The Woodworking Machinery Industry Association (WMIA) elected a new slate of officers to lead the Association for the next two years. Jim Besonen, president of Wood Machinery Systems, Inc., Minnetonka, MN, was elected Chairman of the Board.
Besonen started in the woodworking machinery industry in his early 20s, working for a manufacturer building the machines. By his late 20s he had moved on to the distribution side, selling machines for a prominent dealer in the upper Midwest. At the age of 35 he founded Wood Machinery Systems, which grown into one of the largest equipment dealers in the Midwest.
Elected as WMIA’s Vice-Chairman of the Board is Pascal Doucet, vice president of sales at Doucet Machineries in Daveluyville, QC, Canada. Doucet started working in the family business at a young age, and then after completing a mechanical engineering degree, started working full time in 1999 as production quality improvement project manager. Through the years, Doucet worked his way up through to the company’s executive level by supervising customer service, equipment installation, and, since 2005, the sales and marketing teams.
Joining WMIA’s Executive Committee as secretary/treasurer is James Scarlett, owner of Scarlett Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI. Receiving a degree in mechanical engineering technology and industrial business management from Michigan Technological University, Scarlett spent seven years at Gentex as an industrial manufacturing engineer, where he helped a team of people innovate manufacturing processes while working on a number of automotive platforms and projects. He has served on WMIA’s Board of Directors since 2015 and chaired the WMIA/WMMA Joint Technology Committee from 2015-2019.
Dave Rakauskas, executive vice president of Colonial Saw Company, Inc., who served as WMIA Chairman from 2017-2019, will remain on the Association’s Executive Committee as Chairman Emeritus.
Additionally, WMIA members elected four individuals to the Association’s Board of Directors: John Benjamin Henderson, John Henderson & Company LLC, Las Vegas, NV; Scott Masse, Masse Sales Ltd., Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada; Erich Mazurek, Maze Machinery LLC, Corinth, TX; and Volker Schmitz, Schmalz Inc., Raleigh, NC, and re-elected Matteo Fregosi, Salice America, Charlotte, NC, and Joe Hammock, Friulmac Inc., Hickory, NC, to a second term.
Since 1978, the Woodworking Machinery Industry Association (WMIA) has represented importers and distributors of woodworking machinery and ancillary equipment in North America.
