Meet The Trainers

Rod Erickson

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services Eden Prairie, MN

Rod began his career with Eaton Corporation in 1988 as a machinist. He spent five years in the Eden Prairie manufacturing plant operating various machines on the steering and motor lines.

In 1993, Rod moved to the position of Sales Coordinator where he handled numerous distributor accounts in North America. His primary responsibility was to field questions about pricing, delivery, servicing, applying and selling Eaton products.

Rod was promoted to the position of Service Account Manager in 1996. While in this position he resolved warranty issues and conducted field service and repair work for distributors and OEM's.

In 1998 Rod was promoted to the position of Training Instructor. He is responsible for teaching a number of different technology and Eaton product courses. He also works with the rest of the training team editing and updating Eaton textbooks and the training curriculum for external and internal use. He is currently a Senior Training Instructor.

He holds a BS degree in Industrial Technology Education from Valley City State University of North Dakota. His continuing education includes Vickers hydraulic training classes and a number of hydraulic courses from Hennepin Technical College. He has attended numerous other classes and seminars on hydraulics and he is a FPS Certified Hydraulic Specialist, FPS Certified Mobile Mechanic and FPS Certified Hydraulic Instructor

Rod's interests include all water sports, golf, fishing, skiing and traveling.

Gary Klingshirn

Eaton Hydraulic Training Services Maumee, OH

Gary began his career with Eaton in 1981 joining the Aeroquip Industrial Division in Van Wert, Ohio as a draftsman. In this role he was responsible for preparing prints for manufacturing. In 1984 he was promoted into the Application Engineering group where his primary responsibility was identifying customer drawings on hydraulic hose, fittings and tube assemblies to utilize Aeroquip Products. In 1988 he moved into the Marine and Military group where he was responsible for reviewing government contracts and drawing requirements. 

In 1993 Gary was promoted to the Aeroquip Coupling Business Unit and co-designed what is known today as the "Call Center". The Call Center is responsible for handling all technical questions pertaining to the Fluid Conveyance product line.

Gary joined the training department in late 1997 as a Training Specialist. Today he provides training and technical support by instructing the following courses: Aeroquip and Weatherhead Fluid Conveyance and Product Specialist Application Certification Schools, Aeroquip Navy Flex Hose School training for U.S. Navy personnel along with Aeroquip distributors, Vickers and Hydro-Line brand product overviews and Basic Hydraulics.

Gary and his wife Lisa reside in Lima, Ohio. In his spare time he enjoys golf, fishing, landscaping and traveling.

David Riggenbach

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services Maumee, OH

Dave joined the Eaton organization in February 2007 as the training coordinator. Before joining Eaton he was the area sales manager for 2 B Mobile, a Verizon Wireless authorized agent, overseeing 8 retail locations in Southeast Michigan and Northwest OH. Currently, he works as the marketing analyst for the training department with responsibility of strategic pricing, product development, marketing and sales of training product line and overseeing various logistics for the department.

Dave is a native to Ohio born in Van Wert, OH. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Integrated Mathematics. He will be receiving
his MBA from Bowling Green State University as well in 2012.

Dave enjoys spending time outside with family and friends. He enjoys water skiing, swimming and actively plays on basketball, football and golf leagues. He enjoyes watching THE Ohio State Buckeyes football team beat "that team up north."

GO BUCKS!!!

Rachel Tranberry

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services Eden Prairie, MN

Rachel began her career with Eaton in 2000 in Hydraulics Operations - Customer Support. She joined Training Services 2005 as an Instructor and transitioned to communications specialist fall 2007. Currently she's responsible for on-line training content development and eLearning deployment as well as marketing training services. 

Rachel's professional background includes multimedia production for radio and television broadcast. In 1996 she received her Bachelor's Degree from the University of Minnesota, Major in Political Science and a Minor in French. She took advantage of a great program during college to study through the Semester Program at American University in Washington, D.C. and intern with a non-government organization, The Center for Democracy in our nation's capital.

Her hobbies include watching movies, trying new restaurants, game nights with friends, traveling to Northern Minnesota - Lake Superior Region and abroad. Most memorable trips include a recent trip to China and week to ten-day long sailing trips on Lake Superior, British Virgin Islands, where she earned her bare-boat charter certification. She currently lives with her husband Jeff and dog, "The Todd" a Rat Terrier, in South Minneapolis where they enjoy ventures to downtown hot spots and exploring the city's many lakes.

