SMW Autoblok Group, a leader in the design and manufacture of rotational chucks, stationary workholding, tooling, automation, and custom-engineered solutions for the machine tool industry, has appointed Larry Robbins as the company’s new President and CEO of their U.S. corporation.
Robbins started at the company in May of 2007 and was promoted to Eastern Regional Sales Manager less than a year later. As of 2019 Robbins has occupied the position of president of Autoblok’s commercial division, where he is responsible for all strategic sales and marketing initiatives as well as overseeing the company’s North America sales team. He also oversees various projects internationally. His new position as president and CEO of SMW Autoblok US was a long-anticipated appointment. Robbins has over 35 years of experience in machine tool manufacturing.
As background, Robbins’ father ran a machine tool distributorship when Robbins was young. He quickly became hooked into the business after working for his dad for a short period of time. He then accepted a sales position with a modular workholding company. When that business was sold, he started his own manufacturer’s rep business (for SMW Autoblok among others), where he also created customized tooling for a wide variety of machine tool applications.
By 2007, Robbins found his home with SMW Autoblok as a full-time employee and began to prove his broad capabilities and understanding of the machine tool industry. Even in his free time, Robbins talks about workholding equipment with friends he met through work, often stating that “his career is his passion.”
With Robbins’ leadership, SMW Autoblok will continue to lead in the evolution of the machine tool/metalworking industry, supporting all the latest developments in automation and the increased incorporation of Industry 4.0. Staying ahead of the competition is what maintains SMW Autoblok as one of the foremost companies in the workholding, clamping, gripping systems, and tooling solutions business.
