Jim Fitch has a wealth of "in the trenches" experience in lubrication, oil analysis, tribology and machinery failure investigations. Over the past two decades he has given hundreds of lectures on these subjects and today is a sought-after consultant having served for over 100 organizations including Michelin Tire, Timken Bearing, John Deere, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, EPRI, ExxonMobil, International Paper, Cummins Engine, NASA and U.S. Steel - just to mention a few.

Mr. Fitch has over 200 publications and is editor of Practicing Oil Analysis and Machinery Lubrication magazines. He serves as U.S. delegate to ISO of the tribology and oil analysis working group. Since 2002, Mr. Fitch has been Director and Board Member of the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML). In 1997, he co-founded Noria Corporation as Chairman and CEO. In 2007, Jim stepped down as CEO and remains an active Chairman for Noria. Mr. Fitch holds degrees from Georgia Tech and the University of Tulsa.

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A co-owner, President and CEO of Noria Corporation, Drew oversees all of Noria's worldwide operations. Also, he serves as the principal consultant in Noria's Reliability Management service business and is the senior editor of Noria Publishing and the chief technical editor of Reliable Plant magazine, for which he writes the award-winning Exponent column. Widely published, Drew has authored more than 125 technical papers, articles, books and book chapters on the topic of industrial reliability management. A lively public speaker, Drew is a popular keynote speaker at industry conferences and symposiums.

As a consultant, Drew specializes in quantifying the financial benefits of plant reliability management and in conveying those opportunities to senior-level managers in the language and style to which they're accustomed. He has developed dozens of proprietary processes and software applications to help his clients define their strategic goals for managing plant reliability, economically justifying the plan's elements and successfully implementing the strategy employing a systematic and properly sequenced method - helping his clients avoid costly mistakes.

Drew is a Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), a Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP), holds an MBA and has completed post-master's graduate study in reliability engineering technology management, measurement theory. He is active in numerous technical and industry societies, particularly the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP), where he has held several leadership positions.

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Mark Barnes
Vice President of Noria Reliability Solutions (NRS)
Senior Technical Consultant

Mark earned his doctoral degree in 1991 in the area of analytical spectroscopy. After 5 years working as a research associate at the University of British Columbia, Canada, Mark accepted a position with a commercial oil analysis lab in 1995, where he was involved with helping end users implement, develop and deploy world-class oil analysis and lubrication management programs. As a skilled educator and consultant in the areas of oil analysis and machinery lubrication, Mark has helped numerous clients develop effective machinery lubrication programs and troubleshoot complex lubrication problems through precision lubrication and oil analysis. His client list includes Alcoa, International Paper, TXU , Cargill Corp., Eaton Corp., Southern Companies, BC Hydro and Southern Cal Edison.

Equally at home in the classroom or down on the shop floor, Mark's no-nonsense approach to providing practical solutions to real-world problems has allowed his clients to chart "The Road Map to Success" the title of one of numerous articles Mark has written on lubrication and oil analysis program design strategies.

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