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The Midwest Chapter will lead off the slate of WAI chapter golf tournaments on July 31 when it goes to a new location: the White Pines Golf Club in Bensenville, Illinois. Located just west of Chicago, the site has two 18-hole championship courses (east & west course), situated on over 260 acres. For more about the course, go to www.whitepinesgolf.com.

Up next will be the Ohio Valley Chapter (OVC), on Thursday, Aug. 21. As with its prior event, the OVC will offer a unique split activity format. Golfers will play at the Kensington Country Club. (www.kennsingtongolf.com). The shooting event will again be held at the Training Range (www.thetrainingrange.com) in nearby Austintown. Following both events, the Ohio Valley Chapter will hold an educational program.

The New England Chapter returns to the Tunxis Country Club (www.tunxisgolf.com) on Monday, Sept. 8, while the WAI Southeast Chapter event will be held Thursday, Oct. 16, at the Rock Barn Country Club and Spa (www.rockbarn.com) in Conover, North Carolina.

Registration can be made at wirenet.org at the individual chapter pages. The events are a great time to meet with peers, support good causes (college scholarship programs) and enjoy a day on the links.

WAI’s Poland Chapter was an active part of a key 75th anniversary at Poland’s Częstochowa University of Technology (CUT) in Częstochowa, which along with the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland, has accounted for dozens of technical papers being presented at WAI events.

The Poland Chapter, while small in numbers, has been most productive since it was founded in the U.S. in 1999, and recognized in Poland in 2002. Three of its members from either CUT or AGH have won the Association’s Mordica Memorial Award for the excellence of their technical research and papers. It has also supported Wire & Cable Poland 2025, to be held Oct. 14, in Krakow, Poland.

The June 6th celebration of the establishment of the Faculty of Production Engineering and Materials Technology was organized by the university, helped by Jan Pilarczyk, the driving force behind the creation of the Poland Chapter. It was held under the honorary patronage of the current CUT rector, Marek Warzecha, PhD, DSc, a CUT associate professor. The Faculty, one of the oldest units of the University, dates back to 1949, when the Department of Metal Technology was established at the then Faculty of Mechanics.

The ceremony highlighted the role of the Poland Chapter. Over 20 years, in cooperation with the Institute of Plastic Processing and Automation of the Faculty of Production Engineering and Materials Technology, the chapter staged 10 international seminars and nine international conferences.

 Multiple participants were cited for their efforts over the years Those include the MSC Management Board of Agnieszka Gwiazdowicz, Piotr Milewski, Maciej Górak and Jan Pilarczyk.

“On behalf of the Faculty authorities and myself, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all former and current Faculty employees for their invaluable contribution to its development and achievements to date,” said Pilarczyk, who is retiring from chapter duties this year. He has presented multiple technical papers over the years and was the 2004 winner of the WAI’s Mordica Memorial Award. The two other prior winners include the late Bogdan Golis, CUT, in 2000, and Tadeusz Knych, AGH, 2015.

The June 6th event marked important accomplishments, but it also featured another element that Pilarczyk explained has been important to the chapter over the years: camaraderie. He also thanked all those that have been part of the activities to date and wishes them continued success in the Poland Chapter’s mission of furthering industry education and cooperation.

As part of a strategic reorganization of its commercial and operational leadership that was completed earlier this year, the SAMP Group announced that Marcel Baettig was appointed chief executive officer (CEO). He has deep expertise in business strategy, operations, and organizational transformation across global markets, most recently at Humatica AG, where he advised portfolio companies and listed firms on strategic organizational alignment, including SAMP Group. He replaced outgoing CEO Jouni Heinonen, whose assignment as CEO had been planned to be short term, and is now serving in board positions. Two senior executives were also promoted. Giorgio Albertazzi was promoted from sales director EMEA to appointed chief commercial officer (CCO). He has been with the company for more than two decades and was described as being instrumental in growing the company’s presence across the EMEA region. He holds a degree in economics. Matteo Nascetti was promoted from general manager to chief operating officer (COO). He has nearly two decades of experience in machinery and precision engineering, and was said to have had a key role in optimizing production processes and boosting operational performance. Based near Bologna, Italy, the SAMP Group provides equipment for the entire wire and cable production chain, including rod breakdown lines, multi-wire drawing lines, extrusion lines, bunching machines and engineering solutions.

