As part of our company realignment in late 2024, Mike Shane earned a promotion from Casco Mill GM—a role he held for 24 years—to the newly created position of Regional General Manager of White Pine Manufacturing. In this new role, Mike oversees all eastern white pine operations across our Bethel, Casco, and Pittsfield mills with each mill GM reporting to Mike. Mike supports our White Pine GM’s and their operational activity around safety, quality, efficiency, and the human experience. An exciting cascade of internal movement followed, as members of Team Hancock had opportunities to apply and interview for newly vacant positions.
“RGM of White Pine Manufacturing is a great opportunity for me and I look forward to working with all three mills and sharing my knowledge and experience. This has also been a great opportunity for some of the talented leaders here in Casco. It has been extremely rewarding to see the leadership changes in Casco (GM, Finished Products Manager and Planer Supervisor) all moving from within Casco’s site into promoted roles.”
—Mike Shane, Regional General Manager, White Pine Manufacturing
Mike’s been a steadfast leader at Hancock Lumber for nearly thirty years, always setting the bar high with respect to engagement, safety, productivity, quality and innovation at the Casco Mill. Since joining Team Hancock in the spring of 1995, Mike has held various leadership positions ranging from Moulder Manager, Assistant Finished Products Manager, Finished Products Manager, Operations Manager, and General Manager. Mike’s years of valuable experience, skillset development, industry knowledge, and his thoughtful leadership made him a great candidate to assume the Regional GM role.
After Mike Shane’s internal move and promotion, a search for the next Casco Mill GM began. After an extensive search process, Dan Wetmore was named the next General Manager of our Casco Mill in December of 2024. This well-deserved internal advancement is a testament to Dan’s dedication, leadership, and unwavering commitment to our people, eastern white pine, and performance. Since joining Hancock Lumber in 1996, Dan has held many positions and made significant contributions—most recently overseeing culture, people, production, quality, and overall operations in the finished products department at the Casco Mill.
Dan’s collaborative approach, team building, and ability to inspire and motivate have driven continuous improvements across the board. In his new role as General Manager, Dan will lead all operations at the Casco Mill, guiding a talented team to drive the mill’s success into the future. Dan’s deep understanding of Hancock Lumber and eastern white pine, combined with his strategic thinking and culture-centric mindset positions him perfectly to take on this expanded leadership role.
“I’m so happy to see Dan become our next Casco Mill GM! Dan is a ‘son of Casco’ having lived his whole life in this community and he has invested decades in our white pine business. He knows our community, our culture, our products, and our spirit. He’s following an amazing leader in Mike Shane, and Dan will do great because he’s an amazing leader himself.”
– Kevin Hancock, Chairman + Managing Owner
“I look forward to maintaining the current level of excellence that the Casco Mill operation has operated at for decades, along with growing it with my own touch with the help of all the talented people around me.”
—Dan Wetmore, Casco Mill GM
Please join us in congratulating Dan on this exciting next step in his career and journey at Hancock Lumber—we look forward to seeing his continued impact in shaping the future of our organization!
Once Dan completed his internal move and promotion, another search began to fill Dan’s previous role of Finished Products Manager for the Casco Mill. After a lengthy internal search with many amazing candidates applying, in late December of 2024, Ryan Edwards was promoted into the position. Ryan joined Hancock Lumber right out of high school in July of 2004, with this year marking his twentieth year of service to Team Hancock!
Throughout the last two decades, Ryan has held various positions throughout the mill which made him the perfect candidate for the Finished Products Manager role. He started in the Planer Mill before moving over to the Sawmill for the next four years. From there, Ryan became a forklift operator—and, after showing incredible leadership skills and work ethic, he was promoted to Yard Manager which he held for the next seven years. He then joined our wholesale team in the Scheduling + Sales Support role, a position he held from October of 2023 until accepting the Finished Products Manager position.
“I have to say when I started here right out of high school twenty years ago, it was just a job to me. Five years into it, I had a couple of mentors—Mike Shane and Dan Wetmore—sit me down and ask me what my career goals were and if I wanted to make a career here at Hancock Lumber. The wheels started turning—and, from there on, I put my head to the ground and started working to achieve goals to advance my career. Not saying it was an easy journey, but with the right mentors and the Hancock Culture of promoting from within, fifteen years later I’m now the Finished Products Manager at the Casco Mill. I have to say working for Hancock Lumber has been an awesome journey and I must thank this organization for the opportunity to grow with them! Hancock Lumber is part of my family, and I feel I am part of theirs.”
—Ryan Edwards, Finished Products Manager
With another hole to fill for the role of Scheduling + Sales Support for our Casco Wholesale Pine Team, Hancock Lumber launched another internal search for a candidate that would best fit. After an amazing pool of internal candidates applied and went through the interview process, Dylan Blackman—a member of Team Hancock since September of 2012—was promoted to the position.
Dylan joined Hancock Lumber as a Planer Mill Pine Pro before quickly earning his first promotion to Equipment Operator one year later. With his strong work ethic, leadership skills, and willingness to learn, Dylan pursued getting his NeLMA Grader Certification in December of 2014, which quickly established him as one of the leaders within the planer mill. Over the next four years, Dylan developed his leadership skills even further and became a Planer Mill Lead in 2018, a position he held until 2022 where he then took on the new position of Paint and Stain Supervisor. Dylan was not done yet as he continued to demonstrate his planning, efficiency improvement, and team building skills, which allowed him to move into the Planer Mill Supervisor Role in the fall of 2022. Throughout Dylan’s career at Team Hancock, it is clear his aptitude for learning new skills, developing his knowledge, and taking on new responsibilities made him the perfect fit for the Scheduling + Sales role.
“I started my career here at Hancock Lumber just after high school. At the time I did not realize how big of an impact that decision would have on my entire life. With no knowledge of the industry and no prior interest in manufacturing, I found myself surprised, falling in love with Eastern White Pine. What really pulled me in was the idea of doing something as good as it can be done and NEEDING a team to do it. Over my twelve years of employment, Hancock has grown so much and not just in size. This company has put so much effort into our work culture and continuous improvement—and it shows. I consider myself very lucky to be growing alongside the company, both personally and professionally.”
—Dylan Blackman, Scheduling + Sales Support
“I am so happy about these internal advancements—three great moves with Mike, Dan and Ryan earning promotions and new opportunities! All three are “culture carriers” of the highest order for our company!”
—Kevin Hancock, Managing Owner/Chairman
Read Ryan Edwards's Story
Read Dan Wetmore's Story
Read Dylan Blackman's Story
Read Mike Shane's Story