CWIEME Berlin 2026

From factory floors to boardrooms across three continents, Wayne Johnson has lived the lamination and motor industry end-to-end.

In this CWIEME Talks conversation with Alexandra da Fonte Martins, Senior Content Manager at CWIEME Berlin, the industry strategist reflects on a career shaped by global cultures, hands-on manufacturing, and a passion for developing people.Wayne’s start was anything but conventional: a management-trainee role inside a small UK lamination business that rotated him through almost every department while he studied economics, accounting and management at night. That grounding—driving a one-tonne truck for a critical delivery one day, reviewing macroeconomic data the next—set a theme that has defined his approach ever since: understand the work before you try to lead it.He went on to senior roles inside a fast-growing private lamination group expanding in the UK, Germany, the USA and Central Europe, and later helped build out North American market presence for a European manufacturer—acquiring capacity, opening new facilities and turning a small foothold into a recognised player.

The lesson: investment plus proximity to customers beats scale alone—and the bold marketing moments (like getting a brand in lights above a major venue) matter when you’re signalling intent to a new market.