James E. Houseman

Jim Houseman is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Harrop Industries, Inc., located in Columbus, Ohio.  He attended both Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio and The Ohio State University in Columbus, where he received a B.S. Degree in Ceramic Engineering in 1968. Subsequently, he earned a Ph.D. in Ceramic Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1970.

He has been employed at Harrop for 51 years.  Houseman began his career as a design draftsman while still in college.  Upon finishing graduate school, he became an applications/sales engineer in the Precision Furnace Division and later was appointed general manager, as well as the GM of the Laboratory Instruments Division.  He became Harrop’s vice president of sales in 1976. He was elected president in 1978, and held that position for 35 years, until 2013. Prior to joining Harrop, he worked for two years at The Hoover Company in North Canton, Ohio as a QC process analyst.

Houseman served on the External Advisory Committee of the Ceramic Engineering Dept. of The Ohio State University from 1994-2000.  In 2008, he received a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from The Ohio State University.

He has been in The American Ceramic Society for 50 years, having joined as a student member in 1966, and he is currently a member of the Structural Clay Products Division.  Houseman served as chair of the Central Ohio Section in 1977.  In 1984, he received the W. E. Cramer Award from the Central Ohio Section.  Currently, he is a member of the Southwest Section.  In 1990, he was elected as a Fellow in ACerS.  He was chair of the Member Services Committee in 1997, and chaired the Corporate Relations Committee from 1997 thru 1999. He was a charter member of ACerS President’s Council of Industrial Advisors, serving from 1993 thru 2007.  He served on the ACerS Board of Directors from 1997 to 2003. In 1998, He was elected Treasurer of the Society, and was elected and served as President of ACerS in 2001-2002. He is currently serving as a founding Trustee of the Ceramic and Glass Industry Foundation.