Mr. Roodvoets grew up in Midland, MI and Westerville, OH. He graduated from Westerville North High School and then earned a Bachelors of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. He moved to Maine where he spent spent three years in a shipyard building U.S. Navy ships.
He then attended the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Master of Science in Engineering from the Mechanical Engineering Department and a Master of Management Science from the Sloan School of Management.
After graduate school he worked in a variety of manufacturing companies, usually as a plant manager or design and engineering manager. In addition to shipbuilding, Mr. Roodvoets has worked with automotive parts, injection molding, electrical wire and cable, heavy equipment, and pharmaceuticals. He has also led a number of Lean Manufacturing plant transformation projects and capital equipment projects.
In his free time, Mr. Roodvoets loves to sail, play guitar and sing with friends, and perform in community theater plays. He has two adult children and three grandsons who live in Arizona. He and his partner Liz live in Muskegon andMontague and have an adorable little dog named Juno and a very cool cat named Kizzy.
Mr. Roodvoets says "I'm really looking forward to getting to know the students and hopefully inspiring some of them to work in engineering and manufacturing and giving them a good start in their career."
Fun facts: Webb Institute, where Mr. Roodvoets earned his BSc, is the smallest accredited 4-year university in America. It admits just 25 students a year and the whole school is in one big old house. It was used as the set for Wayne Manor in the first Batman movies.
