Charlie Hushek began an internship at Phoenix Heat Treating in 2013 in shipping and receiving and inspection. In 2016, Charlie graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Construction Management and began his progression through many different leadership roles at Phoenix Heat Treating. The first was as the lead scheduler and second shift supervisor. In this position, Charlie improved furnace utilization and supported the departmental leads. He then became the first shift production supervisor and swiftly moved into the position of program manager/customer service. In the 10 months in this position, Charlie was able to roll out a new plant wide ERP system.

Charlie continues to support the Phoenix team and many customers in his current role as the general manager. One of his significant accomplishments was making Phoenix Heat Treating paperless. With Charlie as general manager, the only piece of paper the team receives is a process summary used to maintain aerospace part identification. This single piece of paper does not have any recipes or processing information; it is simply used to identify orders. At Phoenix Heat Treating, every employee now uses an iPad to log in and out of operations, take pictures of loads, and view process requirements.

While still remaining paperless, Charlie helped to manage the upgrade of Phoenix's quality system to be AS9100 compliant. All process specifications, daily hardness verifications, various calibrations, and training records are electronic. Charlie is also proud of Phoenix's paperless pyrometry and maintenance systems, which leverage Bluestreak and C3 Data support. As general manager, Charlie has aligned various teams to help them do the right work, in the right order, at the right time. Charlie adopted the MIND Methodology at Phoenix Heat Treating, helping workers to focus on the most important number and creating a tremendous positive impact on daily operations. Charlie demonstrates excellent management skills and communication capabilities in leading heat treating teams and ordering communications between clients and with employees. He is a clear leader who works to advance Phoenix Heat Treating's vision.