Trenton President Michael Bowling Stays on the Technological Forefront

Quick Bio

NAME: Michael Bowling
COMPANY: Trenton Systems
TITLE: President
BACKGROUND: Before becoming president, Bowling was the director of operations and chief operating officer at Trenton.

SCN: What is your position, and what does it entail? What are your responsibilities?

Michael Bowling: As president of Trenton Systems I oversee all facets of managing the computer products division, from defining new target markets and forming strategic vendor partnerships, to electrical and mechanical product development, production, marketing, finance, and crafting the overall company direction.

SCN: How has your background prepared you for your new role?

MB: Prior to moving into the position of president in 2011, I was the director of operations and chief operating officer at Trenton. This gave me a good overview of the day-to-day operations and an appreciation of every group within Trenton. Still, my roots are in engineering, where I initially worked in design and development (I was the primary author of the PICMG 1.3 specification). Trenton has always focused on engineering expertise, adding value, and creating best of breed products to serve our markets. In this regard my computer engineering and education background allows me to stay abreast of the ever-changing technology landscape in each of our market segments.

SCN: What are your short- and long-term goals?

MB: In the short term Trenton will be releasing a number of exciting products such as video wall controllers, storage systems, PCI Express expansion over cable, PCI Express 3.0 backplanes, and integrated system solutions based on the latest multi-core Xeon processors from Intel to name a few examples. In the long term Trenton will continue to push technology further and further while finding new ways in which to enhance our customer’s experience.

SCN: What is the greatest challenge that you face?

MB: I’m very proud of the unique engineering, sales, marketing, and production capability that Trenton has developed in Georgia, New York, and California. While overseas competition continues to challenge us with regard to commodity-type products, the greatest challenge Trenton faces is finding ways to exceed customer expectations, and that requires continuous innovation on the design and production side of the business. This additional value may reside in technology advancements, but could also come from enhanced service capabilities, responsiveness, or superior customer service.

SCN: Where do you see your market heading?

MB: Trenton has always developed solutions for different market segments, and as we continue to move up the value-chain my goal is to see Trenton understand these markets more thoroughly and to determine how we can best apply our technical talents to serve each of these markets. Marketing is the group that will help steer the company in this regard, as each market that we now address, from video processing to government and defense, medical and industrial automation, requires specific expertise and knowledge.

SCN: Are there new initiatives we are likely to see from Trenton?

MB: Trenton has worked with different divisions of Matrox for many years, and in 2010 we formed a new partnership with Matrox Graphics to create a comprehensive line of video wall controllers. Products from that collaboration began rolling out in 2011 and in 2012 we’ve been hard at work creating better software solutions, employing cost-effective methods of providing output for four to eight HD screens and expanding our video wall controller product line to drive up to 64 HD screens with Matrox Mura cards which take full advantage of x16 PCI Express Gen 2 technology.

Chuck Ansbacher is the managing editor of SCN.