Paul Duffy

Chief Executive Officer Engineered Materials Solutions

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Paul Duffy is Chief Executive Officer of Engineered Materials Solutions (EMS), a clad metals manufacturer in Attleboro, Massachusetts. EMS is part of the Wickeder Group, a German family-owned manufacturing group. Clad metals are made by bonding two or more metals into one material, so that a product gets properties that no single metal provides. EMS materials go into lithium-ion batteries, circuit breakers, thermal controls, cookware, consumer electronics and cars. Duffy was the company’s Chief Operating Officer in 2017 and was its CEO by mid-2018. In June 2024 he led the acquisition of Thin Metal Parts, a Colorado micro-component maker, which extended the group’s micro-components business into North America.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Engineered Materials Solutions, a Wickeder Group company in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
• Signed EMS’s 2017 Communication on Progress to the UN Global Compact as Chief Operating Officer.
• Named as CEO by NPR in June 2018, when he spoke about the effect of steel tariffs on a U.S. clad metals maker that relies on specialised imported metals.
• Led the June 2024 acquisition of Thin Metal Parts, a Colorado maker of precision micro-components for defense, aerospace, medical and audio customers, now EMS Thin Metal Parts.

Professional Journey

Engineered Materials Solutions dates to 24 April 1916, when it was founded as General Plate Company. It first made precious-metal clad materials for the local jewelry trade. A predecessor business, Metals & Controls, merged with Texas Instruments in 1959. In that period its milestones included clad coinage for the U.S. Mint and a full line of thermostatic bimetal products. It took the name Engineered Materials Solutions in 2000 and opened a subsidiary in Baoying, China, in 2007 to serve customers in Asia. It is now part of the Wickeder Group, which describes itself as a German family-owned group with 15 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Duffy was EMS’s Chief Operating Officer when he signed its 2017 Communication on Progress to the UN Global Compact, which restated the company’s commitment to the Compact’s principles on human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. By June 2018 he was Chief Executive Officer. That month he showed an NPR reporter around the Attleboro plant. He described clad metal products as materials people use every day without realising they are still made in the United States. He also explained that the 25 percent tariff on imported steel could cost the company millions of dollars, because some of the grades it needs are not made domestically. About a quarter of EMS’s business was then tied to the automotive industry.

In June 2024 EMS acquired Thin Metal Parts of Colorado Springs, an ITAR-registered maker of photochemically etched, electroformed and laser-cut micro-components. The Wickeder Group already owned three micro-component companies in Europe. Duffy said the deal widened the range of products and markets EMS serves and fit the group’s micro-components business, and he committed to helping the new unit grow its global reach, production technology and key customer relationships. The business now operates as EMS Thin Metal Parts, alongside EMS’s clad metal operations.

Education

No education record was found in the sources consulted.