Tim Vargo shares the remarkable story of how he became CEO of Exide without finishing college, and how they're tackling issues like sustainability head-on!
Danny:
Okay well, welcome today's episode of IndustrialSage with our Executive Series. I have the distinct pleasure of being here with Mr. Tim Vargo, who is the CEO of Exide Technologies. Tim, thank you so much for joining me today.

Yeah, thankful to be here. Thank you, appreciate it.
Danny:
Well, we're excited to have you here. So, for those who aren't familiar with Exide, can you just tell a little bit from a thirty thousand foot view, who you guys are?
Tim:
Sure, one of the oldest and largest battery manufacturers in the world. We began manufacturing batteries in 1888–
Danny:
1888!?
Tim:
One of the very first companies to manufacture batteries and have served a variety of different markets. Over the last 130 plus years. So it's pretty amazing. We have our main emphasis in manufacturing in Europe, which is about two thirds of our revenue and then North America. So we ship products generally all over the world from either North America or Europe.
Danny:
Excellent. I'm excited to kind of dive into that a little bit more.
Tim:
Sure.
Danny:
Especially what batteries looked like back in 1888. But before we do that I just kind of want to get a little sense of Tim.
Tim:
Sure.
Danny:
Of you, your story, how you got to where you are, take me back, where did you go to school? What was that first job, what did that look like?
Tim:
Sure. Well I'm a boomer, so my father served in World War Two. My family is from Eastern Europe, Hungarian. So I grew up in the rust belt in manufacturing. So family farmers came over from Europe, got manufacturing jobs in North America to build a better life for them and their family. So my aunts, uncles, and cousins all worked in factories generally up in the Cleveland, Ohio area: from Detroit down through Pennsylvania. So I grew up in a just a good old-fashioned rust belt town, a lot of manufacturing jobs, and so having a good work ethic was expected.
Danny:
Hmm. Yeah.
Tim:
I watched my dad come home from work every day, not really having a good time at work, but it was a job, he got it done, and he just never really had a whole lot of fun. And I was determined that whatever I did with my life, I was going to try to come home from work with a smile on my face. Man, I just love what I do, so aspirationally that's what I wanted to do versus what I saw my father and some of my uncles, and some of my aunts who worked in long, long day manufacturing jobs, just didn't really appeal to me.
Danny:
What were they doing?
Tim:
Assembly work.
Danny:
Okay.
Tim:
Punching outfits and parts. Assembly at Ford Motor Company, GM, building engines, building pumps. You know, all the little things that the rust belt is known for. Real, great industrial manufacturing.
Danny:
Okay.
Tim:
So, you know, I was a pretty industrious young guy. I started raking leaves early, shoveled snow. When I got old enough, our family did hunting and fishing, and so my brother was older than I was and had a trap route. So I was trapping muskrat and mink…
Danny:
Awesome!
Tim:
…when I was probably 11 years old.
Danny:
That's pretty cool.
Tim:
Yeah, walking into a creek, setting traps, doing that, bringing the game home, skinning them, and selling the pelts.
Danny:
That's awesome.
Tim:
So that was my winter job since I couldn't rake leaves and there wasn't really that much snow to shovel. Had a job in a kennel, cleaning kennels as a young guy,