Jim Wetzel is a proven manufacturing-industry executive in leading change, creating vision and influencing the organization into action. He's an experienced Technical leader with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry and Smart Manufacturing. Jim was chairman of the board of the Smart Mfg Leadership Council (SMLC) and interim CEO of CESMII (Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute). He spent 6 years in the plastics industry and 32 years at General Mills – Director of Engineering – Global Reliability. In this role, he was responsible for improving the company’s existing global asset base, focusing on technology, standardization, reliability and maintenance, and energy reduction.
Jim is the co-founder of the NxGen Group, focused on assisting manufacturing organizations to evolve in response to today’s 21st-century competitive environment of continuous disruption.