 Neal Hamer as joined the American Wire Group as director of engineering - power equipment, responsible for driving the company’s technical strategy and expanding the in-house engineering capabilities to support the growing power equipment segment. He will assess AWG’s current technical landscape across transformers, switchgear and substation solutions, while aligning supplier specifications with industry standards. He most recently was director, operations electrical engineering, for Invenergy LLC, where he worked in multiple positions for more than 11 years. Prior to that he was a protection engineer for GE Energy for four years. Based in Miami, Florida, American Wire Group manufactures wire, cable and related products for the power utility and renewable energy industries. 

Jack Ritter has joined the Service Wire team as an inside sales representative in the Houston sales office. He will be serving utility markets in the Midwest. He worked for the company while he was getting his B.S. degree in industrial distribution from Texas A&M University. In other Service Wire news, two company employees were selected to tED Magazine’s prestigious “30 Under 35” list. Matt Cardwell, corporate manufacturing engineering manager, joined the company in 2018. In 2019, he was instrumental in the build-out and commissioning of the new Houston plant before returning to West Virginia to take on his current role. He was described as “a strong leader and one of the best engineers in the industry.” Sarah Wotring, who has worked as an inside sales representative for more than three years, was described as “an energetic problem-solver ... (who continually produces) outstanding results.” She has demonstrated a keen ability to manage strong sales relations. Based in Culloden, West Virginia, Service Wire Co., manufactures wire and cable for sectors from industrial to utility, and more. 


Last year, the WAI’s Board of Directors met at Wire Expo to discuss the Association’s future. That focus continued at Interwire 2025, where the board met in a meeting led by Consultant Eric Curtis, Curtis Strategy.

The meeting served as an update and further discussions about the Centennial Plan that was presented to the WAI’s BoD last October. In it, four pillars were identified as crucial: an Education & Training Center; trade shows & conferences; WJI and WAI media platform; and member users/customers. Key beliefs of the mission include that wire drawing and extrusion are specific processes that cannot be serviced by other industry associations; that technology, digital platforms and AI are paramount; and that in-person events will remain important to hybrid workforces.

At the 2025 meeting, held the day before the event started, board members split into three groups that each discussed areas where the WAI should be active as well as the biggest concerns the industry faces. A wide range of topics were discussed, with one of the most important areas being for WAI to firmly establish itself as “the place to go” for technical information. As for concerns, everyone’s list included the loss of industry expertise as more industry veterans retire.

“Our industry, like many others, needs help for securing and keeping reliable employees,” observed WAI President Eric Bieberich. “The WAI has dedicated volunteers who with the help of staff can help create programs that can make a difference. It’s vital that we do so in an effective way, and meetings like this one we just had are essential.”

The Association has already been active in heightening its educational focus through its video-based education courses available for purchase. Last year, the Board voted to fund the initiative, which has been led by WAI Manager of Education John Markowski, who made a presentation on this at Interwire at the WAI Theater. He noted that to date, four courses have been created so far, covering single-layer extrusion, extrusion materials, extrusion applications, and an introduction to ferrous metallurgy, with others (extrusion special process considerations, wire drawing dies, lubricants, and wire breaks) expected to be released in the near future. Individuals or companies interested in knowing more about the courses now available can contact Markowski at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

LS Cable & System Ltd., South Korea’s largest cable manufacturer, announced that its subsidiary, LS Marine Solution Co. (LS Marine), has won a US$15.8 million contract to install submarine power cables for Taiwan Power Company’s (TPC) offshore wind power plant.

A press release said that LS Marine Solution will install the submarine cables for the TPC Offshore Wind Power Complex 2, a 294.5 MW project, by May 2026. The order represents the first overseas submarine power cable deal for LS Marine.

LS Marine Solution was established in 1995 as South Korea’s first dedicated submarine cable construction company. Formerly known as KT Submarine, it was acquired and rebranded by LS Cable & System in 2023.

LS Cable & System has previously supplied ultra-high-voltage submarine cables for Taiwan’s first phase offshore wind projects—including the one cited above—and the new contract is expected to create synergies between cable manufacturing and installation. The current project is part of the Taiwanese government’s long-term plan to develop 20.6 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035.

“Based on our technology and experience accumulated as the first-generation submarine cable construction company in Korea, we have successfully taken our first step into the overseas power grid market,” said LS Marine Solution CEO Kim Byung-ok. “We will further expand our entry into the global market with this Taiwan project.”

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