Jacob Makola Joins EDGE Industrial Technologies as Director, Global Supply Chain Matt Church Joins Leverwood Knife Works as Plant Manager
- Published: April 15, 2025
Jacob Makola has been hired as Director, Global Supply Chain at EDGE Industrial Technologies (EDGE), a leading global producer of industrial machine knives and blades, punches, and related equipment. This newly created position will help strengthen the supply side of all EDGE businesses, from raw materials through third-party sourcing and freight movement.
“Jacob is a results- and data-driven change leader with impressive skills in materials and operations management, data analytics and visualization, process improvement, and more,” said Jake Sims, VP of Product Management at EDGE. “All this, along with his passion for leadership, coaching and mentorship will be incredibly valuable to EDGE operations and team members.”
In this role, Makola will be responsible for creating and driving a cohesive global supply chain strategy that aligns best-in-class sourcing, procurement, and logistics practices across EDGE’s manufacturing and distribution facilities. Reporting to Sims, Makola also will lead the company’s efforts to leverage automation and artificial intelligence across all processes. He also will provide key leadership for value creation, leveraging automation and artificial intelligence across all business processes.
Makola brings seven years of manufacturing leadership and supply chain experience to his new role. Most recently, he was Operations Manager for L3Harris Technologies, a solutions provider to the defense and space industries. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Production and Inventory Management Certificate from the Association for Supply Chain Management. When he’s not working Makola practices Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, plays competitive billiards, and spends time outdoors. He lives with his partner and two dogs in Rochester, New York, and will work out of the Pearl Technologies Inc. (an EDGE brand) office in Savannah, New York.
Matt Church has been hired as Plant Manager at Leverwood Knife Works, (Leverwood), a leader in custom, precision-ground industrial blades and brand of EDGE Industrial Technologies.
“We’re thrilled to have Matt join our team, bringing a decade of experience in manufacturing leadership positions and the skills and discipline garnered from a military career,” said Josh Slagle, CEO, EDGE Industrial Technologies. “He brings a strong background in operational leadership, a passion for delivery customer solutions, and a solid foundation in lean operations, all of which will help Leverwood and EDGE achieve our ‘true north’ objectives.”
In this role, Church will be responsible for Leverwood’s operations and engineering functions and will report to Slagle. He will leverage nearly 20 years of experience, including 10 years dedicated to lean manufacturing principles to help optimize the company’s production key performance indicators.
Prior to joining Leverwood, Church spent 10 years at BLOOM Energy, advancing to various manufacturing roles with increased responsibility during that time. Prior to that, he was a member of the 485th Engineering Battalion of the U.S. Army, where he obtained security clearance, maintained weapons logs and inventories, assisted in soldier weapons qualifications, and received several awards and honors for his achievements. An avid outdoorsman, Church resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife and son.
