Terry Wohlers

Industry consultant, analyst, author, and speaker Terry Wohlers is president of Wohlers Associates, Inc., an independent consulting firm he founded  25 years ago. The company provides technical and strategic consulting on the new developments and trends in rapid product development and additive manufacturing. Through this company, Wohlers has provided consulting assistance to more than 170 organizations in 23 countries. Also, he has provided advise to more than 50 companies in the investment community. Most have been institutional investors that represent mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity valued at billions of dollars.

For nearly two ecades, he has served as a voice in the additive manufacturing industry. He has been quoted or cited in the The Boston Globe, Business 2.0, BusinessWeek, Chicago Tribune, CNBC Business, CNNMoney, Computerworld, Discovery News from the Discovery Channel, The Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, and countless domestic and foreign magazines, journals, and newspapers. In November 2011, Wohlers was part of a Business News Network (BNN) program that was broadcast live, nationwide in Canada.  In June 2010, Sky News (Sydney, Australia) conducted a live, nationwide interview broadcast with Wohlers.

In 2007, more than 1,000 industry professionals from around the world selected Wohlers as the #1 most influential person in rapid product development and additive manufacturing. The results were published in TCT Magazine (UK) as part of its TCT Top 25 Influential People survey.

Wohlers has authored 385 books, magazine articles, and technical papers on engineering and manufacturing automation. Also, he has been given the opportunity to speak to thousands of engineers, scientists, and executives around the world. Wohlers has given 90 keynote presentations on five continents in cities ranging from Helsinki and Pretoria to Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. He has visited more than 200 organizations worldwide to witness their capabilities, best practices, and challenges. 

To satisfy his appetite for adventure, Wohlers has climbed the Great Wall of China, hiked the rain forests of New Zealand, bathed in the Dead Sea, and summited the 4,346-meter (14,259-foot) Longs Peak in the Rocky Mountains. He has ridden elephants in Thailand, encountered lions and Great White Sharks in Africa, explored ancient pyramids in Egypt, and traveled crocodile-infested rivers of Malaysian Borneo.

In May 2004, Wohlers received an Honorary Doctoral Degree of Mechanical Engineering from Central University of Technology, Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa). Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner, received this honorary degree in 2002. In 2005, Wohlers became a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Less than 1% of the SME membership is granted this distinction, making it one of the most prestigious honors presented by the Society.

In 1992, Wohlers led a group of 14 individuals from industry and academia to form the first association dedicated to rapid prototyping. In 1993, the association joined the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) to become the Rapid Prototyping Association (RPA) of SME. In 1998, Wohlers co-founded the Global Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations (GARPA) involving 22 member nations around the world. Today, GARPA serves as a catalyst for the exchange of information on additive manufacturing technologies and applications across international borders.  

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