At Work: Ajay Pasupuleti

How did you first become involved in NDT?

I come from an electrical engineering background, with a master’s and PhD from Rochester Institute of Technology, where I worked on image processing. About 15 years ago, my company focused on digitizing paper records, and we were approached by a casting house to digitize radiographs. When we heard that they had several million sheets of radiographs, I thought, why are they even keeping them? What do they do with them? That was my first introduction to NDT [nondestructive testing].

Can you describe your current role?

As a CEO, most of my work is about advocacy. Even within large organizations that use NDT, C-suite executives don’t really understand it and may not even know it exists within their own company. Most of my work is educating the financial world on NDT: What’s the benefit? What are the cost savings associated with NDT? In the last year, I’ve probably talked to over 200 investors. I also got to pitch in the “advanced tech” track at South by Southwest, with over 1000 people on stage, and the first question was, “What is NDT?” There are so many opportunities to share the importance of NDT.

Can you tell us about your involvement with ASNT?

ASNT has been fantastic for me because it is one of the few platforms where I can meet people from several sectors within this community, and it strengthens the bonds between these sectors. It’s been very helpful for me to come to the Annual Conference, and I haven’t missed one in the last 10 years. It gives us direction on where the industry is moving.This was my first year attending the Day on the Hill, and it was a fantastic event. I’m used to talking to the financial community, but the regulatory and legislative side is a totally different animal. But they were also able to grasp the need for NDT and the importance of the NDT technicians. If safety is the direction you take the conversation, everyone can relate to it.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing NDT?

I believe the first one is the perception of what NDT brings to the table. It’s often misunderstood as a liability, not adding to the bottom line, a necessary evil—this is how it has been projected to the world, or at least to management. It’s important to emphasize that NDT is helping them make decisions. I call it “decision infrastructure,” which can help the C-suite ultimately say, “Can I use this asset or not?” That’s what NDT brings. And the other glaring challenge is the age gap. I’m still amazed that the average age in this sector, according to some reports, is about 50 years, which means we have an extreme group of sets: very young, and people close to retirement. That creates a challenge for knowledge transfer.

Do you have a favorite quote or motto that you live by?

I live by the principle that we need to do what is good, and then the rest will follow.