People

Sonic Corp prides itself on the longevity of its personnel and staff. The majority of people have been here between 12 and 30 years.

Bill Brakeman, previous owner since 1973, has been with the company for over 40 years. Sonic Corp has cultivated highly skilled and dedicated personnel to be consistent with our core mission of establishing long-term relationships with large companies that expect high quality craftsmanship, flexibility and customization of the equipment in which they are investing.

Robert Brakeman

Rob Brakeman is the current Owner/Director of Sonic Corp. Rob graduated from Gettysburg College in 1991 and joined the company that summer. His educational background is in business management. Between on-hand experience and a variety of course studies, Rob has amassed engineering knowledge relating to PD pumps, valves, piping systems, process flow, instrumentation and controls. Having spent the past 25 years in and out of large manufacturing sites within companies like Unilever, P&G, DuPont, Dow and more, Rob understands liquid processing and the components and infrastructure that make it all possible. This extensive knowledge and experience means Sonic can design and custom fabricate a large range of pumping skids, homogenizer systems and in-line blending systems that suit your factory needs and, most importantly, solve your process issues to reduce labor costs, improve mixing cycle times and improve product quality.

Petra Ortiz and Linda Diker

Petra Ortiz has been with Sonic for over 20 years and manages daily activities ranging from A/P, A/R, Mixers and Parts Sales, international shipping and freight logistics and much more. Petra is bilingual, speaking Spanish and English fluently. She, perhaps more than anyone we have, represents our commitment to customer support! She’ll hustle to get all of our customers exactly what they need in a timely manner. Over the years, she has become very well versed in our inventory and all manner of components typically installed on every system. This means she understands how to get replacements in emergency situations to keep you up and running.

Linda Diker has been with Sonic for over 15 years and helps with procurement, A/P and many other administrative tasks. She is versatile and extremely helpful to our customers and vendors alike. Linda provides great support for our customers and vendors alike, making sure things move efficiently and nothing slips through the cracks.

Jim Conroy

Jim Conroy is our Technical Sales Manager.  Jim graduated with a degree in Economics from Penn State and went on to complete his MBA at Fairfield University. He has been with Sonic for just about 15 years and has spent his early years in the trenches learning about our various technologies and gaining a deep understanding of process systems, homogenizers, colloid mills and more.  He works continuously with customers in our process lab to assess your applications’ suitability to various equipment offerings. Jim is quite flexible and usually goes that extra mile to help out. He’s been known to pick up international customers at the airport or train station on Sunday afternoons, take them to dinner and pick them up again Monday morning to run several days worth of trials. Jim has also become confident in performing on site system startups and commissioning, which provides an added benefit and comfort to the customer as they wind up being with the same person from lab trials through to commissioning.

Rich Cizik

Rich Cizik is our Design Engineer and has been with Sonic for about 15 years. Rich has ushered Sonic into the light of the most current 3D AutoCAD deign programs, providing outstanding renderings of all our customized homogenizer systems and in-line blending systems. Subscription to AutoDesk Project 360 has allowed Rich to provide all our customers with the ability to view and manipulate our 3D renderings in real time to ensure you get exactly what works for you. Rich works well with customers providing modifications and changes to ensure each layout works with various plant restraints. Rich also brings a background in engineering to ensure system integrity as it relates to piping, structural layout, process flow and pressure, etc.

Kutarth

Krutarth comes to us from UB’s electrical engineering and PLC automation school here in CT. He’s a PLC programming wiz and has over the recent years become well versed in site commissioning in various factories around the US. We provide automation for inline blending & homogenizing skids using Allen Bradley, Siemens and other platforms. We use a variety of operator panels including AB Panel View, Siemens Comfort Panels, C-More HMI and more.

Anthony, Danny and Christian

Anthony, Danny and Christian are the beating heart of our custom fabrication capabilities in the shop. They cut, weld, polish and arrange all of the system framework and install all the components and instrumentation. In many ways, this is an art form and these are the artists. Much care and consideration goes into the layout and installation of all the pumps, motors and instrumentation on each skid. Wires and cables are pulled through proper tray and landed inside our own custom designed and build electrical panels.

Lou

Our Lab Manager, Lou, has been with the company for close to 40 years now. Lou handles all our inbound lab testing work which is crucial to landing new customers. Most applications for emulsifying, dispersing and inline blending are proven out in the lab prior to taking the next steps.

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