Mazak President Dan Janka has once again accepted the position of chairman of the board of The Association of Manufacturing Technology (AMT). Janka, an AMT member since 2005, last served as chairman in 2010. He retired from the board in 2013, but remained an active committee member and attended the association’s forecasting conferences.
Janka’s first exposure to manufacturing came on milling and turning machines in his father’s basement hobby machine shop. In high school, Janka opted for a vocational path, attending classes during the first half of each day and working in a machine shop the second half. After graduation, he attended Illinois Valley Community College, where he received an associate degree in mechanical technology.
In the early 1980s, Janka put himself through a four-year college degree program while still running NC machines, welding and performing other tasks at a machine shop. He graduated from Southern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and technology. With his combined degrees, Janka originally was hired into the machine tool industry in 1984 as a software systems developer and analyst. In this initial position, he developed post processors for five- to 11-axis CNC machines. His manufacturing education and experience prepared Janka for numerous executive positions in the machine tool industry, and in 2016, he became president of Mazak.
AMT approached Janka in 2021 about accepting the chairman position again. “I was a bit hesitant,” Janka says, “mainly because my position at Mazak is my top priority and main commitment. However, I felt that serving on the AMT board again is a way for Mazak and myself to give back to the industry that I’ve been in basically my entire life. And, like me, AMT is a steadfast advocate for manufacturing.”
Janka adds that AMT helps drive and accelerate the adoption of new technologies, and with events such as IMTS, it creates an environment in which to promote and display those technologies.
“I’m 100% behind ‘made in the USA,’ and manufacturing in this country is my passion,” Janka says. “With that, my goal throughout my career has been to help promote and develop the next generation of young engineers and manufacturers. And my position as the AMT chairman is an effective means toward that goal.”
