The Presidents' Forum
April 05, 2005

Jamie Gregg
President & CEO
Colonial Bronze Company

Speaker Biography:
Jamie Gregg is the CEO of Colonial Bronze Company, a manufacturer of brass decorative hardware located in Torrington that has been in business for more than 75 years.

Mr. Gregg has been an active advocate for the manufacturing community for nearly ten years. He has served on the CONNSTEP Board of Directors since 1996, first as its chairman for five years and now as a member and its vice chairman. He has lobbied in Washington for congressional support of the MEP program and hosted numerous meetings at his company to engage both public and private support for manufacturing improvement. Both Governor Rell and Congresswoman Johnson have toured Colonial’s facility on several occasions as Mr. Gregg has sought governmental support for manufacturing on a state and local level. Mr. Gregg also testified before the DPUC in support of Northeast Utilities Prime Energy Program.

Commencing in 1995, Mr. Gregg undertook a complete makeover of his company in order to prepare it for the future. Though the assistance of the DECD, CDA, the Naugatuck Valley Loan Fund and Northeast Utilities, Mr. Gregg navigated a total re-engineering of his company. Faced with tremendous pressure from Far Eastern manufacturers, Mr. Gregg has committed his company to a strategy that focuses on the high value, high variety product that shelters his company from low cost foreign competition. Last year, Colonial produced over 9,000 different configurations of its decorative hardware and offers three times as many finish choices than its nearest competitor. As a result, Colonial has reversed its direction from one of successive years of mounting losses to a profitable and bright future. Colonial is the only remaining brass decorative hardware manufacturer in the United States and one of the few remaining brass businesses in Connecticut’s Brass Valley.

Mr. Gregg has invested significant resources in the education and training of Colonial’s workforce. Committing to Lean Manufacturing, Colonial’s employees have received many hours of Lean Manufacturing training, including Lean Behavior.

Mr. Gregg is a member of the Governor’s Progressive Manufacturing Board, the Small Manufacturers Association, and the Western Connecticut Industrial Council.

He has been active in his community for many years and has served as Chairman of the Torrington Zoning Board of Appeals, a member of the Hazardous Materials Ordinance Commission, a member of the Police Athletic League Board of Directors, and a member of a Charter Revision Commission for the City of Torrington. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.

He is active in his industry’s trade associations. He is Immediate Past President of the Decorative Plumbing and Hardware Association, a nationwide industry trade association with over 350 members, and is a member of the North American Building Materials Distributor’s Association Steering Committee. He is a published columnist for Kitchen and Bath Design News, the kitchen and bath industry’s major trade magazine.

Mr. Gregg is a practicing lawyer and is a member of the Connecticut and New York bars. Previous to his tenure at Colonial Bronze, Mr. Gregg was an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City under Rudy Giuliani.

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