For the first time in its history, Alkon has tapped an outsider to lead the company.
Rahul Deshmukh, CEO, Alkon Corp.
Fluid Power World’s Mary Gannon sat down with Alkon’s new CEO Rahul Deshmukh, to see where he will be focusing as he takes the helm at the company. Known for its pneumatic fittings, tubing, cylinders, and valves — for mobile and industrial markets — Alkon will concentrate on being a full-system solution provider while keeping its core tenets of skilled, customer-driven employees. Deshmukh succeeds Mark L. Winter, who served as President from 1996 to 2018, prior to serving as CEO and Chairman of the Board. Under Winter’s leadership, Alkon has grown from a fifteen-person operation into a company with three state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and 300 employees in North America.
Mary Gannon: You have a history growing industrial businesses. What attracted you to Alkon, and where do you see it moving forward as you take the helm?
Rahul Deshmukh: I’ve been involved with private equity-held businesses since 2015, and so I’m fully familiar with engineered product applications and the B2B space. Alkon is such a strong, trusted brand in the markets that we serve. We have a history of nearly 75 years of working very closely with and delighting our fluid power customers. We have great people, innovative products and great service, with a focus on the customer. We serve some very marquee OEMs and channel partners. All of these were highly attractive because they are strong foundations to build on. Our focus now is to build on these strengths, expand our fluid power solutions and continue to be a more complete, full-system solutions provider and an even better partner for our customers.
Mary Gannon: That’s where the industry seems to be going — toward being a full-system provider. Can you talk a little bit about some of the key products that you see playing into that system-integration part for Alkon? You’re known for a variety of technologies, including fittings and valves, but where do you think you’re going to take this in the future?
Alkon CEO Rahul Deshmukh speaks with Bryan Harvey, a member of the machining team, on the production floor.
Rahul Deshmukh: We have a fairly broad product portfolio of pneumatic components. The industry is moving toward solutions and, broadly speaking, fluid power solutions.
We have such a strong foundation of a trusted brand. We offer best-in-class customer service. Our customers trust our products. We have deep technical knowledge and expertise. In today’s environment, more importantly, we have a supply chain and manufacturing in North America. All of those things make us very unique in our ability to continue to grow beyond components into full systems or solutions.
Mary Gannon: How do you preserve the legacy of those components that Alkon has always been known for while becoming the system integrator of the future? How do you maintain that reputation as you evolve the company?
Rahul Deshmukh: The way we do that is really based on the foundation that we have. I think the nearly 75 years of trust that we have built with our customers is a strong foundation. Then you overlay on top of that our deep expertise in applications and engineering, and our ability to be highly innovative and hear the customers, to listen to the customers’ needs and wants, and be able to innovate quickly and bring those solutions to our customers and continue to delight them. It is really building on the strong foundation, but leveraging some of our strengths around innovation, North American manufacturing and rapidly scaling the business.
Mary Gannon: Can you talk about some of the newer products that have been coming to the market recently as this evolution moves forward?
The Alkon AirBOSS Control Box, here and below, demonstrate Alkon’s full-system approach to pneumatic solutions.
Rahul Deshmukh: From an Alkon perspective, there are two specific products that I would like to talk about as we have transitioned from being a component manufacturer to a full-system solutions provider. The first is the Alkon AirBOSS Control Box. It brings our DOT-compliant valves, controls, and fittings together in a centralized, durable enclosure. This gives the customer ease and speed of installation, fewer potential leak paths and a rugged, factory-tested solution.
The other innovative system that we have launched over the past couple of years is called the Alkon DuraLink, which includes our push-to-connect fittings and tubing. These are examples where we listened to our customers, got the voice of the customer into the business, and our engineers rapidly innovated with systems that helped customers reduce their operating costs, improve their uptime and give them peace of mind.
Alkon DuraLink DOT fittings and tubing
Mary Gannon: I think that leads into thoughts about where the industry is headed — electrification, automation and digital. We’re seeing a lot of things shake up the industry. Sometimes people think that things like fittings or valves are commodity products, but there’s a lot that can be done to engineer them to fit into a greater, more modern system. How do you see Alkon fitting into that new sphere?
Rahul Deshmukh: While there is a growing need for these fluid power solutions, keeping them simple, reliable and durable is always critical. That is built into any kind of solution or system that we provide to our customers. As equipment becomes more sophisticated and as the needs of customers change, they are looking for systems that are reliable, easy to integrate and can be part of a much larger system. That means integrating fluid power technologies with smarter controls, sensing and automation.
