Jeff Marsh
0 A formative input to my make-up is fortuitous decision to be the grandson of Albert Marsh. My grandfather, a contemporary of Thomas Edison, has been called the "Father of Electric Heat." He invented the alloy Nichrome which is the electrical heating element, still of first choice, used in everything from toasters (the initial impetus) to very high temperature furnaces. His patents ranged from the electric toaster, electric stove, electric furnace, to the "J" thermocouple - some 13 in all. As a youth, our home was filled with this "Marsh Inquisitiveness" having ceramic, geological, chemical, electronic, mechanical, and lapidary laboratories (of very substantial size) simultaneously operating. From this experience, I developed the attitude, "If you could clearly state the question, you could accomplish almost anything."
1 My first employment was to take over a small firm where the president had died of a heart attack and the employees had raided the company taking trade secrets, the extensive customer list and cash to start their own company. In this company, I learned the old European work ethic, interacting with a newly encountered peer group - small business presidents, and learning all aspects of running a company. Although much junior to my business counterparts, I was often asked to consult on technical issues in their shops. As part of the turn-around of my company, I invented a unique hydraulic forging system with quick-change tooling. We inadvertently became the only shop in the world to turn to when the contractor, building the Canaveral Space Assembly Building, forgot to order the very unique bolts to hold the building down. I learned the value of creating a unique and defensible asset as well as the value of rapid change concepts early on in my career.
2 At Kelsey-Hayes, I took the beginning skid control program (now known as Anti-lock Braking System [ABS]) from the beginning prototypes to full 2 shift production hiring, training and managing all aspects of the organization building it into a full division. This was the first introduction of skid control to passenger cars. I later did the same for the truck industry. In this endeavor I also invented products and processes and was awarded my first patents. While at this company, I was called on to turn-around a failed plant start-up, which was attempting to supply the major OEM’s the three-way brake valve used on all cars.
3 Recruited from Kelsey, I was asked to develop the operations portion (Manufacturing/Engineering) of a newly emerging technology from the venerable leader of the traction control business. Their most famous product is known as the "Detroit Locker." In this assignment, I again became involved in technology development and wrote the seminal patent integrating traction control and skid control systems into a single system.
4 At Bendix, I was recruited to turn around their largest, and failing, manufacturing organization to professionally grow and keep pace with technology. Here I focused on personnel and project development but again was pulled into the technological aspects. I created the then world’s largest transfer press – in Osaka, Japan giving me my first experience in international development programs. I also was the Director of Mechanical Technologies for the Bendix Research Labs. This gave me my first experience managing a "gaggle" of PhD scientists – all before I even had an undergraduate degree. At the labs I developed Adaptive Cruise Control just now emerging in the marketplace. When a new development (the Bendix Supercharger) spun off out of the research labs started to founder, I was asked to step in and build the engineering directorate for the new division. We produced commercially acceptable concept cars that would meet future emissions and CAFÉ standards for all of the major OEM’s of the world. To accomplish this, the division had to build one of the leading vehicle laboratories in the world.
5 Recruited from Bendix by Carter Automotive to turn around their failing OEM side of the business. This effort required completely overhauling a large and obsolete engineering directorate, rebuilding the manufacturing and quality management team and turning around a failing plant that corporate had given up upon and was about to close. With the success of the turn-around, I also wound up running all manufacturing operations for the company (aftermarket and remanufacturing), which required restructuring the operating philosophies of their remanufacturing division. This assignment again caused me to deal with our overseas partners on a technical level – requiring extensive travel.
6 A victim of the Carl Icahn corporate raiding, I decided to finally build my own organization to continue to provide start-up and turnaround services to the small business community. At Marsh Technologies, Inc. (MTI), now focusing on manufacturing services, a wide number of start-up and diagnostic services were provided for small business as well as the investment community. A software development group was created that operates still today. That group developed comprehensive small business management systems that would today be classified as ERP systems. This group worked in the medical, psychiatric, restaurant, florist, human resources and legal professions providing total business solutions. Some of the software packages remain core to these companies even after 20 years of operation. MTI also was approached by a number of investors interested in bringing back a 40 year lost art of designing and manufacturing bait-casting fishing reels. Starting from scratch, MTI designed, developed and built a turnkey manufacturing operation for the client. The 100 per cent US made Ardent XS fishing reel was instrumental in Alton Jones’ winning the 2008 Bassmaster Classic. MTI was also contracted frequently in business plan development creating many airline business start-up models. A locally well-known result from the business consulting efforts was the original business plan for St. Louis Bread Company now known as Panera’s.
7 In 1998, while in a development alliance with a local inventor, Perfect Systems, LLC (PSLLC), was spun off to develop book manufacturing technologies and other developments for the publishing industry. PSLLC is the intellectual property holder for Marsh’s inventions in the publishing field. The main invention held by PSLLC is the Espresso BookMachine (see www.ondemandbooks.com). The Espresso BookMachine was one of Time’s 2007 inventions of the year as well as Readers Digest’s "33 great new ideas" of 2007. PSLLC has seven issued patents in the field with numerous others pending. Included are patents for ultrasonic bookbinding, a new glue application process and a new and novel ultra-small footprint 100 page per minute duplex laser printer. A consulting commitment to support further development was part of the licensing agreement, however, stemming from a vastly underestimated global launch and the resulting demand and stresses, the licensee has since recruited PSLLC to manage their R&D, Engineering, Manufacturing, develop the installation team, and develop a world-wide support organization.
