Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2019 Issue No. 7 | Page 43

Proto
Technologies
Inspiration + Perspiration
= Transformation
by Dean Cameron
S
ince its beginning in 1995, Rory and Greg Nay, a husband and wife duo, have
rolled the dice and taken advantage of opportunities to grow Proto Technologies
into a very diverse low volume manufacturing powerhouse in Liberty Lake, Wash-
ington.
Rory, CEO and president of Proto Technologies, explains how they began this
adventure. Greg was working at Keytronics as an engineer and our children were
in school; I was looking to further my education and decided to take a course in
business management. This was in September of 1995.
Rom Gopal (SCC Professor) asked the class if anyone was interested in starting a
business and if so, what were we looking for beyond the course.  Greg and I had
been discussing starting a business for some time. Since I was interested, Rom
asked me to share what our idea was and from there he helped us with a marketing
plan and working with the SBA for a loan (we paid for his services). Rom gave us
the push we needed to make the decision to move forward. Greg, Kurt Campbell (a
co-worker of Greg’s at Keytronics) and I talked it over and decided we would give
this a shot. I quit school in December of that same year to start Proto Technologies.
FEBRUARY | MARCH 2019 ISSUE NO. 7
43