The following list of invited speakers and suggested topics are subject to change.

Christer Idhammar, a world renowned expert in Reliability and Maintenance, began his career in the Swedish merchant marine, where he started developing the fundamentals of his “Results Oriented Reliability and Maintenance Management” concept. Over the span of 35 years, this concept has evolved with his diverse experiences as a mechanic crafts person, engineer, manager, consultant, educator and philosopher, reliability guru and company leader. As a consultant, he started the Idhammar group of companies in 1972 and his own company in USA 1985 -IDCON, INC in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA in 1985.
       He received the coveted EUROMAINTENANCE Incentive 2002 Award during the bi-annual EUROMAINTENANCE 2002 conference in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2002. Among 19 member European countries, he was nominated and received the award from the European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS), for outstanding achievement and world-wide accomplishments in the field of reliability and maintenance.

Mr. Allen has worked in the paper industry over 43 years. After graduating from Huntingdon College in Alabama with a degree in chemistry, he has continued to advance his career with emphasis on maintenance and production management. He has worked at several southern mills and in 2001 was made general manager of the Domtar Mill in Ashdown, Arkansas.
      Buddy has long been involved with PIMA, holding a variety of offices within that organization.  In 2004, he was inducted into the PIMA Leadership Council and in 2005 was named PIMA Mill Manager of the Year. In 2006, Buddy became a member of the Couch Pit University. He actively supports his local community, serving on the board of several agencies and maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship between Domtar and the surrounding areas.

Bill Graff serves Metso Paper, a leading OEM of Paper Machinery and after sales service, as the North American Product Sales Manager of Remote Diagnostics. While his last ten years have been spent providing maintenance support and serving as troubleshooter for Metso Clients, his experience in Heavy Industrial Maintenance spans some 30 years and includes positions with Firestone Steel Products, Whirlpool, ALCOA and GAMCO. Bill’s broad range of process experience served him well as he entered the Paper Industry over 12 years ago. As a certified Vibration Analyst with strong electronics and process experience, Bill now enthusiastically champions Metso Paper’s newest business segment: Remote Diagnostics. 

Stephen Moses, Vice President of Operations at SAT Corporation, has over 20 years management experience in engineering, consulting, customer support and professional services organizations. He joined the company in April 2005, and his responsibilities include training, professional services, customer support and equipment delivery.
Moses has expertise in all facets of product and system delivery as well as customer satisfaction; has often addressed professional organizations regarding technology as a differentiator in process performance and worker productivity. He joined SAT Corporation from Hagen & Co. Consultants where he specialized in manufacturing techniques to enhance total process efficiency.  In prior experience, Moses held management roles including Vice President of Engineering for Simulation Sciences Inc., Managing Director of Foxboro Australia and other leadership roles in the Invensys/ Foxboro organization.
Moses received a Bachelor of Science degree from Tufts University in 1981, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Massachusetts in 1984 and an MBA from Providence College in 1997.

Kevin is General Manager of a Norbord facility in Stirling, Scotland. 
After graduating from the University of Rochester in New York with a BS in Mechanical Engineering he has held several operating, maintenance, and general management positions in both North America and Europe. 
     During his 13 years in the wood-based panel industry, Kevin has delivered strong business and operating results built on a focus and belief in people development and ownership at the front line.
      Kevin supports his local community through several activities involving his four (4) children and is currently studying for an MBA in an executive program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Dave McGuire – PdMA

Jarrod Potteiger is a leading consultant and trainer for Noria Corporation. As Technical Services Director, Jarrod has helped to pioneer Noria’s world-class Lubrication Program Design (LPD) and other services. In addition to designing world-class lubrication programs, he has provided training and mentorship to other consultants and helped to construct a design team which provides the highest level of service in our industry. 
Before Joining Noria in 2003, Jarrod gained extensive experience in industrial and marine lubrication as a Lubrication Engineer and Sales Representative. In this role he designed and provided ongoing consultation for lubrication and oil analysis programs and was involved in the design and implementation of contamination control strategies. Jarrod has been instrumental in the development and deployment of the Lubrication program for numerous global companies and he is a trusted advisor for clients such as Southern Company, Citgo, Alcoa, Holcim, Olin, Shaw Corp and Goodyear.
Jarrod has published a variety of technical articles on condition monitoring, grease selection, bearing lubrication, and lubrication consolidation to name a few. He is also an articulate and dynamic speaker who easily connects with his audience. Jarrod has trained hundreds of maintenance and reliability professionals in Noria’s public and onsite seminars with great success and has presented at a variety of technical conferences.
     Jarrod holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of South Alabama. He has been certified as a Lubrication Specialist (CLS) by the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE). Jarrod is also a Certified Maintenance Reliability Professional (CMRP) by the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP). In addition, he has been certified as Machinery Lubricant Analyst (MLA) Level I and Level II and Machinery Lubrication Technician (MLT) Level I by the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML).

