Video Team for 2008 Journeyman Calculations DVD Library

Larry Abernathy entered the U.S. Army after graduating from high school and received training in communications and electronics. He served in Korea, Germany, and three tours in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice. Larry was trained as an Army instructor and taught communications and electronics at the U.S. Army Southeastern Signal School at Fort Gordon, Georgia. He then served an IBEW apprenticeship and became licensed as a journeyman in 1976 and as a master in 1979.

Larry was employed in construction, industrial, commercial, and residential work until becoming the Electrical Inspector for the City of Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1986 with a promotion to Supervisor of Building Inspection in 1988. In 1995, he became employed by the Ford Motor Company and works in the Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Larry has also taught National Electrical Code update classes. He is married with three grown sons, one of whom is an IBEW journeyman electrician.

Steve Arne has worked as an electrician, electrical contractor, and electrical instructor for 40 years. Nineteen years of his career were spent as a teacher and department head in post-secondary education. Since Steve retired from Western Dakota Tech in 2003, he has provided industry-direct training specializing in continuing education Electrical Code classes and Electrician Exam Preparation classes for Journeyman and Master's level exams.

In 2012, Steve and Deb's son Ryan returned to Rapid City South Dakota to help Steve expand his training business at AETech Electrical Training Center to include a 640 hour full-time pre-employment Apprentice Electrician Training Program. Steve is currently a Board Member of the SD Electrical Commission and serves on the State and Local Chapter Boards of the SD Electrical Council.

Steve worked with Mike Holt as a technical editor and video team participant beginning in 2002, and uses Mike’s books in his classes. He is very thankful to have been associated with an industry leader like Mike who has a real heart to help others and provides excellent training products to help students in the electrical industry.

Steve and his wife Deb live in Rapid City, South Dakota where they’re both active in their church and community, and love to spend time with their children and grandchildren. The highest priority for both of them is putting God first in both their home and business.

Dennis Carlson has been in the electrical trade for over 35 years, and has held the positions of Project Superintendent, Field Engineer, Start-up-Coordinator, General Fore¬man, Foreman, Journeyman, and Craft Training Manager. He’s certi¬fied with NCCER as a Master Trainer, and is a professor for Victoria University, Australia as a Master Trainer. In April 2013, he graduated from Salem International University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

Dennis is a Master Electrician/Contractor licensed in several states, and a member of the NFPA and IAEI. He’s trained thousands of elec¬tricians in the last 25 years using Mike Holt’s material and has been working with Mike for the last 16 years on his Exam Prep courses.

Dennis and his wife, Cindy, live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where they’re both active in enjoying God’s great outdoors, their church, and the community. They have two children, Brandy, a graphics arts designer who lives in Greeley Colorado, and Josh who is an electrical estimator in Denver Colorado. “Life is too short to do only one thing so you have to prepare yourself for the next challenge. Never stop learning and striving to achieve those goals that you have.”

Mike Culbreath has devoted his career to the electrical industry and worked his way up from apprentice electrician to master electrician. He began by doing residential and light commercial construction, and later did service work and custom electrical installations. While working as a journeyman electrician, he suffered a serious on-the-job knee injury. As part of his rehabilitation, Mike completed courses at Mike Holt Enterprises, and then passed the exam to receive his Master Electrician’s license. ln 1986, with a keen interest in continuing education for electricians, he joined the staff to update material and began illustrating Mike Holt’s textbooks and magazine articles.

Mike started with simple hand-drawn diagrams and cut-and-paste graphics. When frustrated by the limitations of that style of illustrating, he took a company computer home to learn how to operate some basic computer graphic software. Realizing that computer graphics offered a lot of flexibility for creating illustrations, Mike took every computer graphics class and seminar he could to help develop his skills. He’s worked as an illustrator and editor with the company for over 30 years and, as Mike Holt has proudly acknowledged, has helped to transform his words and visions into lifelike graphics.

