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Submitted by siteAdmin on Fri, 03/13/2015 - 4:47pm

The  conference program including presentations, schedule of events, and other information is now available for downloard.

Project Lead The Way

As Vice President of Development, Amanda oversees procurement of funding from corporations, foundations and individual donors, as well as other new partnership opportunities for PLTW. Prior to joining PLTW, Amanda held development positions with Indiana University, Riley Children’s Foundation, the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation, and the American Diabetes Association were she was responsible for initiating and cultivating relationships with new and existing partners, developing new giving programs, coordinating marketing efforts and events, overseeing volunteer programs, and managing gift accounts. Amanda’s volunteering experience includes serving for seven years as an Advisory Board Member for the LeGore Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis where she developed a passion for providing youth with the opportunity to live a life filled with hope and opportunity. 

Amanda holds a BA from Indiana University and Certificates in Fundraising Management and Nonprofit Executive Leadership from the Fundraising School at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. 

President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, Inc. to Speak at Toyota AMT Conference

Norm Bafunno is president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana, Inc. (TMMI) located in Princeton.

Prior to this role, he served as vice president of production engineering at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc. (TEMA), in Erlanger, Kentucky; where he was responsible for supporting Toyota’s North American facilities.  This included all aspects of the vehicle manufacturing process including construction, equipment design, process development, safety and environmental support.

Bafunno joined Toyota in March of 1997 as part of the startup team as general manager of production at TMMI. During the next 12 years he was responsible, as senior vice president, for the production, manufacturing planning, administration and quality areas. TMMI’s $2.6 billion operation directly employs about 4,100 team members.

Before joining TMMI, he spent 14 years with GM in the truck manufacturing group.  His engineering and management experience included vehicle body weld, paint and assembly operations.  His last assignment with GM was assistant plant manager in Pontiac, Michigan. 

Bafunno has served on various community boards including the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (past president 2005-2006); Southwestern Indiana American Red Cross (past vice president 2008-2009) and the Indiana Manufacturers Association (past chairman 2005).  He currently serves on the University of Evansville’s Global Enterprise board. 

Bafunno earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University.

Session List for the AMT Conference Released

A list of sessions and activities for the AMT Conference has been released. While a handful of additional sessions may be added the current list comprises more than 90% of the conference content. There are sessions and activities that are primarily targeted for a number of different stakeholders at the conference, including manufacturers, college partners, economic and workforce representatives, and AMT students. Please download this file to see the listing. Please check back periodically for updates.

TWO SESSIONS TO BE LED BY INNOVATIVE WORKFORCE LEADER TOM HUDSON

Tom Hudson, President and CEO of Nth Works, a Louisville, Kentucky based manufacturer, will present two sessions at the 2015 AMT Conference. In this opening address to manufacturing and other employers, Tom will share his view of the highly challenging U.S. environment to find and procure skilled and other talent to sustain our manufacturing operations, but also to do it in a way which is competitive with other nations and protects our international competitiveness. To illustrate how difficult this is, in a later session Tom will share his own company’s experience with what appeared to be a promising new program with some exciting new features, but which ultimately did not achieve its purpose because many traditional (and still current!) practices in American education were employed. As Tom helps to lead the way to establishing the AMT Program in his large metropolitan area (he is the President of FAME, the Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education- Greater Louisville) he has some excellent insight and pointers to share from his own experiences. Hearing this business leader who is committed to both his own company’s success as well as that of the larger industry will be of great benefit to all AMT providers and supporters.

   

 

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