Today we’d like to introduce you to Luis de Leon.
Luis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Loved wheels since I first met a bicycle when was a kid, feeling that only went bigger and bigger as I grew up. When I realized wheels could have engines I knew what I would like to do for the rest of my life.
Back in Brazil, a year in the Army is mandatory, and by knowing that, I made it happen to be part of Cavalry, and I ended up staying for 4 years, dealing with huge armored tanks, the largest engine beasts I was fortuned to work with so far. Back in that time I first started using a FuelTech ECU in my personal car, in the very first years of the company with one of the very first products. Being someone that like new challenges, I decided to steer towards the civilian life and high-performance vehicles so I started doing my Mechanical Engineering degree.
In no time I was talking to Anderson, FuelTech founder, and CEO, about working with him. Started as a Tech Support Technician, my will to be around race cars, going to race tracks anywhere, every week, gave me the opportunity to gain experience, polishing my academic knowledge and as the Brazilian company started its project to come to the USA, I was granted the opportunity to not just come to the USA, but to become a partner.
It’s been over 3 years at FuelTech USA, now as Technical Director, and could not be happier with my personal and business life, helping growing this amazing company along great people, and having my first son with my beautiful wife that came from Brazil with me, my biggest supporter thru all these years of happy and hard work.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Moving from Brazil to the USA isn’t an easy task. There’s a ton of paperwork and lots of travel to have a work VISA. Its rewarding to have it, as it is granted only for those who can help this great country, but isn’t an easy road as it is needed to be done while there’s a ton of work, even more racing related work, that happens 7 days a week. We are blessed from having parents and friends visiting all the time, but it is not the same deal, so there’s some “missing you” along the way.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
FuelTech USA is a company made by passionate people, doing the best they can to serve passionate people. We understand that any kind of Motorsports, including the weekend ones, are directly related to great feelings, and we walk side by side with that idea on the development, manufacturing and usability of our products.
We do engine management systems that go above and beyond, also managing the whole vehicle, interfacing with the user (thru touchscreen dashes) and recording it all to help improving that thing the customer put so much heart and effort to run, their car!
A standalone ECM that can also be used along other electronics, a ECU that can be used on a bike, a boat, a car, a truck, a jet ski, all the features unlocked, the user can choose what to do with that, on a simple and easy way, everything based on user feedback. We do what the user wants to have, not what we think they should have.
What were you like growing up?
Always curious, always trying different things, trying to go to different places, dissembling any toys I would be given and try to do something different from that, learning on the process.
Always rode my bicycle till I could have a drivers license, always had to keep moving, but also always trying to understand and improve the machines that were helping me move quicker than by myself.
Contact Info:
- Address: 455 Wilbanks Dr. Ball Ground GA 30107
- Website: www.fueltech.net
- Phone: 678-493-3835
- Email: luis@fueltech.net
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/fueltechusa/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/FuelTechUSA/
- Other: www.youtube.com/c/FuelTechUSA
Image Credit:
Nathalia de Leon, Jonathas Enorme, Jaime Corretjer
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