Built in Sterling. Carried Forward by the American Dream.

Sterling, Illinois has always been a place where people make things. From the mills that grew along the Rock River to the manufacturers that helped Sterling earn its reputation as the “Hardware Capital of the World,” generations of skilled men and women have built careers, families, businesses, and communities here. Manufacturing is not simply part of Sterling’s history — it is part of its identity.

Westwood Machine & Tool is part of that story. Founded in Sterling in 1978, Westwood has spent decades solving difficult manufacturing problems for industrial customers. Behind every precision-machined component, repair part, tool, and fabricated assembly is something even more valuable: the knowledge and craftsmanship of the people who make it.

For many years, Joe Schneiderbauer and his partners helped build and steward Westwood — earning the trust of customers, developing an experienced team, and creating a business that could endure through changing technologies, markets, and generations. As Joe prepared for retirement, the objective was not simply to sell a collection of machines. It was to find a way for the people, relationships, skills, and reputation built at Westwood to continue.

The next chapter

That is where Jag Krishnan and Ramesh Rajagopalan enter the next chapter.

Jag and Ramesh came to the United States as first-generation immigrants. Like millions before them, they came believing in a simple but powerful idea: that in America, hard work, education, perseverance, and opportunity can allow someone not only to build a better life, but eventually to create opportunities for others.

After building their careers in America, their ambition became something more personal — to own and grow American industrial businesses, preserve skilled manufacturing jobs, invest in people and equipment, and create new employment in the communities where those businesses were built. Westwood represented exactly that opportunity.

The transition from Joe to Jag and Ramesh is therefore not about replacing Westwood’s past. It is about protecting what made Westwood successful and investing in what it can become.

• The Westwood name remains.
• The skilled workforce remains.
• The commitment to customers remains.
• The craftsmanship remains.

And alongside that foundation comes a renewed commitment to investment, technology, workforce development, customer growth, and the next generation of American manufacturing.

For Jag and Ramesh, becoming stewards of Westwood is also a deeply personal expression of the American Dream: immigrants arriving in this country, building careers and families here, and eventually having the privilege of investing their own capital and energy into an American manufacturing company — with the responsibility of creating jobs and opportunities for others.

In a city built by makers, that feels like the right next chapter.