Expanding Horizons: Microboard's Growth Strategy and Cultural Values, with Owner and CEO Nicole Russo

How does a manufacturing company double in size with limited workforce availability? What role will AI play in the future of electronics manufacturing? Nicole Russo from Microboard provides powerful insights into these questions and more during our conversation at APEX 2025.

Looking to establish their second manufacturing site, potentially in the western United States, Microboard stands at an exciting crossroads. Having already doubled their business over the past six years, they're strategically planning to repeat this achievement by 2028. Nicole candidly shares their approach to expansion, weighing the benefits of greenfield development against acquisition or partnership models, while emphasizing their unwavering commitment to remaining family-owned despite frequent private equity overtures.

What truly separates Microboard is their dual mission of building cutting-edge technology while helping those living on less than a dollar a day. "There's no U-Haul behind your hearse—you've got to live your legacy while you're alive," explains Nicole, highlighting how this purpose-driven approach energizes their team and shapes their business decisions. We explore their commitment to workforce diversity, including their neurodiversity initiative which, while challenging, reaffirms their belief that "everyone deserves a good job."

The conversation addresses artificial intelligence not as a buzzword but as an essential business imperative. "AI has to start to show up in profit... if you're not thinking that way, you're behind already," warns Nicole. With defense sector strength continuing and other markets awaiting clarity on tariffs and economic conditions, Microboard remains focused on technological advancement—even working with components so rare that only 100 exist worldwide. This fascinating discussion offers valuable insights for manufacturing leaders navigating similar growth and technology challenges.

EMS@C-Level Live at APEX is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Creative Electron (https://creativeelectron.com)

EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.

Transcript

Philip Stoten 0:08

Hello, I'm Philip Sotin. I am at Apex 2025. I'm on the Koyang booth and I'm joined by Nicole Rosso from Microboard. Nicole, pleasure to see you again. Thank you, Philip. How have you been? How did you enjoy the Leadership Summit?

Nicole Russo 0:21

Well, thank you for having me first of all, and I enjoyed this last year as well, so it's great to be back. The Leadership Summit was excellent, headlined by Audrey McGuckin and Catherine, and we do use them as strategy consultants, so it was great to see them in action with the crowd.

Philip Stoten 0:35

And then I thought it was very well attended, a little better than last year's attendance, some real value-added discussions in the room, so we found benefit from it yesterday, yeah, and it was interesting, I thought, to see some of the larger European manufacturers that do have a small footprint here but are predominantly European actually participating, and I think hearing what they've got to say when you're workshopping and stuff I think you know, gives you a little bit of extra value.

Nicole Russo 0:58

Yeah, the panel was excellent between kind of a smaller, mid and larger size EMS strategy and discussion.

Philip Stoten 1:04

Yeah, one of the panels you had, I think, with Mark and Chintan and probably Timon, I think, from Luminovo, was on the use of AI. Was that something that a lot of people were talking about? Is that something that people like yourself are asking questions about learning about as quickly as you can?

Nicole Russo 1:25

Well, I'll tell you, there's seven of us here at the show from Microboard. This year we're looking to establish a second site. We can talk a little bit more about that, but my main goal here is AI. It is the future. We all know that If we're not understanding how this equipment can harness data and help autocorrect and give us enhancements, shame on us. Can harness data and help autocorrect and give us enhancements.

Nicole Russo 1:46

shame on us. And so many of these vendors, in my view, provide very similar attributes in their equipment the data and the AI, and AI has to start to show up in profit. It has to, and if you're not thinking that way, I think you're behind already. So I'm really every discussion I'm having is AI and data and I know it's a big word and people don't know how to interpret it, but we're just trying to boil it down to give us simple use cases.

Philip Stoten 2:08

Yeah, how are you using it? How are you getting return on investment? What are the KPIs you should be looking for? Did you listen to the keynote this morning from?

Nicole Russo 2:18

You know I missed it, we were double-tasking. We were out in the supplier this morning for one of our large DODs.

Philip Stoten 2:23

That was interesting and you know it was very evangelic. On the AI side, and you know I use it a lot I would say it's been a 5x productivity boost for what we do in terms of content generation. My view is that if we can create a great story, like we have a great conversation today, I can then leverage AI to get that out in multiple languages, different formats and do a whole bunch with it. So the idea of using AI as that amplifier of talent, I think is really important and I think that's part of what the EMS industry is looking for it to do. How does AI live alongside the great team you already have?

Nicole Russo 3:06

Yeah, well, and I'm looking at it from the aspect of workforce availability. As we know, we're an aging population. We're trying to hang on to our retirees. We're not getting enough entrance into this industry. And so, for example, connecticut's growing our GDP mostly through Aerospace Alley, but our manufacturing employee base is shrinking.

Nicole Russo 3:25

The way we're doing that is automation and so tackling and putting AI on top of that and there's a diminishing return. At some point you have to have people, obviously, but how does it marry together? For the continued growth of all of our companies, it's critical.

Philip Stoten 3:39

Yeah, and how do you double the size of your company when you can probably only recruit maybe 10%, 15% more people?

Nicole Russo 3:44

That's right, and we're all fighting over the same people which is the other thing that's really scary.

