Diamond Electric Mfg. Corp.
BY MAGGIE MATSKO. With corporate head-
quarters in both Japan and West Virginia,
Diamond Electric Mfg. Corp. is a tier one
supplier of automotive electrical compo-
nents. Originally established in Japan in
1937, the manufacturer began as an auto-
mobile ignition coil manufacturer, branch-
ing out into the production of electronic
ignition devices in 1971.
In 2014, Diamond Electric’s U.S. cor-
porate offices were moved from Dundee,
MI, to Eleanor, WV, where the manufac-
turing plant produces more than 15 mil-
lion ignition coils annually for customers
that include Toyota, Ford, Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles and Subaru. There are three
sales offices located in the U.S.: Ann Arbor,
MI; Novi, MI; and Katy, Texas.
In addition to Diamond Electric’s Japa-
nese and American offices, the company’s
international footprint includes manufac-
turing plants and sales offices in Hungary,
China, India and Thailand with addition-
al sales offices in Indonesia and Korea.
Diamond Electric currently employs
more than 300 people in the U.S., and
Chad Carte, vice president and general
manager of human resources and adminis-
tration in Eleanor, believes the company’s
greatest successes are the people they hire.
“It’s the commitment to safety and qual-
ity from our employees that allows us to
continue to offer jobs in West Virginia,”
he says. “Since the automotive market is
extremely competitive, it may be cheap-
er to produce products elsewhere in the
world, but the people of West Virginia
have made us feel like the Mountain State
is our second home.”
Looking to the future, Diamond Elec-
tric hopes to expand in the area of home
electronics. The company currently manu-
factures HVAC components for custom-
ers in Japan, and they are aggressively
pursuing other business opportunities in
the U.S. For Japan and other European
countries, homes and businesses are heated
and cooled room by room. This method
has proven to be a more cost-effective
and eco-friendly process, and Diamond
Electric wants to be there to support
the customer base during this
transition.
Energy Corporation of America
BY MAGGIE MATSKO. Energy Corpora-
tion of America (ECA) has proven to be
a strong contender as an oil and natural
gas exploration and production company.
With the support of approximately 170
employees, ECA explores, extracts, pro-
duces and transports oil and natural gas
throughout the U.S. and around the world.
With headquarters located in
Charleston, WV, the com-
pany has offices situated
in Buckhannon, WV;
Greene County, PA;
and Indiana, PA.
It also has op-
erations in West
Virginia, Pennsyl-
vania, Kentucky,
New York, Mon-
tana, Wyoming, Colorado
and Texas and manages
an international footprint
that includes New Zea-
land and China.
84
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Due to the strong growth ECA has
experienced over the years, Kyle Mork,
CEO, has a strong belief that the compa-
ny’s greatest success is the people behind
the scenes. “Without a doubt, I am most
proud of the team we have assembled
at ECA,” he says. “This group ushered
ECA into the shale gas era and navigated
the company’s transition from a shallow-
well, conventional operator to an adept,
unconventional developer. Simultane-
ously, they launched horizontal drilling
at ECA, which established the company
as one of the best horizontal shale devel-
opers in the world.”
This great success all began with Kyle’s
grandfather, Roy Mork, who drilled the
company’s first well in 1963 at a site in
Glenville, WV, and formed Pacific States
Gas & Oil, which is now known as ECA.
The torch was then passed to John Mork,
Kyle’s father, who, through a series of
mergers and acquisitions, built ECA into
a dominating player within the market.
In 2016, Kyle took up this tremendous
family legacy by becoming CEO, and he
is optimistic about the company’s future.
“The Marcellus Shale was just the begin-
ning, and I only see great potential for ECA
with future exploration of the Utica Shale,
the Rogersville Shale and other untapped
areas,” he says. “While the last two years
have seen the longest and deepest downturn
our industry has experienced in decades,
the future is very bright for ECA and the
energy industry as a whole.”