Gray Manufacturing Technologies Management Team
Evan Grose, Operations Manager
Evan has worked at Gray Manufacturing for more than five years over two different stints. He returned to the company in 2017 as manufacturing engineer and rose to quality engineer shortly thereafter. In July 2021, Evan received another promotion to Operations Manager.
He has nearly two decades of experience working as an engineer designer and CNC programmer. While earning his two-year mechanical engineering degree, Evan graduated first in his class at Catawba County Community College.
Luke Honbarger, Quality Manager
Luke started his career as a Lube Technician, then quickly made a career change to pursue manufacturing. After earning an Associates in Automotive Systems Technology, he graduated from UNC at Charlotte with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Mathematics. During his final year of school, Luke served as an intern at Curtis-Wright Aviation.
Joining Gray in 2021, Luke initially became Quality Engineer before the company officially named him Quality Supervisor in Jan. 2022. After serving for just nine months as Quality Supervisor he was promoted to Quality Manager in October 2022.
During the year prior to working at Gray, he was a vital part of the transition into hand sanitization production at Chematron Specialty Chemicals.
Donna Campbell, Office Manager
An original Gray Manufacturing employee, Donna has about two and a half decades of accounting experience. She has held her current position at Gray since 2013.
Prior to Gray, Donna worked at a CPA firm in Mooresville, NC for eight years. She received her accounting training from performing personal and corporate tax returns and bookkeeping.
Gary Holcomb, CEO
Gary is President & CEO of Compass Precision, Gray’s parent company. He joined Compass in October 2019 in conjunction with its acquisitions of Advanced Machining & Tooling, LLC, Quality Products & Machine, LLC, and Tri-Tec Industries, LLC. He previously served in general management roles for several metal manufacturing firms, including Coining, a precision metal stamping firm that grew from $13 million to $65 million in revenue over seven years while Gary was CEO.
Earlier in his career, he was General Manager of Dynamet’s Forged Products Division, a Pittsburgh-based titanium CNC machining & forging shop where he learned many of the successful strategies being employed at Compass. Gary graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paul Wilhelm, Vice President & CFO
Paul joined Compass in February of 2020 as Vice President & Chief Financial Officer. Like Gary, he has a strong CNC machining industry background. Paul worked for Paragon Metals from 2016 through early 2020, most recently as the firms’ Chief Financial Officer. Paragon machines tight-tolerance, precision-engineered metal components for the automotive industry.
Previously, he served in various accounting and finance roles for several other Charlotte-area manufacturing companies including IntraPac International, a speciality packaging company manufacturing plastic, laminate, tin and aluminum products. Paul has a BS in Business Administration and an MS in accounting, both from Georgia Southern University.
Jim Miller, VP Sales
Jim became VP Sales at Compass Precision in March 2021, moving from Orange County in Southern California. He has spent 25 years in the machining and fabrication industry. In his previous role, Jim served in a similar capacity as VP of Sales for Crenshaw Die & Manufacturing.
On two different occasions in his career, Jim started his own manufacturing company. His second venture — CJ Precision Manufacturing — grew to $1 million in sales in its first three years. In 2015, he sold the company to Crenshaw, where he worked for nearly six years before joining Compass. Jim graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA.
Bill Canning, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Bill joined Compass in March 2023. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Global Operations at Arrival Automotive, a UK-based manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles. Prior to that position, Bill was Vice President of Operations and Program Management at Mahindra genZe, a manufacturer of electric moped and e-bikes.
Bill has general management oversight responsibilities for Quality Products and Compass’s two latest acquisitions – Strom Manufacturing and Bergeron Machine. In addition, he provides managerial and technical support to all Compass operating companies.
He began his career as a tool & die maker for Troy-MI based Henze Industries before graduating from Lawrence Technological University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Under his watch, the firm’s custom CNC machining and fabrication unit grew from $1 million to $10 million.
