One Man’s Vision: Interview with the CEO if Epcon Industrial Systems

Epcon’s President & CEO, Aziz Jamaluddin, is also the founder of the company. He chuckles when remembering the early days: “It was late November/December 1976. I couldn’t see beyond a foot what I was going to be doing. I just got in with both feet to start my own business. A lot of hard work and personal sacrifices paid off. I was surrounded by many challenges and difficulties, but my confidence was always high that I would overcome the difficulties and succeed.

He notes it wasn’t about a particular company, but rather about a particular technology, that engendered his enthusiasm. “I am a mechanical engineer. I already had several patents, and my education and experience had been in the heat transfer, thermal dynamics and thermal systems and pollution control systems, industrial furnaces and ovens. I knew how to design and build, not only the state-of-the-art system, but incorporating leading edge technology with a lot of innovations and tomorrow’s technology.”

The establishment of Epcon came about while Jamaluddin was working in Mexico for a Chicago-based company, as a joint business venture. When the peso was devalued, the Mexicans essentially wanted out of the partnership. “At the time, I was General Manager of one of their divisions of a Mexican company, located in Houston, called Montex. Through my efforts, I obtained a contract to build a brand new multi-million dollar 55-gallon drum manufacturing plant, Sharney Container.

When the Mexicans shut down the operation in Houston, I called the Mr. Sharney, President of Sharney Container and advised him of the situation.  And, at that time, I was contemplating going back to Chicago. On the advice of Mr. Sharney, I started my own company. 

With Mr. Sharney’s encouragement and his confidence in my abilities in designing and building the 55-gallon drum plant in Houston was successfully completed. The success of that plant was the cornerstone of the success of Epcon. 

Over the decades, with no actual master plan, Jamaluddin took advantage of every opportunity that came along. “I am a technically competent engineer, and always look for challenging technical opportunities to solve uncommon problems in the industry and came up with uncommon solutions.  Being a technical person, I had very little sales and marketing and business experience.”

Jamaluddin has turned Epcon into a thriving industry leader with close to 100 employees. Growth came “a little bit at a time” – organic growth, vertical growth, with no infusion of outside capital. “In the beginning, with no other talent, than my own.  As time went on, I got talented engineers, who I trained on Epcon’s products and services. 

The most important thing is that we have developed a unique culture in the company.

Today, Epcon encompasses a 250,000 square foot, modern, manufacturing facility on 18 acres in the Greater Houston area, housing million dollars’ worth of fabricating machines, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines, and other automated machinery. Products are sold around the world, with sales fluctuating at 70-80 percent domestic, and 20-30 percent outside the US.

Product lines include environmental thermal oxidizers, environmental abatement systems for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as custom-designed, industrial ovens and furnaces. Because of its proven engineering expertise and on-site manufacturing facilities, meeting American Petroleum Institute (API) standards, Epcon is now considered the go-to source for these high-tech, niche products. Customers come from the automotive, aerospace, metal coatings, internal pipe coating, flexible packaging, resin manufacturing, copper-clad laminates, industrial finishing systems industries, and basically anywhere that curing/heat processing is required.