8 Marsh Intellectual Properties, LLC (MIP) is a recent spin-off from MTI. MIP is mostly involved in helping entrepreneurs take their concepts into reality. Experienced in bringing a concept through all the stages of development including the business operations development, MIP works with companies/individuals in all stages of their businesses.
Jeffrey D. Marsh
Marsh Intellectual Properties, LLC (636) 332-6906
jmarsh@MarshIntProp.com
Major Programs
Brought passenger car Skid Control (ABS) from prototype stage to full production hiring and training all functions in the division – establishing the world’s first ABS manufacturing facility.
Brought truck Skid Control Systems (FMVSS-121) from R&D to full production. Wrote basic patents in Wheel Speed Sensing
Developed Electronic Traction Control Systems for both passenger car and trucks. Built concept vehicles in both passenger cars and trucks. Wrote the original integrating patent for ABS and Traction Control.
- Developed Positive Displacement Supercharging Systems for passenger cars. Created the entire divisional engineering organization. Built commercially acceptable, emissionized concept cars that met future CAFE requirements for all of the major OEMs.
Developed and patented the Perfect Systems series of short run book production equipment: PerfectBook, PerfectTrim, PerfectFinish and PerfectBind. Six basic concept patents have been allowed to date. Seven more in application. Developed a new high speed printer printing 100 duplex pages a minute in a 24" x 24" footprint – patent pending.
Brought back design and manufacture of Bait Casting Fishing reels to create a 100% made in the USA product. Totally new conceptual design in patent application. Created a new family of high performance lubricants.
Engineering
Experienced in R&D, product and manufacturing engineering. Established complete engineering organizations for two major automotives suppliers. Rebuilt an entrenched inflexible engineering directorate at a third. Established the engineering presentation standard at Bendix.
Manufacturing
Experienced in all phases of manufacturing including metalworking (tool & die, press work, hot metal forming, fabrication, heat treating, etc.), high and low volume assembly and test (automated and non-automated) and "clean room" quality creation of electronic, pneumatic and hydraulic products. Union & non-union environments.
Marketing
Experienced in creation of complete concept vehicles and marketing said concepts to major automotive and truck OEM's world-wide. Performed numerous market feasibility studies on a wide range of products and services. Recipient of the Outstanding Oral Presentation Award by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Information Systems
Developed the drug retail industry’s premier theft loss management software. Created state of the art image storage and retrieval system. Developed numerous business operating systems (financial and managerial). Created medical and psychiatric clinic management systems. Created one of the engineering industry’s leading classification and retrieval systems. Created an ‘electronic book’ both in CD and Web formats marketed by the Midwest’s premier Business Directory Publisher – Sorkins Directories. Created (patents pending) text to voice "Spoken Book" book production system.
"Hired Gun"
Called in by investment community to perform hands on turn-around management. Provided support in acquisitions & de-acquisitions to major and small corporations. Provided total services from concept thru initial production (including clinical testing) of a medical product for local investor group. Wrote numerous successful business plans. Utilized by a local leading patent firm as a consultant to their clients regarding problems in transitioning from concept to production. Provide "adjunct" services as financial consultant and strategic business information acquisition to a wide variety of businesses.
Teaching
Developed a new finance and accounting course for St. Louis Community College that reversed attendance to "standing room only" status. This course also came into corporate demand. Taught in fields of finance, personnel management, and business operations. FAA Certified Flight Instructor CFI-AIM
Education
Doctoral Studies in Organization and Management Capella University PhD expected Aug. 2010
- Doctoral Studies in Business Administration, NOVA University
- MBA, Advanced Management Program, Michigan State University
- BSEE with minor in Mechanical Engineering, Lawrence Institute of Technology
HomeArts + Life
Local inventor is key in printed books' future
By David Murray, Special to the Beacon Posted 2:15 p.m. Mon., Mar. 23 - Jeff Marsh, the St. Louis inventor of the first machine that's said to print and bind a book without human intervention, credits his creativity to his grandfather. Marsh has fond memories of the rambling Victorian house where he grew up in a Detroit suburb. Within that house, he said, “I’d walk past the ceramics lab, the electronics lab, the geology lab. We made all our own bullets for our private shooting range. Growing up in that house gave me the feeling that I could do anything.” Grandfather Albert Marsh was an important inventor of the early 20th century. In 1905, just eight years out of high school, Albert Marsh perfected the formula for an alloy called chromel (90 percent nickel, 10 percent chromium), the first alloy that could be made into stable heating elements.
That invention, along with later designs of electric furnaces, toasters, ovens, and modern stoves, earned Albert Marsh the title of “father of the electrical heating industry.”
Those of us who love the feel and smell of a printed book in our hands may well one day thank Jeff Marsh for preserving it in the digital future. His machine has made the cost and quality of even a single book, printed to order, indistinguishable from those in bookstores — if you supply the text pre-formatted.
Jeff, 66, has lived south of Wentzville for 24 years. There, he has followed his grandfather’s example, attaching a workshop and lab complex to his house. He holds six patents, with another immediately pending and four more in the works. He hopes to match his grandfather’s 14.
