Episode 4 - With Auburn Manufacturing Inc.'s Kathie Leonard

Kathie Leonard is the founder and President and CEO of Auburn Manufacturing Inc., a Maine-based manufacturer of advanced textiles for extreme-heat environments, who hosted a historic visit from President Joe Biden earlier this year. Hear how Kathie built her textile company over the past 40 years, facing a multitude of challenges, including inflation, unfair import competition and a once-in-a-generation pandemic that nearly derailed her company. In a true testament of determination and grit, her small American company engaged in a major battle against Chinese companies dumping silica fabric on the U.S. market and came out the other side a victor. Kathie details her personal journey as a woman textile leader who has persevered and whose story of success drew the likes of an American president to her factory floor in this program of “American Textiles: Threading the Needle.”