CEMA Reveals 2009 Statistics, Elects New Leadership

Todd Swinderman, president of CEMA, made the announcement at the association’s 77th Annual Meeting, held March 12-16 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

New orders for conveyor equipment in 2009 also decreased 17.79% from 2008. Nevertheless, executives attending the annual meeting were cautiously optimistic, forecasting a 2% increase in shipments for 2010.

Also at the Annual Meeting, the trade group elected Bill Pugh, president of Ralphs-Pugh Co. Inc. (Benicia, Calif.), to serve as CEMA’s new president.

CEMA also announced the appointments of George Huber III, vice president of Industrial Kinetics Inc. (Downers Grove, Ill.), to vice president; Ron Arkema, vice president of Van Gorp Corp. (Pella, Iowa), to secretary; and Warren Chandler, operations manager at Stephens-Adamson (Belleville, Ont.), to treasurer.

Garry Abraham, president of Screw Conveyor Corp. (Hammond, Ind.); Dean Bogner, vice president of sales for Webster Industries Inc. (Tiffin, Ohio); Mike Mitchell, product manager at Stober Drives Inc. (Maysville, Ky.); and Dan Fannin, vice president of marketing at Emerson Power Transmission (Maysville, Ky.) were also elected to board positions.

Carryover members include: Jerry Heathman, sales and marketing manager at Chantland Pulley & Roller Co. (Humboldt, Iowa); Jay Lee, vice president of marketing and technical services at Rexnord LLC (Milwaukee); Tom Melton, executive vice president of manufacturing at Martin Sprocket & Gear Inc. (Arlington, Texas); Joe Forte, director of sales at Portec Inc. (Canon City, Colo.); Michael Hoehn, president of Automatic Systems Inc. (Kansas City, Mo.); and Jim McKnight, vice president of system sales at Intelligrated Inc. (Mason, Ohio).