Michael J. Hartnett has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of RBC Bearings, Inc. since April 1992 and Chairman of the Board since June 1993. Prior to that, Mike spent eighteen years at The Torrington Company, one of the three largest bearings manufacturers in the U.S, where he held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Aerospace Business Unit and was, prior to that, Vice President of the Research and Development Division. Mike holds an undergraduate degree from University of New Haven, a Masters degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from the University of Connecticut. Mike has developed numerous patents, authored more than two dozen technical papers and is well known for his contributions to the field of tribology, the study of friction.
Mike currently serves on the Engineering Advisory Board of Fairfield University, the University of New Haven and the University of California-Riverside. He is also a trustee of the Hartnett foundation, a nonprofit organization that sponsors university scholarships. Previously, he served for 16 years as a board member of Aftermarket Technology Corporation, was a member of the Board of Governors for the University of New Haven, where he also served as Chairman of the audit committee, and is the past Chairman of the Engineering Advisory Committee at the University of Connecticut.