GEA employees recognized for patent efforts.

Recently during Engineers Week, hundreds of employees at GE Appliances (GEA) were recognized for their patent efforts – from the 58 engineers who filed their first patent application, such as Rebecca Heintz and Sarah Morris, to seasoned inventors, like Paul Cadima, with more than 75 patents to his credit.

Patent applications filed with the U.S. patent office must complete a review to ensure the technology is novel and patentable. After the review and approval, the patent is officially granted.

"Each technology we create is a building block for the future and fuels business growth,” said Vice President of Technology Kevin Mazzella.

A new recognition category was established for GEA engineers with more than 50 patents - the Patent Hall of Fame! Five engineers were recognized for achieving this tremendous milestone:

Equally as important as recognizing seasoned engineers is building the talent pipeline of new and mid-career inventors at GEA. 

“As we grow our business and develop new products that meet our consumers’ changing needs, that means developing our talent pipeline through training, hackathons, and other experiences,” Mazzella said. “We want to keep people engaged and passionate about finding a better way that will ultimately lead to innovation and patent development. We had another tremendous response this year from our team who did an amazing job.”

EMPLOYEES WHO FILED THEIR FIRST PATENTS:

• Olivia Alford
• Elaine Arens
• Michael Basley
• Michael Blackwood
• Cassandra Brady
• Kyle Brandewie
• Quinton Burns
• Jonah Connelly
• Rose Connelly
• Rocco Cordaro
• Collin Dietz
• Byron Dollar
• Logan Dunaway
• Gary Elder
• Megan Etgen
• Cody Ewing
• Andrew Garstkiewicz
• Rory Gillman
• Tanner Gunn
• Kira Hartlage
• Sarah Heiniger
• Rebecca Heintz
• Matthew Hendrix
• Austin Horn
• Juan Huerta
• Suzanne Krueger
• David Langner
• Hoyoung Lee
• Eric Lewis
• Xuanjun Li
• Bobby Lee Lindsey
• Christopher McClure
• Blake Meade
• Eric Meyerholtz
• Grant Miller
• Sarah Morris
• Jeffrey Morriston
• Ryan Newquist
• Youngjin Oh
• Tal Ohayon
• Ju Chan Park
• Stannard Phelps
• Cody Ratchford
• Joshua Reeves
• Jose Rodriguez
• Mark Rondina
• Jason Rowe
• Herbert Sabelhaus
• Mark Shah
• Weston Spalding
• Erik Stennis
• Zhongyang Sun
• Yinyin Wright
• Jin Wu
• AiSong Yang
• Andre Zdanow
• David Zhou
• Wei Zhou

EMPLOYEES WHO FILED THEIR 10TH PATENT:

• Kyle Brewer
• Alan Constance
• FikreAdam Damtew
• Michelle Gross
• Mark Heimerdinger
• Gregory Hutchison
• Khalid Mashal
• Dong Soo Shin
• Rebekah Tyler

EMPLOYEES WHO FILED THEIR 20TH PATENT:

• Stephen Hettinger
• Craig Curtis
• Richard DeVos
• Tomas Garces
• Ryan Leonard
• Craig Tsai
• Shaun Ward
• Troy Wright

GE Appliances also recognized employees for issued patents.

FOR EMPLOYEES WITH FIVE ISSUED PATENTS:

• Bryan DSouza
• Michael Funk
• Tomas Garces
• Paul Goodjohn
• Jeffrey Kern
• Joseph Latham
• Jianwu Li
• Benjamin Maddux
• Adam Mora
• Daniel Renz

FOR EMPLOYEES WITH 10 ISSUED PATENTS:

• Wilber Bewley
• Craig Curtis
• Adam Hofmann
• Stephanos Kyriacou
• Chris Naber
• Hans Paller
• Michael Ekbundit
• Ryan Leonard
• Troy Wright

FOR EMPLOYEES WITH 15 ISSUED PATENTS:

• Justin Brown
• David Dunn
• Ben Miller
• Louis Wantland

FOR EMPLOYEES WITH 20 ISSUED PATENTS:

• Justin Brown
• Gregory Chernov
• Samuel DuPlessis
• Kyle Durham
• Eric Scott Johnson
• Bart Nuss
• Quentin Pollett
• Richard Suel
• Ramasamy Thiyagarajan
• Duane Tobbe

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for more news and updates from GE Appliances.