MANUFACTURING
Carlos Arias Joins Walter Wilhelm Associates
Most people know Carlos Arias as the blue-jeans guy. For several years, he was president of Guatemala-based American Denimatrix, the largest blue-jeans manufacturer in Central America.
Then he was president of Kaltex Apparel, a heavy hitter in Mexico in the denim and blue-jeans world.
Now Arias is leaving the day-to-day world of blue-jeans manufacturing and joining Walter Wilhelm Associates as the consulting firm’s new president and chief executive.
Walter Wilhelm, the founder of the organization, based in Salt Lake City, will retain the title of chairman. “Carlos has been a WWA client in several of his companies, and I have both admired and learned from his management approach,” Wilhelm said. “In addition, Carlos totally embodies and embraces ‘the Walter way’ approach to relationships. We believe that a company can be a leader in professionalism and still be nice and have fun.”
Arias will be based in Guatemala for the new few years and eventually move to the United States, Wilhelm said. Arias will be working on expanding the organization’s reach in Central America and South America and will also be active in the U.S. market.
WWA is a boutique consulting organization that specializes in executive placement in the apparel, textile and footwear arenas as well as specializing in process refinement and technology implementation.
