A testament of service, growth, and purpose

The Lord works in mysterious ways - just ask Ed S., Technical Support Manager of Cummins Power Generation. As a young man, Ed entered the U.S. Air Force fresh out of a high school vocational program, excited to work as an electrician.

No positions were available in that field, so he asked for the next best thing, and the recruiter placed him in electrical power production. Ed was instantly a fan.

After 17 years in service, Ed left the Air Force. He worked at a distributor in New York, eventually moving to North Carolina with his wife to be closer to family. While searching for work in North Carolina, Ed heard a higher power tell him to look in the phone book. The first thing he saw was an ad for Cummins Atlantic. He called the number, asked for the service manager of power generation, and got an interview.

“I definitely took a chance,” Ed says. “When I was in the Air Force, we had generators that had Cummins Inc. engines, so I knew the product and had faith in it. I just didn’t know much about the company, like how they treated their employees.”

Ed got the job and began the next stage of his career as a Power Generation Service Technician. After a few years, he was ready to stretch his wings again into a new role with more responsibility. Ed didn’t see an immediate path for his transition at Cummins, so he began looking for a new job. He then told his manager he was planning to leave. Rather than just letting him leave, the manager said, “Wait, don’t I get an opportunity to negotiate with you?”

Ed was shocked. He’d never seen a manager — or a company — so invested in their employees that they wanted their staff to grow with them, not outgrow them. After talking with his manager and explaining his desire to better use his talents, he was offered a new role, which gave him a stronger sense of accomplishment. Twenty-eight years later, Ed is still with Cummins.

In that time, Ed says he’s been blessed to work with many different types of products, giving him a great sense of purpose. “The customers that purchase the products that my team supports don’t purchase them as a ‘nice to have’ — they purchase them out of necessity,” Ed says. “We serve everyone from the chicken farmer with an RV to the person with a single generator in their home for weather emergencies, all the way up to a large data center that may have multiple generators. We make sure each one of these customers feels important with the way we treat them and the concern we show toward the issue or problem we’re there to resolve.”

When speaking of his team, it’s clear Ed holds them near and dear. He says it’s the people — and the opportunity to be their encourager, influencer and teacher — he loves most about his job.

His goal is to help team members be successful in their roles. He loves gathering diverse and passionate teams to collaborate on a project. “We all want to see the company thrive, so we look for a better way of doing things, gaps we can fill. We challenge ourselves to open up to other viewpoints,” Ed says. “Leading and helping these people is what I’m most proud of.”

Supporting others transfers into his personal life, where Ed has been a pastor at a small church for the last 25 years. It’s not a large congregation, he says, but he finds a lot of joy in that close-knit group of people — much like at Cummins.

“I recently celebrated my 64th birthday,” Ed says. “I’ve got more pavement behind me than ahead of me. What I’m really focused on are my team’s careers, more than my own. What can I do to help them define their career path? I’ve had people help me get to where I am. I want to do the same for others.”

Ed is excited not just about the future of his team, but also of the industry. He’s particularly impressed with the new technology being introduced from low-emissions to zero-emissions products for transportation and power generation.

“Cummins has a history of being at the forefront of advancements and changes and of being ecologically friendly. I’m excited about where Cummins is positioned today in the marketplace,” he explains. “The leadership we have in place will help us be successful not just today but for years to come.”

When asked for some parting advice for future Cummins employees, Ed simply says, “If you’re in the right company but the wrong role, seek the role that you really desire and do something that brings fulfillment. I’ve been here 28 years – think about that. There are so many places people can work today that haven’t even been open for 28 years — or 10 years even. Cummins is a company that invests in its people, and that’s something that aligns with my values. We were created to be in relationships, not just familial and interpersonal, but all across humanity.”