Jim Atkins is president of Atkins, Inc., a consulting company. He has over forty years in the paper industry and has held the titles of Manager Paper Manufacturing, Mill Manager, and VP/General Manager in several paper companies. He has a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina. Atkins has also written, directed, and produced several TAPPI CBT training courses including Making Pulp and Paper and Practical Papermaking. He has been active in TAPPI and has served as Chairman of the Paper and Board Manufacturing Division, and was elected to the TAPPI Board of Directors. He is a TAPPI Fellow and has received the Paper and Board Manufacturing Division Leadership Award and Division Technical Award. Atkins is also a technical editor for TAPPI JOURNAL. He has written over 30 articles on papermaking and made numerous presentations to TAPPI, PIMA, and other industry groups. He is a member of the International Association of Scientific Papermakers.

Chuck Klass, President of Klass Associates Inc., is a consultant with over five decades of paper industry experience. After graduation from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor's degree in pulp and paper technology, he worked with Union Camp manufacturing linerboard, corrugating medium and bag papers. He has worked in technical and operating positions with several other paper companies and in marketing and technical service for paper chemicals, machine clothing and paper mill machinery. In 1986 he became a consultant to the paper industry specialized in operations/quality improvement and development of value-added papers and paperboard; clients include producers of coated paper and paperboard worldwide and suppliers to the paper industry. He also teaches courses in paper machine operations improvement, sizing, coating and marketing for TAPPI, universities and suppliers to the industry. He has been a TAPPI member for over 50 years, is a TAPPI Fellow, and has served as chairman of the Paper and Board Manufacture Division and on the Board of Directors. 

Dick Reese of Dick Reese and Associates, Inc. has completed energy evaluations on over 125 paper and pulp machines in 56 mills producing all major grades. Dick has a degree in paper technology from Miami University and has worked on paper machines for 55 years in various technical, manufacturing, engineering, and consulting positions. He has worked for paper companies, suppliers to the paper industry, engineering companies and as an independent consultant. He is an active member of TAPPI and is a TAPPI fellow, has been awarded the Manufacturing and Engineering division technical awards, and the Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award that is the top technical award in the paper industry. He has specialized in paper machine energy conservation for the last ten years and was a key developer of TAPPI technical information paper 0404-63, paper machine energy conservation. He developed paper machine energy scorecards that benchmark energy performance and identify opportunities for reducing energy use. The scorecards are used around the world and have been translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese. He has completed paper machine energy evaluations on over 200 paper machines producing all major grades of paper. He currently works part time with the Wisconsin Focus on Energy program in Wisconsin paper mills to evaluate energy performance and identify proven and emerging technologies that will reduce consumption of electricity and natural gas. He has authored over 40 technical papers and made over 70 technical presentations at paper industry conferences and seminars.

Kenneth C. Hill has been named a TAPPI Fellow for 2011. He is currently Systems Group President for Kadant Johnson Inc. in Lenoir City, Tenn., USA. A graduate of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Hill has been a member of TAPPI since 1983. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the area of paper drying and the design of paper drying equipment. He has worked for Huyck Drying Productions, Enerdry Corporation, Poyry BEK, Valmet Enerdry, Hill Drying Systems, Johnson Corporation and Kadant Johnson. While with Enerdry Corporation and Valmet Enerdry, he led product developments in the areas of heat recovery, high-humidity hoods, pocket ventilation and paper machine runnability. In 1991, he formed Hill Drying Systems. His company conducted dryer studies helping paper mills improve their dryer performance.Much of Hill’s work has involved the study of paper machine dryer systems and benchmarking dryer performance. He has studied more than 500 paper machine dryer sections in his career. While employed at Poyry Bek, Enerdry Corporation and Hill Drying Systems, he developed test methods to analyze and benchmark dryer performance. Many of these test methods are widely used within the paper industry today.