Mark Hillestad
Mark Hillestad, president, H&S Tool, Inc. died suddenly Saturday, October 29, 2011. He is survived by his mother, Wanita, wife, Teri and daughter, Julianna, among other relatives in the U.S. and Norway.
Tolleif Hillestad, Mark's father, started the company in the garage of their Akron, Ohio home in 1976. Mark joined the family business upon graduation from Kent State University. Mark was the "S" in H&S - Hillestad & Son. Tolleif designed and built pipe machining tools for rental to the power generation industry for maintenance outages. Since the vast majority of the business was in rentals, the tools had to be as rugged and reliable as possible to minimize repairs and ownership costs. The performance had to be superior because their name was on it.
Those simple fundamental operating philosophies resulted in the little garage company growing into a multi-national corporation with offices in Australia, Europe and the Middle East. A quality network of dealers, representatives and customers on every continent around the world has also been created.
The product line has grown from a few models and an inventory of less than 100 to 11 models of I.D. locking tools, 23 split frame clamshell models, 6 models of saws, and a full range of tube expanding equipment with total domestic and international inventories of over 4,000 tools.
While Mark has not been actively involved in the day-to-day operations for some time, his wisdom and wit will be missed. The Hillestad family still owns this company and we will never forget what name is on the tools. We pledge to adhere to their simple philosophy and deliver the quality products and exemplary service that you expect and they demand.