Bill JohnsonPresident, Athena Manufacturing

Bill is President and co-owner of Athena Manufacturing in Austin, TX, which he co-founded in November 2000 with his childhood friend, John Newman. Athena is a privately held highly diversified 200-person precision metalworking and mechanical design firm offering traditional build-to-print contract manufacturing services in addition to custom mechanical subsystems for both the semiconductor wafer fab equipment and the A&D industries. Athena has products in wafer tools ranging from frames to high-vacuum process components. Also, Athena has products on over 50 aircraft platforms and has shipped over 12,000 custom-designed subsystems in the military rotorcraft marketplace.

John and Bill foster our next generation of talent with numerous continuing education, apprenticeship and career technical education programs. Bill serves on the college of manufacturing engineering Industry Advisory Board at Texas State University. 

Prior to Athena, John and Bill owned another Austin metalworking business, Brown Manufacturing, which they sold in 1998 to APW Enclosure Systems. Bill’s 40-year career includes stints at both prime OEMs and small businesses.