Michael Miller

Michael Miller
BSME '88
Vice President of Product Development, MTD Products Inc

Like many CSU alumni, Mike grew up in the Cleveland area and decided to attend Fenn College of Engineering because it was close to home. Unlike many classes offered in today's high schools, he had the opportunity to take a mechanical engineering and an architecture class his senior year at Normandy High School in Parma, Ohio. This experience helped lead the way to choosing Cleveland State and majoring in mechanical engineering. As a full-time student, Mike was able to complete his courses and co-op assignments in five years with a little help from his faculty advisor, John Frater.

Mike has spent his entire career at MTD and praises the company for giving their employees opportunities to succeed and grow. As a student at Fenn College, Mike began co-oping at MTD in 1984 as a freshman and has never left. He was hired as a full-time project engineer out of CSU and his career took off from there. Today, Mike is the Vice President of Product Development at MTD Products Inc, where he manages product development teams to increase speed to market, innovation, quality and profitability of their products.

Mike's advice to current students is to take advantage of the co-op program. "The co-op program will set you apart from all other graduates. Where else can you get three different engineering work experiences while attending school full-time?" As evidence by Mike's experience, MTD has a history of hiring their co-ops after graduation because they are knowledgeable of the company's products and systems and hit the ground running. Mike currently hires co-op students and encourages current CSU mechanical engineering students to apply at MTD Products.