Microboard's Expansion Plans

Philip Stoten 3:49

So then you've got to think about retaining talent and all that important stuff. So, just going back to what you said earlier expansion you're looking to double in size, or just a different?

Nicole Russo 3:59

Yeah, so in the last six years we've doubled the size of the business and we would like our plan is to do that again by 2028. We have two of our largest customers asking us to open in the West. I have to stop ignoring them and really put that to work. So we've got a couple of things going on and getting down to some finalist options. And we'll be doing something in the next 18 to 24 months maximum.

Philip Stoten 4:21

Yeah, so you have choices. You acquire, you build something, you expand where you are.

Nicole Russo 4:29

Yeah, there's a couple of options. I mean one, greenfielding is obviously going to culturally align with us the best, but where do you get the employees? And acquisition, what talent's there? If there's a good pool of engineers and customers, that makes sense. The cultural thing we'll have to. And then there's a good pool of engineers and customers. That make sense. The cultural thing will have to. And then there's a focus factory concept. Can we stand ourselves up within somebody else's already established factory?

Nicole Russo 4:49

So we're looking at all three of those options. They're all very much alive as good opportunities right now.

Philip Stoten 4:54

Yeah, and I think the key, if you do go down the acquisition route, is that cultural fit, Because I've always felt Microboard had a bit of a bit of a special, unique culture and I think certainly to you that's really important.

Family-Owned Culture and Values

Nicole Russo 5:06

We do. I mean, we're a 41-year family-owned firm. We've got the humanitarian piece. That's really critical to us. We are not going to be private equity owned, although we're asked all the time I could easily expand the business with all that capital. That's not what we're trying to do. We're smart owner-operators. We can expand it at the rate we want to, while staying a family-owned firm. I really want to know all 200 employees.

Philip Stoten 5:29

I have, yeah, and you have a higher mission than just assembling components on boards, and I think that's fantastic. But you've got to maintain that and you've got to fiercely defend that part of your business culture.

Nicole Russo 5:45

We do Absolutely the humanitarian piece that we always said. We want to build the most leading edge technology in the world, which we are, while helping those least fortunate making less than a dollar a day. It's a really fun way to jump out of bed every morning to go to work and it just we're. We say there's no U-Haul behind your hearse, you've got to live your legacy while you're alive. And we're taking the third generation through that now as they come up to the ranks, so we do have to fiercely protect it.

Market Sectors and Growth Drivers

Philip Stoten 6:07

We're proud of it. You're obviously growing in terms of customer demand. Do you put that down to the market sectors you're in? Do you put it down to the specific mix of customers?

Nicole Russo 6:22

Yeah, well, there's no doubt defense is strong. We heard that yesterday. We keep hearing that. I think it will continue to be strong. The technological warfighter has to be, supported the other pockets industrial, medical. Those pockets are in a bit of a change, I think, as far as people are stalling out a little bit on. What's this economy going to do? What are the tariffs going to do? But we see the technology advancing so fast.

Nicole Russo 6:44

We have a telecom customer that is building bleeding edge cards with only 100 of these chips released in the world that we have in our factory. So that's the kind of stuff we're super excited about in the future. So a little pause in those industries is expected right now. We believe that demand will come back gangbusters once the tariffs and everything are kind of settled in. Is it clarity in those industries as expected right now, we believe? That demand will come back gangbusters once the tariffs and everything are kind of settled in.

Philip Stoten 7:06

Is it clarity, is it a particular tariff outcome that you, as a leader, are looking for, or is it just a stable, clarified situation From?

Nicole Russo 7:14

all the business leaders that I've worked with and are hearing it's stability we need to just understand where this is all gonna end up so we can plan we can start investing in our businesses and make sure that the pockets of business that we're going after are strong enough to support it going forward.

Neurodiversity Initiative Progress

Philip Stoten 7:29

And last time we spoke we talked a little bit about you expanding the talent pool, working with neurodiverse people. How's that gone over the last 12 months?

Nicole Russo 7:37

I have to say, phil, it's been a harder discussion and process than we thought because there's obviously a wide spectrum there of folks. We've engaged a firm that's been helping us and I think in some cases we've been very successful.

Philip Stoten 7:50

In other cases it's been a little harder than we thought, my heart just goes out and says hey, everyone deserves a good job Everyone.

Nicole Russo 7:59

So it's not easy. We're moving through it and we're staying committed to it.

Philip Stoten 8:03

Yeah, these things aren't easy, but the outcome's worthwhile, isn't it? Well, and we?

Nicole Russo 8:09

have a saying that if it was easy, everybody would do it.

Philip Stoten 8:10

Yeah, absolutely so the high return.

Nicole Russo 8:12

Things are never easy, and so we're going to stay at it.

Philip Stoten 8:15

Yeah, and the work you do, the products you manufacture. They're not the easiest ones, they're some of the tougher ones, and that's where you're able to add the most value.

Nicole Russo 8:24

That's right.

Philip Stoten 8:26

Good stuff, Nicole.

Nicole Russo 8:27

Pleasure to talk to you again, always great.

Philip Stoten 8:28

As always, we'll chat again, at least next year, hopefully before.

Nicole Russo 8:32

Absolutely and please come see us.

Philip Stoten 8:33

Yeah, I will come see you, thanks, so much All right.