hen a competitive silicon Wafer company in Sulphur closed its doors in 1999, one of their employees for the past five years, Kelly Burke, decided to open his own company and utilize the good people in the area with expertise in this field.
He said, "I began looking for a community with good infra- structure because of the company's water require-ments, a strong economic development team and a business-friendly city. I found it in Ardmore! It offered easy access to DFW airport and our Texas customers with lower cost of operations and taxes than was available to a start-up business in the Dallas area."

Kelly prefers a small town environment which is still large enough to support business. His employees prefer the local community too. Starting the business in 2000, with the help of a financial backer, Kelly began with only a handful of employees.

      During the last two years, the silicon wafer industry has experienced a downturn, however Southwest Silicon offering recycling options to save customers' money has maintained and even grown to 23 employees. Silicon wafers are used in fabrication of integrated circuits.

The company takes off spec wafers and removes film, resurfaces, recleans and returns wafers for use to the integrated circuit manufacturers. It is considered a green industry, because it is recycling something that would normally be thrown away. Cost is reduced by 1/3 to 1/2 over a new product. The company has a diverse customer base nation-wide.

Kelly Burke serves on the Training Alliance of Southern Oklahoma Board to train maintenance technicians for manufacturing companies in Ardmore and the surrounding area. He is also on the Murray State College Technical Advisory Board. Kelly conducts school and organization tours and interns stu-dents at his company.

Kelly says, "Ardmore is supportive of manufacturing and proactive in obtaining and retaining businesses."