Spotlight On: Chris Celtruda, Chief Executive Officer, Chromalloy

October 2025 — In an interview with Invest:, Chris Celtruda, chief executive officer of Chromalloy, highlighted the company’s commitment to meeting surging demand in commercial aviation and power generation for data centers. The company is expanding its global manufacturing footprint, and working collaboratively with regulators to ensure supply chain resilience.

Since taking over as CEO in mid‑2024, what have you identified as the single greatest opportunity for Chromalloy to grow or differentiate itself?

A significant portion of my time is focused on growth. Chromalloy is a company that has been in operation for nearly 75 years and the company was founded on creating value for turbine engine owners, whether for an aerospace turbine engine or a ground-based power turbine engine. That is truly where our growth proposition originates. We are also providers of alternate part solutions to repair jet engines and gas turbines that are used for powering data centers and for trim power. We are the alternate to the original equipment manufacturer. Our engineering team has been working diligently to develop parts that function identically to the parts from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Pratt & Whitney, GE, or Siemens. 

For aerospace applications, our parts go to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval, and we are able to manufacture and sell them at a price that is more competitive than purchasing them directly from  the original equipment manufacturer.This means that our growth is intrinsically tied to creating value. This growth story is driven by several factors. On the aviation side, the supply chain has struggled with capacity, and the OEMs have had a difficult time meeting the demand for parts. Our ability to provide alternative parts and the manufacturing capacity we have invested in provides a significant growth vector for us. 

On the industrial side, the proliferation of data centers for AI, crypto and other cyber activities is a major driver. Every data center generally has a turbine engine to provide power at peak load. Many of the OEMs we work with, such as Solar and Siemens, are sold out through the end of 2026. We play a critical role in manufacturing parts to restore engines that are run out or worn out to fill the immediate need for power. We have very compelling end markets in commercial aviation and commercial power for data centers. The fact that we possess the technology, the capacity and the will to invest to answer the demands of the market is what will ultimately drive our growth.

How is Chromalloy balancing the demands of cost reduction for customers with investments in innovation?

That is an area where every year we budget a certain amount of our investment to drive productivity. It has been a very inflationary environment. The cost of raw materials, such as aluminum and steel, and the more exotic metals we consume has increased. There has also been labor inflation. One of the ways we offset material and labor cost increases is through productivity. First and foremost, we have a real commitment to lean manufacturing and continuous improvement. A portion of our organization focuses on teaching problem-solving to our employees. First pass yield, ensuring every part we make or repair is correct the first time, is a major driver of productivity. 

The second component is investment in technology. In any given year, we may invest $30-50 million in equipment across our network. Our core technologies include specialized welding techniques using lasers and electron beams. We also use electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD), which is the ceramic coating applied to turbine blades. Our investment in technology has automated some of these processes and combined processes, allowing us to perform work in one pass without errors. The last layer is industrial automation. We continue to hire people, and our overall headcount is growing. However, we find that skilled labor is a challenge. We often look at simple tasks and find ways to automate them using robots and cobots. 

When we inaugurated the new facility in Tampa, we showcased robots we are using for deburring and grinding. That is a task a human being used to perform and it was very tedious manual labor. We now have a robot that does that. We are looking at automating other high-volume, menial tasks. This allows the person to go and perform other high-value tasks. We view our ability to be competitive as driven by process through lean principles and driven by investment in technology. This in no way diminishes our role as an employer of choice. We tend to automate the very monotonous, repetitive steps that many people do not enjoy doing. That frees up our talented people to do things a machine cannot do, which require abstract reasoning and artisanship.

What role does sustainability play in your long‑term strategy, both in the manufacturing and repair processes and in the supply chain?

Technology is really important to everything that we do and we refresh our strategy annually. Through our market studies, we do a lot of research on what our competitors are doing from a technology point of view and what research is being done at government and university laboratories. We evaluate those technologies to determine which ones we need to understand and invest in to enhance our product and repair services. Our efforts are focused on several key areas, including coatings and additive manufacturing. We extensively utilize metallic 3D printing for tools, dies and casting forms, tasks previously performed by toolmakers, significantly accelerating the replication process. Additionally, we are dedicating considerable time to AI, having observed that even basic applications, such as Microsoft’s Copilot, yield significant time savings. 

We are actively benchmarking AI applications, particularly for factory automation. AI can automate tasks like invoice matching and releasing work orders with high accuracy, eliminating the need for a physical scheduler. This streamlines processes, converting orders to cash faster, and significantly impacting profitability. We believe AI tools will be invaluable in achieving these efficiencies. Beyond AI, we are exploring adjacent markets. With 75 years of experience in commercial aviation and long-standing relationships with the U.S. military and the energy/power market, we see opportunities to expand our turbomachinery solutions into the burgeoning commercial space market for propulsion systems. Our coatings technology may also apply to turbomachinery used for natural gas pipeline compressors.

Our approach involves building technology roadmaps that prioritize base technologies for future competitiveness and then evaluating markets where our competencies can be leveraged. This mindset allows us to address customer challenges related to part availability, affordability, and reliability. Our comprehensive suite of solutions fosters future growth and reinforces our reputation as a technology-driven problem-solver.

Images provided by Chromally

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