James’ previous experience includes six years of machinery room operation, supervision, and mechanical gage calibration in the US Nuclear Navy. He was employed for 13 years by Commercial Metals Company during which he achieved expertise as a welder, engineering designer, and quality control inspector. He also developed and implemented a welding inspection training program for employees (most of which had not completed their high school education) based on the AWS CWI program. This helped him and others successfully pass the AWS exam on the first try. James was later selected by the company to serve as Business Process Expert for the entire Fabrication division of during a two-year implementation of SAP Business Infrastructure. He was responsible for learning the specific business requirements and communicating, configuring, and testing software solutions to meet those business requirements of over 50 Rebar Fabrication shops.

James entered the Bridge Fabrication industry in 2010 as the Quality Control Manager for a major steel bridge fabricator; PDM (now Veritas). His experience, aptitude, and management style helped bring about a major culture change in the shop inspectors, and an immediate positive impact on the quality of shipments. Exposure to highly effective auditors and the auditing process in general, during his time as Quality Control Manager, was a major influence bringing him to Atema.

Jim manages multiple large projects for Atema, both national and international, for large facility owners and contractors serving agencies in transportation and infrastructure.