Meet the Owner - Alex Hurd

By CMC
11/13/25

Before starting at CMC, Alex had been working on his rock climbing skills with his wife. When the opportunity arrived, Alex realized that CMC was a perfect combination of his passions for design engineering and outdoor climbing. He has now been a proud employee owner at CMC for 6 years.

Alex got his first taste of Mechanical Engineering early on. When asked about his first experiences with engineering, Alex responded, “In high school I started working on my family’s 1964 Ford Ranchero. I loved working on it and through that project I built a strong curiosity about how somebody made the design decisions to make it work. It wasn’t enough for me to know how a car worked. I needed to learn how to design a car from scratch. So, I decided to pursue a mechanical engineering degree in college.”

Alex takes an enormous amount of pride and enjoyment from the process of developing products. Designing a product for rescue work can be difficult and time consuming as it needs to be as perfect as possible before it arrives in the users’ hands; Alex more than anyone understands this. When asked about some of the unique challenges that come with designing products for rescue and access, Alex explained “making a strong device is typically at odds with making a device easy and safe to use. We first focus on the function of our products first. That means we want the product to be safe, reliable, durable, and a joy to use in the field first. Then once that the function has been established, we then work on the fit and form of the device. I want our end users to be able to pick up my designs and intuitively know how to use the device. Then once they use my product, I want it to spark joy in them.”

In Alex’s words, “I feel blessed to be able to use my imagination every day at work. I get to climb, design, test, and theorize all day every day. Eventually, after we have exhausted all our ideas and ideals on that product, I get to watch that new tool help save lives out in the world. I couldn’t really ask for more within my profession.”