How Aneesa Muthana Found Her Own Path in Manufacturing

Aneesa Muthana, CEO of Pioneer Service Inc., comes from a machining family.

Originally from Yemen, Muthana’s father came to the U.S. from England in the 1960s. He started in California and then moved to Chicago, where he worked as a busboy and a machinist doing centerless grinding. He brought Aneesa’s mother to the U.S. in 1969 and eventually found an opportunity for her to work in a screw machine shop’s deburring department. Coming from a small village in Yemen, she had no formal education or background in machining, but she wanted a chance to help the family. So she jumped at the opportunity to take the job.

“In her mind, she’s like, ‘You mean I can make money? I can help with the family income?’” Muthana says. “That’s exactly how I feel we’re wired. What’s best for the family? What’s best for the company? That’s how my parents lived their lives, serving others and putting others before their needs.”

Muthana’s parents founded M&M Quality Grinding in 1981, and she grew up working for the family business from a young age. “I was talking to customers at age 11 and they kept asking, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be in school?’” Muthana says. On the drive from the shop’s location in Elk Grove Village to their home on the north side of Chicago, her job was to keep a notebook and pen. If any truck had barstock on it, she would write down the name and call to see if they had work that needed to be done.

Muthana says the experience of working alongside her family at such a young age was not only motivational but instilled values and a work ethic she still maintains today.

Humble Beginnings

That real-world experience at a young age prepared Muthana for what would come next. In 1990, her uncle Omar founded Pioneer Service. In 1993, he asked Muthana to join him in the business. She was 23 and became the owner of the company with Omar as her silent partner, handling the day-to-day management and operation of the business.

While Muthana enjoyed her time and learned the industry by working with her family, she wanted to start her own path away from the family business. One reason she joined Pioneer Service with her uncle as a silent partner is because of some of the perceptions that can come with being a woman in a male-dominated industry, especially 30 years ago. She wanted to squash any accusations of nepotism.

“Being a woman in the industry in a family business, I felt like it was — in my situation — impossible because of the label of being the princess or daddy’s little girl,” Muthana says. “Anytime my brothers weren’t around and I needed to take care of business, I had everyone questioning me.”

When Pioneer Service lost 90% of its business within six months in late 2012 after it stopped hearing from its three primary customers with no notice, Muthana’s motivation and work ethic were put to the test.

She stayed up late at night learning about Swiss-type machining on YouTube before making it Pioneer Service’s niche due to her staff’s familiarity with machining small parts on screw machines. This was the start of the company’s reinvention, after having spent almost 20 years making money running Brown and Sharpe and Davenport machines. The intention was to keep the shop’s doors open and avoid layoffs, a goal she set as part of the people-first mindset she learned from watching her parents work on the shop floor.

With the help of Muthana’s committed machinists and engineers, Pioneer Service invested over $12 million in new equipment and was successfully reinvented into a precision machine shop that offers Swiss-type machining, CNC turning and centerless grinding. The business now manufactures millions of parts per year for Tesla and serves a multitude of industries, including medical, aerospace, sporting goods, oil, gas and more. The shop’s next step is moving into a new, 60,000-square-foot facility in April.

To say she found her own place in manufacturing might be an understatement. In addition to her role at Pioneer Service, Muthana is now the CEO of M&M, and she is the outgoing president of the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA). She was also chosen as an honoree for the Manufacturing Institute’s 2017 STEP award, which recognizes women in manufacturing who demonstrate excellence and leadership in their companies and communities.

“In hindsight, (starting her own journey) was the best decision I could’ve made because I found my own place in manufacturing,” Muthana says.