0riginally from south Florida, Mike now lives in northern lower Michigan where he enjoys hiking, kayaking, photography, gardening, and cooking; but his real passion is his horses. He also loves spending time with his children Dawn and Mac and his grandchildren Jonah, Kieley, and Scarlet

Wes Gerrans, upon obtaining a Bachelor’s degree from Andrews University in 1965, began his career as an Industrial Arts instructor at Eau Claire Michigan High School. After teaching for four years, he worked in the construction trades for the next 23 years. In 1992 he completed an Electrical Technology course at Northwest Kansas Technical School. It was at this time that he first had contact with Mike Holt when he helped with the editing of one of Mike’s earlier books. He then worked for Archer Daniels Midland as an industrial electrician until 2002, when he went back to NWKTC, now a college, as an instructor in the electrical program.

Wes remains happily married to his wife of 43 years, Jacque, who continues to be a source of strength and encouragement. She retired from being a school psychologist this year and is now enjoying a more leisurely pace at home. Their children are both married. Their son, Neil, is a teacher in Seattle, WA; their daughter, Lisa, teaches in Lincoln, NE.

Other areas of interest for Wes have included a commercial fishing business in Alaska, rebuilding wrecked vehicles, and restoring antique furniture. He is an active leader and teacher in his church. He enjoys participating in community projects, has a passion for teaching, and for sharing the Good News of Jesus.

John Mills is an instructor for Mike Holt Enterprises and is a Certified Electrical Contractor, Certified Inspector, Plans Reviewer, and CBO, and currently holds 27 active licenses at the county, state and national level. He started in the electrical trade in 1980 as a helper and attended an ABC Apprenticeship Program, then worked his way up to Master Electrician. John has been an instructor for 30 years, teaching master and journeyman exam preparation courses and Florida State certification courses. John knows that taking an exam is more than just the technical questions—he not only teaches the technical aspects of taking the exam and how to approach each section in a systematic way, but also teaches his students how to really prepare 100% for the mental aspects of taking such a rigorous exam. 

John was born in Westport, Connecticut and has been living in Miami Springs, Florida for the last 40 years. He resides in Miami, Florida with his wife Corina and their four sons. He loves to spend time woodworking, fishing and building cool bikes with his boys. John enjoys spending quality time on family picnics and vacations with his family

Eric Stromberg has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and is a professional engineer. He started in the electrical industry when he was a teenager helping the neighborhood electrician. After high school, and a year of college, Eric worked for a couple of different audio companies, installing sound systems in a variety of locations from small buildings to baseball stadiums. After returning to college he worked as a journeyman wireman for an electrical contractor.

After graduating from the University of Houston, Eric took a job as an electronic technician and installed and serviced life safety systems in high-rise buildings. After seven years he went to work for Dow Chemical as a power distribution engineer. His work with audio systems had made him very sensitive to grounding issues and he took this experience with him into power distribution. Because of this expertise, Eric became one of Dow’s grounding subject matter experts. This is also how Eric met Mike Holt, as Mike was looking for grounding experts for his 2002 Grounding vs. Bonding video.

Eric taught the National Electrical Code for professional engineering exam preparation for over 20 years, and has held continuing education teacher certificates for the states of Texas and New Mexico. He was on the electrical licensing and advisory board for the State of Texas, as well as on their electrician licensing exam board. Eric now consults for a Department of Energy research laboratory in New Mexico, where he’s responsible for the electrical standards as well as assisting the laboratory’s AHJ.

Eric’s oldest daughter lives with her husband in Zurich, Switzerland, where she teaches for an international school. His son served in the Air Force, has a degree in Aviation logistics, and is a pilot and owner of an aerial photography business. His youngest daughter is a singer/songwriter in Los Angeles.

James Thomas has been working in the electrical field since 1985 and is licensed in the State of North Carolina. He has worked in residential, commercial, and industrial electrical jobs. James has been an instructor teaching electrical and electronic courses (including the National Electrical Code) full time at James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville, NC for over 16 years and has taught thousands of individuals. He has taught at Pitt Community College in Greenville NC; Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, NC; and Sampson Community College in Clinton, NC.

James earned a diploma in Electrical Installation and Maintenance; a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Mount Olive College in Mount Olive, NC; and a Master’s degree in Industrial Technology from East Carolina University in Greenville NC. James also served in the Air Force Reserve in Goldsboro NC for over 22 years.