwater terrain while submerged.
“I started working with my dad about 20 years ago, right around the time when my daughter was born,” Mendell said. “I had engineering and business degrees, so it was a good match. When I first started out, he just took me everywhere we went and introduced me to everyone. That really helped. Gradually, over time, he started giving me more authority.”
When Mendell was studying engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the early 1990s, there were not many female engineers to look up to, she says. Even though Mendell is busy with both her family and long days at the office, she makes an effort to support other women looking to go into science. Whenever possible, she goes back to UMass Amherst to speak with current engineering students.
“Getting to know some of the young women and encouraging them is the most rewarding thing,” she said. “I wish I could do more, and maybe someday I will be in a position to do that. It’s a huge need.”
Today, the company, which has an office in Middletown and a manufacturing facility in Fall River, continues to provide innovative underwater engineering and communication technologies, primarily for Navy submarines.
“The work we do for the Navy is incredibly meaningful to us,” Mendell said. “They’re doing dangerous, important work.”
She likens MIKEL’s SANS technology to a GPS on a car. Mendell says it is a navigation and communication capability that enhances the submarine’s ability to conduct missions, basically to avoid collisions and to know where they are in the world.
“We are playing a small role in providing that capability to the submarine fleet and hopefully that will continue to grow,” Mendell said.
Since taking the helm, Mendell has grown the company significantly. It currently has more than 230 employees and generates more than $35 million in revenue annually.
“Kelly has grown our engineering service function 20-fold and helped pave the way to providing the necessary strategic, financial and operational resources to initiate and continue the development of the next-generation submerged acoustic tactical navigation and communication systems,” MIKEL Chief Financial Officer Craig Cameron said.
When asked about some of her proudest moments, Mendell says it is seeing success, whether that’s winning an important contract, or being able to provide the fleet with a technology that it didn’t have before. She adds that this summer MIKEL will demonstrate a new underwater communications capability.
“Should that work, which we are confident that it will, it will be a very proud moment because we’ll be able to provide something that they don’t yet have and that they need,” she said. “It will allow submarines to communicate to each other underwater without having to come to the surface. When they come to the surface, they give their position away. With everything they do, they want to be quiet and unseen.”
The traits that have helped her succeed, Mendell says, include refusing to give up and leading by example.
“When the going gets tough, I roll up my sleeves and get in there,” she said. “If we have something with a deadline, I’m definitely inserting myself to help get it over the goal line.”