Jim Hudson is the Director of Engineering Services for Trico Corporation. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and was the Maintenance & Services Manager for Tembec, one of the world's largest forestry companies for over 20 years.

Rob has 26 years experience in a variety of engineering and operations positions in both discrete part manufacturing and process industries.  He has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and holds certificates in Production & Inventory Control from APICS and Maintenance & Reliability Management from the Society of Maintenance Professionals.  Rob has recently led a four year maintenance best practices implementation at Fonterra Dairy Cooperative, the largest manufacturing operation in New Zealand, with over $6 Billion installed plant capacity.  He has recently assumed the role as Maintenance & Engineering Manager at the Norske Skog Tasman paper mill in Kawerau , New Zealand.  Rob lives at Ohope Beach and enjoys golf, longboard surfing and life with his four children.

Jerry Dover, P.Eng, is manager of engineering and maintenance at a commercial bakery company in Toronto, Canada.  A graduate of the Royal Military College, he has a background in army maintenance, food and beverage engineering and project management.  His first lesson in full life cycle costs came at 17 years old, when he bought a nice red Mustang from his uncle for "only" $700.  He can be contacted at jerry_dover@hotmail.com.

Mr. Armstrong has 35 years of experience managing maintenance and developing maintenance systems in the pulp and paper industry in Canada and New Zealand. He has had line responsibility for maintenance and engineering in five large operations, managing departments of up to 700 people with annual budgets up to Can$100MM.
      In addition to successfully eliminating restrictive practices and improving safety performance, he has introduced and documented new planning and scheduling processes, prepared standards for maintenance and set up teams to share best maintenance practices across a large 4-mill paper company.
      Other initiatives include mill surveys to assess the level of preservation of mill assets, identification of preventive maintenance strengths and weaknesses, CMMS implementation, and the development of a unique process for measuring mill performance against a world-class standard.

John Graves, a graduate of NC State, has obtained degrees in both Chemical Engineering (BS) and Pulp and Paper Sciences (BS/MS). In his fifteen years in the newsprint industry, he has served in a wide variety of capacities.  His responsibilities have included process and project engineering, production supervision for one of the largest Deinking facilities in North America, maintenance, and, most recently as the Manager of Best Practices and Information Technology for Bowater’s Coosa Pines Operations. In this capacity, he has supported reliability and business improvements through the implementation of Maintenance and Supply Chain Best Practices programs, Team Concepts, Operator Based Maintenance programs, and the necessary systems and technology to support these efforts.

David A. Crockett, President & CEO of CenTec, Inc. (Center for Technology)
Dave has worked within the industrial maintenance arena for more than 30 years.  Prior to CenTec, Dave directed a group that managed the recruiting, training, and assessments for the 24 Michelin North America facilities located throughout the United States and Canada. His journey involved transitioning 2,300 maintenance technicians in union and non-union facilities into fully proficient maintenance technicians.  Dave’s group has been successful in forging partnerships with represented bodies and management to enable a successful multi-skilled progression system. Over the last six years, Dave has been involved in assisting  premier manufacturers in successfully implementing a fully proficient maintenance organization. A native of Nova Scotia, Dave now resides in Greenville, SC.

Graduated from DeVry Institute of Technology in 1993 with Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Technology

• Worked as Plant Maintenance Engineer at Quikrete Corporation in Columbus, Ohio for 1 year.
• Worked for Hägglunds Drives Inc. as Application Engineer working with Control Systems and Hydraulic Power unit engineering for 7 years.
• In 2001 promoted to Engineering Manager at Hagglunds Drives Inc., responsible for all drive system design and engineering for North American market, leading a staff of 6 engineers for 5 years.
• Graduted from Ashland University with Masters in Business Administration in 2005.
• In 2006 promoted to Market Segment Manager in Marketing Department with Hägglunds Drives Inc. and assumed business development responsibilities for Process Industries (including Rubber, Chemical, Pulp & Paper, & Sugar) as well as Marine & Offshore and Building & Construction, covering the North American market.

Ron Sullivan was recently appointed as Regional Manager – Latin America for Commtest, Inc.  Prior to this, he worked 16 years for VibrAlign, Inc.  Starting as a Field Service Manager in 1989, he progressed to the position of President (in 1996).  At VibrAlign Ron supported industrial customers (e.g., aluminum, tobacco, pulp & paper, tire making, plastic films, food processing, defense and ship building) with predictive maintenance consulting services, including vibration analysis, training, field balancing, and laser alignment services.  Before joining VibrAlign Ron spent 13 years with Carrier Corporation.  He started there as a field service engineer with Carrier’s Machinery & Systems Division, and over the years held a variety of technical and general management positions.