SME Education Foundation Elects 2009 Executive Committee and Board of Directors

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME, Dearborn, MI) Education Foundation has named new officers and selected two new members to serve on its Board of Directors. All terms will be effective January 1, 2009.

President: Khalil S. Taraman, PhD, FSME, PE

Taraman is D.I.T. chair of Manufacturing Engineering and Doctor of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems at Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI. An incumbent officer and SME member since 1970, Taraman joined the SME Education Foundation in 1992 serving as chair of its Nominating Committee for a number of years before being elected vice president in 2008. His many awards include being named SME Educator of the Year?SME Region VII, California in 1988; SME Fellow in 1991, receiving the SME International Siegel Award in 1998, and the Outstanding Leadership Award in 1999 and 2000.

Vice President/Secretary: Charles M. Chambers, PhD, JD

Chambers is vice president emeritus, Lawrence Technological University (LTU), Southfield, MI, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees, and is a Distinguished Professor of Science and Technology. He now serves as chair, Coalition Fueling Michigan?s Future. Chambers joined the SME Education Foundation Board in 2007 and chaired its Nominating Committee in 2008.

Treasurer/Chair of Finance: Peter F. Mackie

Mackie is a senior financial consultant at Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor?s degree in history and a minor in economics from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and is an accredited asset management specialist with the College for Financial Planning.

Assistant Treasurer/Vice Chair of Finance: Kenneth Vedra, Ed.D.

Vedra is superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools, Bellingham, CO, with more than 30 years of leadership and work experience in education. He is secretary/treasurer of the International Baccalaureate North America Board of Directors and serves on the International Baccalaureate Organization Finance Committee. He has been a leader in legislative change and helped direct Colorado and federal legislation by working closely and directly with senators and representatives.

Newly-elected to the SME Education Foundation Board of Directors are:

F. Brian Holmes, CMfgE

Holmes is vice president of operations at Columbia Plastics Ltd. in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, where he is responsible for the production, tooling, quality, and facilities of company operations. A member of SME since 1982, Holmes served as secretary/treasurer in 2005 and as SME president in 2007. He currently serves as an SME International director and an at-large member of the SME Executive Committee. He received the SME Award of Merit in 1991, the SME Endurance Award, and the SME Joseph A. Siegel Service Award in 1999. He has been involved in the Greater Vancouver SME Chapter 318.

Brian A. Ruestow

Ruestow is operations manager of F.W. Roberts Manufacturing Co., Inc. He has been a member of SME since 1975 and has served the local SME Chapter 10, having held all Executive Committee positions, including chapter chairman in 1985. He received the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 1986?one of 12 recipients worldwide that year, and has served on various Review Committees for the SME Education Foundation since 1986. He currently serves as chairman of the Scholarship Review Committee.

The four directors elected or re-elected to serve one or two-year terms on the Board of Directors, beginning January 1, 2009 are:

Two Year Term:

Pamela J. Ruschau, Esq., Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd.

Albert (Al) Wavering, division chief, National Institute of Standards & Technology

Robert T. Williams, vice president, US Operations Division, Caterpillar Inc.

One Year Term:

Glen H. Pearson, Eastman Kodak Company (Retired)

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