Hong Kong–based sourcing and operations professional focused on advanced manufacturing, supplier ecosystems, and frontier industrial technology across Asia.
I currently lead Advanced Sourcing initiatives for Milwaukee Tool’s Asia outsource supply base, supporting supplier intelligence, manufacturing capability development, and early-stage sourcing strategy across multiple business units.This site is a portfolio of ongoing projects, writing, and field observations centered on industrial systems, manufacturing, and the evolving infrastructure beneath the modern world.
Current Focus
Advanced Sourcing & Supplier Intelligence
Frontier Hard Tech & Industrial Ecosystems
Pacific Manufacturing & Supply Chains
The Hidden Layer
TraceLayer
About
I’m Neil Hawke (霍寧), a Hong Kong–based sourcing and operations professional focused on advanced manufacturing, supplier ecosystems, and frontier industrial technology across Asia.
My work sits at the intersection of product development, sourcing, manufacturing, and operational risk, particularly in environments where engineering decisions, supplier capability, and geopolitical realities increasingly overlap. I’m most interested in how complex physical products actually get built at scale, and how organizations develop resilient industrial systems without becoming slow, brittle, or overextended.Today, I lead Advanced Sourcing initiatives for Milwaukee Tool’s Asia outsource supply base, helping identify, evaluate, and integrate new manufacturing partners across a multi-billion-dollar portfolio. I work cross-functionally with sourcing, engineering, quality, and product teams across the US and Asia to support early-stage supplier evaluations, manufacturing capability development, and supplier intelligence efforts spanning multiple business units.Outside of work, I write The Hidden Layer, a publication exploring frontier hard tech, industrial ecosystems, manufacturing systems, and the evolving infrastructure beneath the modern world.
Highlights
- MBA and BS in Engineering Management, Michigan Technological University
- PMP Certified
- Michigan Tech Engineering & Supply Chain Management Industry Advisory Board
- Based in Hong Kong, originally from MichiganOutside of work, I spend most of my time sailing, paddling, skiing, hiking, practicing Muay Thai, traveling across Asia, and learning Mandarin.If we haven’t met yet, feel free to reach out.
Projects
Focus on frontier hard tech and industrial systems.
Archive
Passive, on hold, or permanently archived.
Contact
Hawke Systems is a personal infrastructure project exploring portable computing and communications systems for globally mobile industrial work.Built around my own use cases traveling between suppliers, factories, and offices across Asia, the project focuses on compact, self-contained systems for local storage, networking, and resilient field computing outside traditional office environments.Status: Active, in development.
TraceLayer is a proof-of-concept supplier intelligence and disruption-monitoring tool for electronics sourcing.Built around real operational pain points encountered in Asia manufacturing and supplier management, the platform maps approved vendor ecosystems against supply chain events, geopolitical risk, and component exposure to generate lightweight executive visibility and sourcing intelligence.The project currently exists as an experimental prototype exploring more proactive approaches to electronics supply chain resilience.Status: Active, in development.
Good in the Great Lakes Region- that's what Thimbleberry Capital is about. I have a lot of belief in the grit and innovation of founders in the Michigan-Wisconsin-Minnesota-Illinois area, and I founded Thimbleberry Capital as a purpose-driven nanocapital initiative, supporting founders in the outdoor, mobility, and health sciences industries in this region.Our first investment was sponsoring Michigan Tech's Circular Solutions Enterprise Team in a project to develop a recyclable textile solution.Status: Archived.
Founded in 2021, Great Lakes Coastal is my love letter to my home, the Great Lakes region.With the help of talented designers, I created the first Great Lakes Beach Shirt and other associated beachwear, featuring prints unique to iconic Great Lakes locations.This project was designed to be explicitly low-tech and to step away from complexity, but proved to have its own challenges in terms of unit economics and global sourcing.We've had the opportunity to partner with great organizations, creating custom shirts for Door County Brewing Company, and Copper Harbor Trails Club, in addition to our own collection.Currently operations are paused, with plans to resume on my return to the US.Status: On hold.
College Coaching with Neil
College Coaching with Neil aims to support struggling college students, using my unique perspective and experiences from my undergraduate degree.I offer downloadable PDF materials on Gumroad.These resources are grouped by student needs, with some geared toward parents, some for academic crisis-mode, and some for early career planning. All are free or very low-cost.Status: Passive.
