Kim Gerard – 2023 Alumni Fellow
By Grant Guggisberg
When Kim Gerard sees a problem, her first instinct is to solve it. The 2023 Alumni Fellow for the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering credits K-State for helping develop that skill, one that has served her well over a long and successful career as an innovator and business owner.
“I left here with the discipline to see a problem through to a solution, and the logical thought process to work through,” she said. “Because everything in life is a problem, and you always have to figure out a solution. Those were two key things that I took away from K-State.”
Gerard graduated from K-State with two bachelor’s degrees, the first in engineering technology in 1982 and the second in civil engineering in 1984. She entered the petroleum industry with Conoco, then went on to be a partner and vice president of operations at Petro Source.
After 20 years in the petroleum industry, she started 360 Electrical LLC, headquartered in Salt Lake City, in 2005. 360 began with a patent for rotating electrical devices and expanded to a company innovating all types of consumer and jobsite power products.
“I think one of the most important things is to be willing to accept change,” Gerard said. “I went through college believing I knew what I would do with my life, and then suddenly an opportunity was presented and I totally shifted gears into something I never dreamt I would do. And that’s been the case throughout my life.
“I’ve done a lot of weird things, and a lot of different things. But when something doesn’t feel right, figure out what will and make that change. We don’t have to set a plan and stay on it.”
While Gerard’s story is filled with personal and professional success, it was far from easy. There were many obstacles in the first few years of owning her own business. Her initial idea for 360 Electrical was to make a rotating, hard-wired receptacle in the wall, targeted to builders of new homes. The business quickly pivoted during the housing crisis in 2007.
“So here we are with a million devices we had just manufactured and no marketplace,” Gerard said. “We had to very quickly switch gears, because my patent covered a lot of different ways of designing and utilizing that rotating aspect, so we switched to more of an end-user device that could be plugged into the wall and didn’t need to be hardwired.
"When something doesn’t feel right, figure out what will and make that change. We don’t have to set a plan and stay on it."
“We did not make any profit until 2010. I spent $5 million starting a company that I was scared to death would fail, but by the grace of God, we’ve made it. And every year, there is a new challenge that we didn’t see coming.”
Today, 360 Electrical creates a mix of award-winning, rotating electrical products and connectivity solutions for electronic devices with more than 10 million units sold. Additionally, Gerard owns a personal fitness studio.
Gerard, who says 90% of her time these days is spent having fun with a variety of hobbies such as four-wheeling, riding motorcycles, scuba-diving and working out, encouraged current engineering students to make sure to enjoy college while they are at K-State.
“When I went to college, I was working two to three jobs, one semester I had 21 hours of engineering classes,” she said. “You found me either working or studying. I can honestly say I didn’t have fun during college, because it was too busy. I encourage people to not take that path. Find a way to enjoy this, because it should be one of the greatest times in your life.”