Paul Andre Akers is an American author and businessman. Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, a product development company that specializes in woodworking tools.

Career

Akers started building guitars with his mentor Bob Taylor at

Taylor Guitars Taylor Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer based in El Cajon, California. The company was founded in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug, specializing in acoustic guitars and semi-hollow electric guitars. It is one of the largest manufact ...

and Musical Instruments in California right out of high school. He then graduated with a degree in education from

Biola University Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor' ...

and started his career in inner-city ministry in the

Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, ...

as a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

with his wife Leanne. He worked as a teacher, and then as a carpenter. In his garage in 1997, Akers developed his first product: the FastCap. It was a technique to cover and hide screw holes with a tiny adhesive cap that blends in with the wood around it. That idea turned into a manufacturing business. Overwhelmed with a multitude of tasks, personnel, and major financial decisions he faced on a daily basis, Akers began using the concepts of

Lean manufacturing Lean manufacturing is a methods of production, method of manufacturing goods aimed primarily at reducing times within the Operations management#Production systems, production system as well as response times from suppliers and customers. It is ...

and the

Toyota Production System The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile ...

(TPS), which he credits for propelling FastCap forward. Akers is also an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, lean teacher,

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

, and works as a speaker and consultant offering advice to companies and organizations.

Political life

In 2010 Akers set his sights on politics, running for the US Senate in Washington as a Republican. He was defeated in the primary by

Dino Rossi Dino John Rossi (born October 15, 1959) is an American businessman and politician who served as a Washington State senator thrice, from 1997 to 2003, in 2012, and again from 2016 to 2017. A Republican, he is a former chair of the Washington Sta ...

References

External links

* (Self-published) {{DEFAULTSORT:Akers, Paul Living people People from Whatcom County, Washington Washington (state) Republicans Businesspeople from Washington (state) 1960 births