2017-2018 SAWE International Elections

February 15, 2017

SAWE Vote

2017-2018 SAWE International Elections are now open. Voting ends April 15, 2017. Click the link below to vote online.

[ Click here to vote ]

When you are asked for a Token Number, enter your SAWE Member Number without any dashes. Your SAWE Member Number is will be in the voter email or card sent to all current members. For more information on where to find your SAWE Member Number, click here.

Click read more for candidate information.

 


2017-2018 Candidates for International Offices


President

William BozeWilliam Boze

SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

Society of Allied Weight Engineers

  • Fellow – Elected 2008
  • Honorary Fellow – Elected 2014
  • Current Senior Vice President
  • Former Executive Vice President, two terms
  • Former SAWE Marine Vessel Government Industry Co-Chair
  • Former SAWE Academic Committee Chair
  • Former Deputy to VP Technical
  • 2010 International Conference Co-Chair

Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

  • Former Member, Technical & Research Ship Design Committee and Weight Engineering Panel Chair
  • Former Naval Architect Advisor – Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School Student Chapter

Other

  • Former Member – Naval Technical Committee – American Bureau of Shipbuilding
  • Former Member, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Advisory Board

 

PLATFORM

My introduction to mass properties control in a vehicle acquisition program was when I was about 30 years old and assigned responsibility for mass properties in a program that was already underway. Two weeks after that assignment, I came face-to-face with a Rear Admiral who was demanding I explain not only how “his” acquisition program got into a weight crisis, but how I was going to lead the program out of that crisis. It was a stressful and unpleasant experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. The good thing is, I and the program survived, and I never had to experience that again based on what I learned about effective mass properties control.

The industries we all represent today are challenged to reduce cost, increase contract performance, deliver quality, and, most of all, deliver safe products. We tackle this mainly by identifying our program and technical risks, and executing a formulated mitigation plan. One risk we all face today is our age demographics. Veterans with decades of experience and knowledge are retiring at an increasing rate. It is our obligation as a society, to help facilitate this transfer of knowledge to the succeeding generations. I believe this transference of critical knowledge is the opportunity and mechanism for a resurgence in SAWE participation. By addressing this opportunity collaboratively with our members, Corporate Partners, and Academia, we can execute a mitigation plan that addresses the risk and re-instills the values our beloved society. Values like having a strong industry network, best practices presented in the form of new technical papers, plus industry standards and training built on those technical papers. Regardless of the election outcome, I am already well along in my recommendation to the Board of Directors in May of a plan and mechanism which in my view can transfer that knowledge, restore our society values, and prevent some future program and mass properties leader from learning it the hard way at a cost to the program, or an assigned mass properties lead’s wellbeing.

 


Executive Vice President

Rick WatkinsRick Watkins

EDUCATION:

  • BS Aerospace Engineering – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • MS Aerospace Engineering – University of Texas at Austin
  • MIT Sloan Executive Certificate – Management and Leadership

EXPERIENCE:

2006 – Present           Altair Engineering, Inc.

  • Applications Engineer
  • Sr. Account Manager
  • Regional Sales Manager
  • Sr. Business Development Manager – Enterprise Computing

2005 – 2006    Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.

  • Design Engineer II – 787 Dreamliner

2004 – 2005    Boeing Commercial Aircraft

  • Design Engineer II – 787 Dreamliner 

SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

Society of Allied Weight Engineers

  • Houston Chapter Member 2007-Present
  • Houston Chapter Secretary for 1.5 years 2006-2008 (partial year)
  • Houston Chapter President in 2009
  • International Conference Chairman from 2008-2011
  • Houston Chapter President in 2011
  • Ed Payne Award – 2011
  • Attended International Conferences in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
  • Attended Regional Conferences in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
  • International Deputy VP Training 2012-2014
  • Fellow – Elected 2014
  • International Sr. Vice President 2014-2016

Other

  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - Member
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers – Member

PLATFORM

Since I joined the Society in 2007, I have been fortunate enough to serve in a number of offices at both the local and International level.  During this time, I have seen how the Society has enacted a number of different changes to our architecture with the aim of modernizing to better fit the needs of our mass properties engineering membership.  One part of that effort was to bring broader financial stability to the society.  Another was to better engage a younger generation of engineers.  As Executive Vice President, I will work to extend the parts of these efforts that work and remove the things that don’t.  In addition, I will work hand in hand with the other elected officers, the Executive Director and the Corporate Partners to bring our attention back to improving our impact on the Society membership.  Specifically, I will work to:

  1. Encourage effective ways to transfer knowledge between our more experienced members and our younger members,
  2. Provide better networking opportunities for everyone,
  3. Encourage innovation in new Society benefits and
  4. Deliver instruction and tools that improve our Members’ value and employment mobility (in other words: getting that new position you want, when you want it!)

I ask for your support in my bid for Executive Vice President and your continuing support as we seek better ways to improve the Society for all of us.

 


Senior Vice President

Ruben González-González

EDUCATION:

  • Aerospace Engineering Degree – Polytechnic University Madrid (UPM)
  • Industrial Management Engineering Master Degree - Polytechnic University Madrid (UPM)

EXPERIENCE:

2001 Airbus Mass Properties Engineering

  • 2007-2009 Rear Fuselages and Empennages Weight Estimation Focal point
  • 2010-2011 Future Projects Mass Properties coordinator
  • 2011 A350XWB Mass Properties Manager

SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

Society of Allied Weight Engineers

  • Fellow – Elected 2013
  • Ed Payne Award – 2008
  • 2007 International Conference Host

Other

  • Society of Aircraft Performance and Operations Engineers - Member
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – Senior Member

PLATFORM

Since I joined Mass Properties, basically my entire working life so far, I have had the privilege of learning from the best engineers in a multicultural and transnational work environment, taking the advantage of close contact with most experienced Mass Properties teams. I can never express my gratitude enough to all of those veterans who put their efforts in sharing their knowledge. Thanks to their investment, I learned about most of the Mass Properties disciplines. That broadened my horizons and helped me prepare for the challenging times we faced in the last years, leading the most important program and demonstrating the added value of Mass Properties engineering in products design and development.

The world, the companies, the technologies, and our lives are changing very fast and we must adapt ourselves and our mindset to a more open and challenging world, at the same time we shall keep and reinforce the values of our society in order to secure, and in some cases to recover, the Mass Properties discipline and leader recognition amongst all vehicle industries. Our SAWE processes and operations shall be reviewed, especially regarding Conferences planning and execution, in how we can facilitate and accelerate the capture and exchange of mass properties knowledge, similar to what I was fortunate to experience in my personal career and still today. I believe our regional and international conferences today provide that mechanism to achieve this objective, and will continue to do so for decades to come.