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The People Behind the Power: Anthony Natale’s Story
Director of Application Engineering, HICO America
In the power industry, strong engineering requires more than technical expertise. It also takes clear communication, continuous learning, and the ability to help others understand complex challenges.
For Anthony Natale, Director of Application Engineering at HICO America, those principles have defined his career. He has helped shape the role of engineering within a growing organization while building a stronger technical connection between teams in the United States and Korea.
A Foundation Built on Hard Work
Anthony was born and raised in Illinois in a family rooted in hard work and small business. His family owns and operates a deli sandwich shop, giving him an early look at the commitment required to serve others and keep a business moving every day.
His curiosity and problem-solving mindset eventually led him to electrical engineering at Northwestern University. While his education provided a strong technical foundation, Anthony credits much of his growth to learning from experienced colleagues, customers, and mentors throughout his career.
After college, Anthony remained close to home for a period of time to help care for his mother. That experience reinforced the importance of family, responsibility, and being present when others need support.
Building a Life Beyond Engineering
Around the age of 23, Anthony met his future wife online while playing Euchre. She was from Wheeling, West Virginia, and what began overa card game eventually became a life and family together.
Today, Anthony and his wife are raising two sons, ages 16 and 12. While engineering is an important part of his story, his family remains at the center of it.
More Than a Sales Office
Anthony joined HICO America when the U.S. organization had approximately 20 employees.
His first title was Staff Engineer, but the position represented something much larger. The role was created to help HICO America develop a stronger technical presence in the United States and evolve beyond being viewed primarily as a sales office.
At the time, there was not yet a clearly defined model for engineering within HICO America. Anthony was not simply stepping into an established structure. He was helping create one.
As the company grew, so did his role, eventually leading him to his current position as Director of Application Engineering.
A Career of Learning and Teaching
Anthony defines his career through continuous learning, and his natural curiosity still drives the way he approaches the work today.
He enjoys tackling complex engineering challenges, especially the unusual problems that require people from multiple technical disciplines to think together and develop a practical solution. For Anthony, the harder the question, the more there is to learn.
In Application Engineering, that curiosity must be paired with communication. The team’s responsibility is not only to identify the best solution, but also to explain it clearly enough that others can make informed decisions and position their projects for success.
“Our job is not just to solve technical problems,” Anthony says. “It is to help people understand them well enough to make the right decisions.” That focus on learning, teaching, and listening has become central to his leadership and the way he supports both customers and internal teams.
Defining the HICO Model of Engineering
When asked about his greatest impact at HICO America, Anthony points to helping define what engineering means for the organization.
Application Engineering at HICO reaches across many areas of the business. The team helps connect customer needs, technical requirements, product capabilities, sales strategy, and project execution.
That broad involvement has helped establish what Anthony describes as the “HICO Model” of engineering: an approach built around collaboration, flexibility, and a willingness to step beyond traditional boundaries to support the organization.
The team does more than answer technical questions. It helps translate customer needs, strengthen proposals, reduce risk, and create alignment throughout a project.
Bridging the United States and Korea
One of the most significant parts of Anthony’s work has been building a stronger technical connection between HICO America and the teams in Korea.
The challenge extended beyond different time zones and spoken languages. It also required navigating differences in culture, expectations, business practices, and engineering approaches.
Anthony describes the goal as learning to “speak the same language technically.”
Working globally often involves translation, but Anthony believes it can be even more important to translate technical terminology into language everyone can understand.
Creating that alignment took time. The Korean organization needed to trust the technical capabilities of the U.S. team, while the U.S. team continued learning from decades of product expertise in Korea.
That trust was earned through consistency, collaboration, and demonstrated technical understanding. The framework Anthony helped build strengthened communication between the two countries and improved HICO America’s ability to support customers in the U.S. market.
Engineering Through Collaboration
Anthony’s story is a reminder that engineering does not happen in isolation, and that even the most technical work is ultimately about people.
The strongest solutions often come from people with different perspectives working together. For Anthony, that means connecting teams, asking the right questions, and making technical information understandable and useful. It also means staying curious enough to keep digging when a challenge does not have an obvious answer.
His background has given him an appreciation for both the technical and human sides of the work. Growing up in a family business taught him the value of effort and service. Caring for his mother reinforced responsibility and perspective. Building a career within a growing international company taught him the importance of patience, trust, and communication.
Together, those experiences shaped the leader and engineer he is today: thoughtful, collaborative, and still genuinely excited to learn how things work.
Building Something That Lasts
Anthony joined HICO America during an earlier chapter of its growth. Since then, he has helped the organization become more technically capable, more connected, and better equipped to support the evolving needs of the power industry.
His impact can be seen in the Application Engineering team, in the relationships built between the United States and Korea, and in the technical foundation supporting HICO America’s continued growth.
Anthony did not simply fill an engineering role.
He helped define it.
