ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Thomas Cothrun is the Founder and Owner of Cothrun Manufacturing LLC, a small-scale precision machining fabrication shop, located in Flagstaff, AZ. Before starting his company, he taught engineering students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) how to design and manufacture for 11 years, he lead firearm design, development and custom fabrication with Reeder Custom Guns for 7 years, as well as 8 seasons of being a wildland firefighter, where he was an ignition specialist, firefighter, sawyer, squad boss and heavy equipment boss. He has designed and manufactured tools used to this day for falling of high-risk trees, deploying firefighting gear, and fire suppression hose lays. In his professional career in the manufacturing world, Thomas designed and manufactured components and assemblies for companies such as Raytheon, Boeing, General, Dynamics, Gore and Orbital ATK, as well as research equipment used in cutting edge research projects at NAU, ASU, and Sandia Research Labs in New Mexico.