Ian Stewart Farwell, executive vice president and COO of Rheem Manufacturing Company, has been elected as 2004-2005 chairman of the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Arlington, VA.
Over the years, Farwell has served GAMA in several leadership positions, including first vice chairman and second vice chairman.
“This next year at GAMA will be a year of impact, a year when all our careful planning pays dividends, when GAMA’s finely tuned resources are utilized to meet the formidable challenges our industries face in government, in the economy, and in world affairs,” Farwell says
Farwell will be leading a Board of Directors that has set an ambitious agenda for the next 12 months.
“The Board has reviewed the direction we think GAMA should go in 2004-2005,” says Evan R. Gaddis, president of GAMA. “Several of our objectives pertain to unfinished business in Congress this year. Board attention is focused on the importance of continuing to work for legal reform, such as the class action reform bill still pending in Congress, and legislation to address the asbestos litigation crisis.”
Items on GAMA’s agenda for 2004-2005 include:
- Bringing about legal reform on a national scale
- Establishing an office in China to help level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers in that economy
- Stepping up its national political activities
- Continuing its involvement on behalf of members in pending regulatory activities at the Department of Energy, as well as in new developments which may arise in other federal or state agencies
- Continuing its progress in areas vital to membership, such as standards development.
“All-in-all, GAMA is taking on some big assignments,” says Gaddis. “But the Board has given us the tools to accomplish them. We have the resources we need in place now, and I believe the Board knows that we can do the job.”
