Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf recently recognized Electro Soft for our company’s 30-year anniversary.

“For over three decades, Electro Soft’s commitment to hard work and determination has enabled this business to thrive and become a leader in the manufacturing and engineering industry,” he wrote in a commendation letter. “This business has powered Montgomery County’s local economy and has assisted both public and private projects.”

Our founder, Jim Wallace, says that as a kid he loved to tinker, and once built a mini air conditioner made from the freezer portion of a refrigerator. “I brought it home, put the cooling coils at the base of my bed and put a fan to blow through the cooling coils and basically had my own air conditioner,” he says. Now that’s ingenuity!

Jim spent four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War (and another 36 in the Air Force Reserve) and used the G.I. Bill to get an Engineering degree from Penn State. “One of my first designs was used to debug secure communications equipment for the National Security Agency,” he says.

“In 1986, I started my own business on my kitchen table after being laid off. A past client contacted me to help make a few cables for a project. That one-time job turned into several jobs. We moved from my kitchen table to my garage and ultimately to where we reside now.”

From those humble beginnings, Electro Soft has become an electronics contract manufacturing leader in the greater Philadelphia area. Now housed in a 20,000 square foot facility in Montgomeryville, ESI employs 27 full-time employees and provides contract manufacturing solutions for clients in aviation, rail, transit, OEM, and defense.

“Electro Soft’s strong workforce has made an indelible impact on the community and Commonwealth,” Gov. Wolf wrote. We couldn’t agree more, and look forward to the next 30 years!