Mike Pattison

Plant Manager

24 Years of Service

Audia Lafayette

My roots to Washington Penn and Audia go back far. Having attended the same church as two long term Washington Penn employees, I got involved right out of high school as summer help before college before changing my plans to stay on in with them in the fall of 1996. I worked on the plant floor for years and moved up gradually. I worked through various roles going up to production manager and then eventually landing in my current role as plant manager of the LaFayette Plant. I've been here for the past decade or so.  

I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years both in my role and in the company. Through it all, Audia has been supportive in making these changes easy to adjust to.  My personal changes started with me relocating down south which went smoothly since I didn’t have too many ties keeping me to Pennsylvania. The second move in 2007 was more challenging. My wife and I lived in Frankfort for 7 years and then an opportunity came up for me to become the plant manager of our newest plant in LaFayette, Georgia in 2015. At this point in time, I was married, had a young son, and my wife was very pregnant. The move was made easier by the company, offering support and time to be with my family in order so we could settle in. Their assistance made the transition smoother and allowed me to be there for my family.  

I’ve witnessed Audia group’s culture and companies evolve since ’96. I watched us go from three to four factories to acquisition of new divisions to new facilities opening across the globe. Our workforce and solutions have grown as we’ve moved into new areas of the industry and new regions of the world. Two things that haven’t changed are our core values and our excellent leadership. Everyone has always been approachable since the beginning, from floor supervisors all the way up to the president and all of us live our companies’ values daily. We continue to train good leaders because we know how valuable that is as a company.  

No one can anticipate the future, but there is one thing I know - we’ll continue to unite across our companies to become stronger. My goal is to strengthen that unity by finding and keeping good people to work for us and continue to be a good leader so we can maintain success in the near and distant future.