Champion Fasteners’ CEO Aldo Magazzeni (sitting on the tank to the right) celebrates a drink of water from the first water system in the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan.

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The Champion Fasteners executive team – President Robert Santare, CEO Aldo Magazzeni and Vice President Stan Lippincott – understands what it takes to run a successful manufacturing company.

But, it also knows there is more to running a business than the bottom dollar, and that is why the team fully supports employees’ philanthropic efforts.

Magazzeni takes this attitude to heart and has traveled the world helping developing countries through Champion’s nonprofit organization, Traveling Mercies. Through the program, Magazzeni has traveled to Kenya, Afghanistan and Haiti to help build infrastructure for impoverished communities, with Champion Fasteners providing a bulk of the material, equipment and capital required to make these projects happen, he says.

“We all have a lot of different skills and life experiences, but the one we share is business,” Magazzeni says. “We also have individual and personal hearts, and that is who we are as people.

“We are three people that learn and share together and support each other with what is important. It is part of who I am as a person.”

About Champion
Champion Fasteners manufactures stud welding fasteners and specialty fasters primarily for the OEM market at its 30,000-square-foot facility in Mount Holly, N.J.

The company was formed in 1990 when Santare, Magazzeni and Lippincott’s former employer went out of business.

The company’s manufacturing capabilities include screw machines, punch presses, cold heading, thread rolling and CNC processes.

It operates a full in-house tool room.  

Activist Efforts
Through Traveling Mercies, Magazzeni traveled to Kenya in 2006 with Jesuit priest Angelo D’Agostino to create a village for thousands of children orphaned by AIDS.

The Rev. D’Agostino awarded Magazzeni with a Medallion of Hope for his role in the building of the Kitui village and Nyumbani Orphanage.

While in Kenya, Magazzeni designed and installed the water delivery system for Kitui.

Previously, Magazzeni had spent parts of 2004 and 2005 in Afghanistan, where he also designed water pump systems before turning his focus to women’s rights.

This is where he met Suraya Pakzad, executive director of the Voice of Women Organization. After working together in Afghanistan, the pair now share their experiences in the United States.

During Pakzad’s three-week visit to the United States to accept her Woman of Courage award from Condoleeza Rice, she and Magazzeni made a number appearances where Pakzad lectured Magazzeni displayed his photos from his travels as part of his “Traveling Mercies” mission.