Underwriters Laboratories CEO wins Chicago Alumni Award

6/18/2012 By Laura M. Schmitt

G. Thomas CastinoYou may not know Tom Castino, but his work touches your life every day. The mechanical engineering alumnus spent his career making everyday products safer for more than four decades while at Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL), where he eventually became president and CEO.

Written by By Laura M. Schmitt

 

G. Thomas Castino
G. Thomas Castino
G. Thomas Castino

You may not know Tom Castino, but his work touches your life every day. The mechanical engineering alumnus spent his career making everyday products safer for more than four decades while at Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL), where he eventually became president and CEO. On February 15, the University of Illinois Alumni Association and the Chicago Illini Club recognized Castino’s service by presenting him with the 2011 Chicago Illini of the Year Award.

 

UL is an independent product safety certification organization that tests products, conducts factory inspections where the products are made, and writes standards for safety. More than 25 billion products manufactured worldwide now carry the UL mark.

In his remarks after receiving the award, Castino explained just how important the University of Illinois has been to him. “Everything I am in my career is because of the university,” he said. “It changed everything for what my life was supposed to be.”

The son of an Italian-American merchant who sold laundry products in the Chicago area, Castino was destined to someday take over his father’s business with his brother. His dad suffered a stroke at the age of 50 and nearly died. “Even though he wasn’t speaking very well because of the stroke, my dad tearfully told me to go to college and be somebody,” Castino recalled.

Living at home to help with the business, Castino attended the University of Illinois at Navy Pier for 2-1/2 years and then transferred to the Urbana-Champaign campus where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1960. He accepted a job offer with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) as an assistant engineer in the company’s Chicago Fire Protection Department.

Early in his career at UL, Castino spent two years at the National Bureau of Standards, (now known as the National Institute for Standards and Technology) in Washington, DC, where he became an expert on the flammability of building materials and developed several fire tests for those materials, enhancing the safety of buildings.

As UL’s chief engineer in the early 1980s, Castino helped develop and promote methods for electronic safety signaling. The standards UL devised improved the effectiveness of products such as smoke detectors. Castino also managed the group that developed standards for the first carbon monoxide detectors.

Named UL’s president and chief executive officer in 1990, Castino embarked on what would become his biggest achievement at UL: globalizing the non-profit organization. During his 12-year tenure, Castino managed UL’s international growth from a single branch office in Hong Kong to 23 subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North and South America. This growth nearly doubled UL’s staff worldwide and more than doubled the number of UL marks placed on products.

“UL could better serve the United States and the world,” Castino said about the expansion. “I’m proud of the fact that we nationalized all the subsidiaries so, for the most part, the people running those facilities are from those countries.”

Castino also played a major role in the opening of a new U.S. facility in Camas, WA. This UL facility, which employs more than 200 people, specializes in the testing and certification of wire and cable and an array of equipment for the audio/visual, medical, and dental fields. To honor Castino when he retired in 2003, UL named the Camas facility for him.

Castino’s devotion to Illinois is evident in his service to the MechSE department. He and his wife Joan have supported an undergraduate scholarship in the MechSE department for nearly 20 years. A member of the MechSE Alumni Board, Castino helped negotiate and facilitate aspects of the merger between the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.

Castino said he’s compelled to give back because the university enabled him to succeed professionally. “Illinois rounds the whole person,” Castino said. “I learned to lead and communicate there.”

As proof, Castino recalled taking speech and rhetoric courses along with the advanced machine design course taught by Professor Dale Griffey. In that course, Castino worked with three fellow mechanical engineering students—including lifelong friend Cordell Reed—on designing and manufacturing various machine parts. At the end of the semester, Castino’s team had to present its product to the class. According to Castino, all four members of the design team went on to leadership roles with large organizations, including ComEd, Sargent & Lundy, and UL.

Castino is the second MechSE graduate to win the Chicago Illini of the Year award. Roger Plummer, president and CEO of Plummer & Associates Consulting, won in 2007. Among Castino’s other awards are the prestigious American National Standards Medal, the Hollis Award from the National Industry Defense Association, the Drake Award from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the Wherry Award from the Steel Door Institute, the Standards Engineering Society’s Leo Moore Medal, the 1997 University of Illinois Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award, and the 2003 Illinois College of Engineering’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service.


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This story was published June 18, 2012.