Leadership team
About us / Leadership team / Mike Kropp, P.Eng.
Mike Kropp, P.Eng.
Co-Founder, President and CEO
PEER Group’s co-founder has used his passion for engineering to foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement in software processes, and high customer satisfaction. Mike’s strategic vision has helped transform PEER Group from a successful custom manufacturing software solutions company to a global market leader in factory automation software products and services.
Mike was vice president of engineering from 1992 to 2003. His hands-on technical leadership set the company’s direction for solving customers’ manufacturing problems and delivering quality solutions on time and on budget. When he became COO in 2003, Mike defined strategies for expanding PEER Group talent, and applied his conservative financial management to ensure long-term stability and profitability in uncertain economic times. In 2007, Mike was named acting president and re-defined PEER Group’s business model, creating a balance between products and services through organizational design and the acquisitions of CCS Envoy™ in 2008 and Asyst Technologies’ software product line in 2009.
Mike was named president and CEO in February 2010 and proceeded to pivot from supplying custom software solutions for manufacturing to a software product and services company focused on the semiconductor manufacturing market. During the past decade under his leadership, PEER Group has achieved a 20 per cent compounded annual growth rate while growing the company to 250+ employees and expanding operations by opening a Toronto office. During this time, PEER Group has been consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top workplaces as well as being honored with several industry and supplier awards.
In 2023, Mike was appointed to the SEMI North America Advisory Board (NAAB), whose mission is to strengthen the financial, market, and technology performance of SEMI member companies operating in North America. In the same year, he was inducted into the University of Toronto Engineering Alumni Network’s Hall of Distinction, which recognizes extraordinary U of T Engineering alumni for their lifelong accomplishments and whose careers ultimately define what is most exemplary about the engineering profession. In 2024, Mike, along with PEER Group Co-Founder, Bob Harris, was inducted into the Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Mike was also named the 2024 recipient of the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards Engineering Medal – Engineering Excellence in Industry.
Prior to founding PEER Group, Mike specialized in software development for shop floor and equipment control applications for automated production environments. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and is a licensed professional engineer in the province of Ontario.