In mobile and transportation markets, the focus on reliability, safety and regulatory compliance continues to grow. As you are aware, these are continued areas of focus for our customers. During CVSA’s 2025 International Roadcheck, brake-related issues accounted for more than 40% of all vehicle out-of-service violations. That’s a big number, and this illustrates that a small control within a mission-critical system, such as a brake system, a DOT-compliant push-to-connect fitting, could have a significant impact on safety, uptime and our customers’ reputation, all of which are areas of focus for us.
Alkon team member Jesus Torres assembles AirBOSS pneumatic control components.
So, for Alkon, the opportunity is to bring together these reliable components that we are known for, leverage our application knowledge and our system-level expertise, and continue to meet our customers’ needs as their trusted full-system fluid power partner.
Mary Gannon: Can you give me more details about Alkon’s manufacturing operations throughout North America? And how do you see things like AI in production or more modern manufacturing changing the way you do things over there?
Rahul Deshmukh: We have continued to invest in our manufacturing capabilities. We have manufacturing operations in Fremont, Ohio. We also have manufacturing in Brighton, Michigan. And we also have manufacturing operations in Mexico City. We are very uniquely positioned to serve our customers through these three centers of excellence from a manufacturing, engineering and design perspective. We have continued to make significant investments in our operations across these three facilities.
Rahul Deshmukh talks with machining team members Ray Roberts and Steve Chamberlain about Alkon products and manufacturing.
We are continuing to drive significant operational and commercial improvements across the business. All of this is going to be led by the highly talented team at Alkon. That is something that I definitely want to talk about because automation, digital tools and AI will play a role, but they will not replace people. They will only make them more productive and efficient.
As leaders, we will use these tools to manage the business and enhance the customer experience. It is going to be not just operations or manufacturing; it will be across the business. Some of these tools, such as AI, can also help us gain better insights into industry trends and customer needs, all of which help us be more effective, help us differentiate Alkon and be a true preferred partner to our customers.
Mary Gannon: You talked a little bit about the culture, and Alkon has been led by the Winter family for decades. You’re the first outside person to lead this company in a while. How do you preserve that legacy and reputation while steering it into something new and exciting?
Rahul Deshmukh: Yes, for the first time, the Winter family has brought in somebody from the outside to lead the business into its next phase of growth. But honoring the Winter family’s legacy really means preserving the two priorities that have been at the heart of Alkon: number one, putting customers first, and number two, supporting the people and investing in and developing the people at Alkon.
Rahul Deshmukh, left, has succeeded Mark Winter, right, as CEO of Alkon Corp., marking the first time a non-Winters family member led the company.
The Winter family has built a company that has earned customers’ trust by investing in its people. My responsibility and my leadership responsibility is to build on that solid foundation, bring new experiences, new perspectives, new tools and new systems while building on our existing strengths, and help the company scale rapidly.
It is going to be absolutely critical to maintain the culture which is unique to Alkon. I always say it is easy to copy competitors’ products. It is easy to replicate processes and systems and implement systems and tools. But one thing that continues to differentiate companies like Alkon in the heartland of America is the unique culture that we have. And that is precious.
Mary Gannon: You talked a little bit about some of the past products that have been updated in the systems. Where do you see new developments coming as you move with the systems approach? Where do you see the technologies evolving, and what are you going to be focusing on for the market?
Rahul Deshmukh: Alkon’s biggest opportunity is going to be around our mission of being the trusted specialty fluid power partner. And we will do that by expanding our capabilities as a complete fluid power solutions provider and a systems integrator. We will be focused on broadening our product portfolio and strengthening our engineering and innovation capabilities. These are areas that we will continue to invest in.
While we continue to look at new products, I would say there are two levers. One is around homegrown, new-to-the-business products that will continue to build on our differentiation and expand our capabilities. But the other that we are also going to embark on is acquiring products and businesses that would enhance our position and continue to differentiate us as a trusted fluid power partner to our customers.
Alkon has made several key acquisitions over the past couple of years. We have acquired Allenair. We have acquired AIRman in Michigan, and we are looking at additional acquisitions in this space. That’s part of our strategy, and the Winter family has committed equity to make that happen.
Mary Gannon: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the Fluid Power World audience that you think they need to know as you step into this role for Alkon?
Rahul Deshmukh: I came into this role with the goal of helping Alkon scale rapidly and to continue to work toward its mission of being a trusted fluid power partner. Alkon has nearly 75 years of customer trust to build on. We have significant opportunity to organically and inorganically grow and be a trusted partner in the Americas and beyond.
Our history gives us tremendous credibility in bringing new products to market and credibility around acquiring businesses and integrating them. But our future is going to be defined by how well we help our customers succeed. Having that fanatical focus on customers and using all the technology available today that we did not have decades ago to continue to get to our mission is going to be important. That is what excites me most about this role here at Alkon.
Alkon Corporation
alkoncorp.com
Filed Under: Components, Hose & Tubing, Technologies, Valves & Valve Manifolds
