Rita Conroy-Martin grew up on a farm in County Clare, Ireland. At 19, she left on a J1 visa having never really been outside her village. What followed was Europe, then the United States, then eight years at ZOLLER Inc. building a marketing and customer experience function that borrows more from luxury hospitality than from any manufacturing playbook. The route was not straight. It was entirely deliberate.
ZOLLER Inc. is the US subsidiary of the Germany-headquartered ZOLLER Group, a global leader in tool presetting, measuring, and management solutions for precision manufacturing. A third-generation, family-owned company operating across more than 50 countries, ZOLLER’s technology sits at the heart of smart manufacturing operations worldwide. Rita Conroy-Martin, as the Director of Marketing & CX, is the person responsible for how that brand is experienced in every market, at every touchpoint, across the US, Canada, and Mexico. She has been in the role eight years. It is the longest she has stayed anywhere. She will tell you, without prompting, that she genuinely loves the brand.
Before Any of This, There Was a Farm
Rita did not start in manufacturing. She started in a field in Limerick, working with horses, training, riding, competing in dressage, and learning early how to read people and situations fast. That environment, she says, shaped everything that came after it. “Nothing comes easy, and the harder the work, the greater the reward.”
At 19, she left Ireland on a J1 visa, having never really been outside her small village. After graduation, when jobs in Ireland were scarce, she spent months at a ski resort in Austria. Not a career move. A lesson in staying open and figuring things out. Then came Belgium, Turkey, Germany, sales and marketing roles across Europe, a master’s in political science, and serious culinary training in Paris, Brussels, Italy, and Ireland. Her interest in food deepened in Brussels, where she began to understand something she has carried into every role since: that how an experience feels is what people remember.
When she moved permanently to the US in 2002, it was for a personal reason. She had met her husband while working at the European headquarters of an American company based in Ann Arbor. Detroit drew her in professionally. “A manufacturing environment that is very real, complex, demanding, no fluff, and deeply connected to the customer.”
Her first US role was Executive Assistant to the CEO at Gehring Technologies. The CEO was ex-military. Expectations were clear, accountability non-negotiable, follow-through everything. From the outset, Rita was given responsibility well beyond the title, close to decision-making, involved in key priorities, expected to execute. “That experience accelerated everything.”
The Years Between
Before joining ZOLLER, Rita spent four years as a freelance consultant, doing business strategy, event planning, and private chef work including corporate team-building experiences built around cooking. She describes it as one of the most formative periods of her career.
“It wasn’t just about cooking. It was about culture, experience, and connection. Food, like travel, brings people together.” Freelancing also emphasised something she already knew from the farm. “There’s no safety net. You have to deliver each and every time.” That standard came with her to ZOLLER.
What Eight Years at ZOLLER Actually Changed
ZOLLER changed how Rita thinks about marketing, not as a communications function but as a structured, integrated system connecting brand, sales, and customer experience. More than that, it changed how she thinks about responsibility.
“ZOLLER is a third-generation, family-owned global company with a strong legacy and reputation. Being part of that is a true honour. I genuinely love the brand. And with that comes a deep sense of responsibility, not just to grow it, but to protect it.”
The 80th Anniversary global campaign was hers. So is the way ZOLLER thinks about every customer interaction. Rita introduced processes that standardise how customers are received at every stage of their journey, from visits to the Industry 4.0 technology centres, to catering at technology days, to digital support through the MYZOLLER portal. The benchmark she set was not other manufacturing companies. It was luxury hospitality.
“The customer doesn’t experience your product. They experience your company.” Getting that right, she says, is about intention and detail. Making people feel welcome, understood, valued, almost at home. Remembering what drives them. And then delivering on it, every time, regardless of whether the customer is a large OEM or a small shop.
No Engineering Degree, No Problem
Rita comes from a business background, not engineering. In a deeply technical, male-dominated industry, the question of how she earned the room’s respect comes up often.
Her answer is consistent: she never tried to be the most technical person in the room. “I focused on understanding the system, the technology, the process, how it impacts the customer. The moment you let go of ego, you create space for better outcomes.”
Her role has always been to bridge worlds, bringing in the right experts, aligning perspectives, ensuring everything connects back to customer value. Trust, she says, did not arrive in a single moment. It built over time, through follow-through, and through being the person who did what she said she would do.
Five Continents, Six Languages, One Standard
Rita has worked across Ireland, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, and the US. She has led trade missions to Israel, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil, rooms where a Western woman opening a technical conversation was not the expected script. She adapted, but not in the way people might assume. “You adapt in how you engage, not in terms of who you are. That comes from awareness, curiosity, and respect for the environment you are in.”
Language has been a quiet but significant lever throughout. Rita speaks six languages, including Gaelic. Under pressure, she thinks in English, but fluency, she is clear, is only the surface. What matters is cultural understanding. Living and studying in Belgium, Austria, and Germany gave her access to the unspoken rules of engagement in each market. “That is the important differentiator. Cultural understanding breaks down barriers that credentials alone cannot.”
On where she felt most supported and where most underestimated, her answer is not what you might expect. Geography, she says, matters less than how you show up. “Preparation, consistency, and follow-through are universal currencies. When you demonstrate knowledge, stay committed, and deliver results, perceptions shift and they tend to shift quickly.”
Metro Detroit, specifically, she describes as a place that respects performance regardless of gender. “It’s practical, direct, and results-oriented. It’s not about perception. It’s about the contribution.”
What the Industry Needs to Actually Change
On women in manufacturing, Rita is direct. The fix she would make is not a campaign or an awareness initiative. “I would focus on creating real access to meaningful roles, where women are trusted with responsibility, given opportunities to grow, and supported in doing so. Leaving it to luck, grit, and random opportunities is doing the industry no favours.”
She also wants more honesty about the shape of a career. The expectation that there is one defined path, whether in the workplace or at home, does not reflect reality. Women need to feel they can ask for help, take time for themselves without guilt, and choose paths outside conventional expectations without having to justify them.
On Industry 4.0 and whether technology is creating more space for women, she is measured. “Culture doesn’t move at the same speed as technology. Cultural change requires consistency, visibility, and time. It’s built through people showing up, contributing, and demonstrating value repeatedly.”
The Sage Dish, and Why None of It Is Separate
Rita runs a food and lifestyle platform called The Sage Dish. She has a deep love of nature, the arts, music, fine food, and travel. None of this, she is clear, is separate from the work. “Those things shape how I see the world and how I connect with people. It influences how I think about customer experience, how I design events, and how I engage with people.”
The people who have mattered most in her career reflect the same values she brought from the farm. Her mother, close, present, self-sufficient, gave her resilience, humility, and a work ethic she has never had to manufacture. Olaf Tessarzyk at Gehring gave Rita her first experience of what extreme discipline and preparation look like in practice. And Alexander Zoller, President of ZOLLER Inc., has given her something she does not take lightly: trust.
“That trust creates both responsibility and opportunity. No one builds a career alone. But it is your responsibility to take that support, follow through, and deliver.” From a farm in Limerick to eight years building one of manufacturing’s most considered brand and customer experience operations, Rita Conroy-Martin has never followed the industry’s script. She has followed her own, written one role, one room, and one standard at a time.
