Chad Salmela

Chad Salmela has held various positions in the engineering and design industry since 1995. Chad began their career as a Designer at Liberty Carton, where they ran die cut and inline box machines and designed boxes and point of purchase displays. In 1999, they became a CAD Operator at Sawyer Lumber, and in 2000 they moved to Blower Application Company as a Designer, where they designed equipment, created system layouts, and rendered images and animations for marketing. In 2003, they took a Sales Engineer role at Eagle Mills Manufacturing, and in 2006 they returned to Eagle Mills Manufacturing as a Designer, where they designed machinery for the sawmill industry and created shop drawings. In 2004, they moved to Hiawatha Log Homes as a Designer, and helped to transition the department from a 2D Autocad shop to a 3D Archicad shop. In 2007, they became an IT Systems Analyst at R&B Wagner, and in 2012 they joined Watchfire Signs as a Mechanical Engineer and iLogic Specialist, later becoming the Lead Mechanical Engineer. In 2018, they became the Automation Services Team Lead at D3 Technologies - The Leader in Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions.

Chad Salmela attended Northern Michigan University from 1991 to 1992, where they studied Computer Aided Drafting. Chad then attended the University of Phoenix from 2010 to 2013, where they studied Software Engineering.