Christopher Jeffery

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services Maumee, OH

Christopher began his career with Eaton in 1993 with the Aeroquip Industrial Division as a customer service representative in Maumee, OH. He spent over two years working with distributors in Canada and the USA. 

In 1996, Christopher was promoted to Export Sales where he worked with distributors in Central and South America as well as Aeroquip facilities worldwide.

In 1997, Christopher moved to Training Services where he provided training and technical support by instructing Eaton’s fluid conveyance product courses on the Aeroquip, Boston, Everflex, Synflex and Weatherhead product lines.

In 2008, Christopher accepted a position in sales for Eaton as a Retail Aftermarket Account Manager based in Olympia, Washington. He called on Eaton’s distributors in the retail market focusing on the Weatherhead product line. Christopher returned to the Eaton Training Services in 2009 as a Senior Training Specialist based at the Eaton Training Center in Maumee, OH.

Christopher holds a bachelors degree from The Ohio State University and is fluent in French. He has primary responsibility for course development and instruction of the product training classes conducted in French in Quebec, Canada. He has also continued his language studies in Spanish and has participated in the product training courses held in Mexico and South America.

He lives in the Perrysburg, Ohio area and enjoys playing racquetball, swimming and traveling.

Ken Dulinski

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services, Southfield, MI

Ken Dulinski is a Senior Training Instructor for Eaton Fluid Power Training, reporting to Tom Blansett, Manager of Training for Eaton Fluid Power Division.

With responsibility for upgrading the Electrohydraulics 1 and 2 course offerings, writing the Proportional Valves and Servo Valves courses, Mr. Dulinski will be assisting the training team with curriculum review of all of the currently offered courses and the development of new courses for the Training Group. He has taught classes in Industrial Hydraulics, Systemic Contamination, Troubleshooting, Cartridge Valves and Electrohydraulics at the training centers in Maumee, Ohio and Eden Prairie, Minnesota and at customer facilities worldwide. New courses being added for 2008 will include eFX / Control FX, and Ultronics classes to be held in both facilities. Current responsibilities include the redesign, and coordination of the building and delivery of all of our hydraulic and pneumatic training simulators to customers all over the world. 

Mr. Dulinski joined Eaton from the Parker Group Inc. in November 2000, where he was most recently Manager of Engineering. In his career at the Parker Group, Mr. Dulinski was responsible for the design and fabrication of testing simulators which were used to verify that a piece of repaired equipment was functional before returning to the customer. Mr. Dulinski was responsible for setting up the ISO test equipment calibration program which was necessary to achieve their ISO 9002 registration in 2000 and created the in-house technician training program to improve the skills of their technician base, and to train the sales staff at the Parker Group on all aspects of the Industrial Electronic Repair business in order to respond to their customers’ needs.

Mr. Dulinski has also served as an adjunct instructor at Macomb Community College for fifteen years teaching electronic troubleshooting and Industrial Electronics. Previously Mr. Dulinski was a technician in the Industrial and Marine Electronics field installing and repairing equipment on all sized boats.

Holding associate degrees in electronic engineering and electronic service from the Macomb Community College in Michigan and a Bachelors Degree in Computer Information Systems from St. Leo University in Florida, Mr. Dulinski is certified by the Fluid Power Society as an Accredited Instructor, Accredited Job Performance Proctor, Industrial and Mobile Hydraulic Mechanic and Industrial and Mobile Hydraulic technician, and Hydraulics Specialist

Paul Mcgavin

Eaton Hydraulics Training Services Maumee, OH

Paul’s career with Eaton Corporation began in 1979 as part of the Eaton Intern program and later that year he accepted a permanent position in the newly acquired Synflex group as a manufacturing engineer.

Paul remained with the Synflex group when it was sold in 1987 and over the years held positions in Manufacturing, Engineering, Sales and Marketing. His most resent position with the Synflex group was Applications Engineering Manager where among other responsibilities he managed the development of training programs for employees and customers.

In January 2007, Paul joined Eaton Fluid Power Training in Maumee, OH as Training Specialist where he teaches employees and customers on the fluid conveyance product lines.

Paul holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Michigan and a master’s degree in business from The University of Dayton. He relocated to the Maumee, Ohio area from Stow, Ohio and enjoys most sports - especially golf and tennis, and practices Tai Chi daily.