When a friend of Manny Rodriguez told him WSDisplay was hiring, little could Rodriguez know that his application would send him on a 15-year journey to CEO of a nationwide company with 14,000-plus customers!
Rodriguez started with WSDisplay, the tradeshow display supplier, printer and manufacturer, making their “Big Waves” product (no longer sold). He’d print, cut, laminate and pack. “Believe it or not,” Rodriguez says, “we used to have a 14-day production turnaround for this product with only 11 employees.” All in one location, no less, Carlsbad, California.
Eventually Rodriguez moved into the graphics department, using the artistic skills he honed in college, where he earned a BS in media arts & animation. Rodriguez found the work experience very rewarding. “I enjoyed every minute with my co-workers,” he reminisces, “and still do.”
Soon he would grow into a new role as project manager, and that paved the way to COO, where he would work closely with founder and former CEO, Craig VanVelzer.
WSDisplay now has three locations, Carlsbad, California; Carlisle, Pennsylvania; and Tijuana, Mexico; many more employees, and 20,000 SKUs to offer its customers. And the company has the light manufacturing capability to customize orders beyond a simple 3’ x 3’ size. “We try to cater to as many options and variations of our products for our customers,” Rodriguez comments.
Having weathered the tumultuous times of the pandemic, WSDisplay enters a new chapter with Rodriguez at the helm. As CEO he looks “… to provide more products, quicker turnaround, and improve our customer experience in e-commerce … ”
He greatly appreciates brothers Craig & Eric VanVelzer’s confidence in him as he pledges to refocus, re-energize and reinvigorate the post-pandemic company by way of its Mission Statement: To provide our customers with the latest innovative and affordable products with a high level of customer service as quickly as possible.
