Kenneth E. Bannister ME - Keynote Speaker

Ken is an internationally renowned expert, consultant, and speaker in the field of Asset Maintenance and Production engineering / operations management. Ken is a UK accredited Mechanical Design Engineer who has worked on multi-faceted project in Europe, Africa, and throughout North and South America as a highly accomplished design engineer, project engineer, plant engineer, lubrication engineer, reliability engineer, and for the past 20 years as a change management professional empowering the asset management industry to tap into their “people power” to improve asset availability, reliability, and energy efficiency.

Ken is an accomplished author with four books and almost 300 white papers and articles in print on all aspects of asset management. Two new books on Industrial energy efficiency and the impact of asset management on cross enterprise business issues are currently in the works. Ken is currently an associate editor and columnist for five magazines that include the prestigious Plant Engineering and Maintenance, and Maintenance Technology magazines, and also sits on the ISO International Council for Machinery Lubrication assisting in the development of a worldwide standard for lubrication certification.

As an experienced project manager who has implemented Lean asset management programs for small three person to multi billion dollar 7000 plus maintenance person operations, Ken brings an array of knowledge on CMMS, EAM tools, TPM, RCM, and Lean to his client’s assignments. Throughout his career Ken has consistently applied common sense principles to drive out simple solutions to seemingly complex problems and as a result has gained an enviable reputation as an expert, facilitator, author and speaker in his chosen field.

Steve Klepper, Administrative Superintendent for the City of Corpus Christi Texas

Steve helps the City’ of Corpus Chisti water utilities improve their work and asset management practices and develop service delivery strategies. His current role also involves water financing strategies, cost of service, and water rate design. He earned a Masters Degree, completed coursework necessary for a Ph. D in finance, and over the last twenty years has taught finance, economics and accounting part time as an adjunct in various colleges and universities.

Steve has published a number of articles on the value of asset management in municipal government. Over the last five years, Steve has made numerous presentations at annual conferences of the American Water Works (AWWA), Water Environment Federation (WEF) and American Public Works Association (APWA).  He has also presented at three of the PULSE conferences.

Below are a number of Steve’s articles and presentations:
Public Works Magazine article: http://www.pwmag.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=768&articleID=879936

Statetech magazine article: http://www.statetechmag.com/issues/may-june-2010/manage-your-assets.html

Water World Magazine webcast: http://www.waterworld.com/index/webcasts/webcast-display/2654075282/webcasts/waterworld/live-events/moving-from_complacency.html

Mike has been a key player in the evolution of management services and asset optimization throughout his career. With over 20 years experience in the asset management industry, Mike has been involved in many consulting projects for Fortune 500 companies around the world. In 1998, he founded PopWare, a company which specialized in providing asset management consulting and technical services. With Mike at the helm, PopWare  grew quickly and in 2004 Profit Magazine included it among the 100 fastest growing Canadian companies. In 2005, PopWare was acquired by Bell Canada to support its Information and Communication Technology initiatives and was later merged with The Createch Group.  MIke has a Bachelor degree in Computer Sciences, a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Master degree in Business Administration from McMaster University.