Video Team for 2008 Special Equipment, Articles 600-702 DVD

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Victor Ammons

Senior Electrical Engineer Hillsborough, NJ

Victor Ammons was born in North Carolina, but has lived primarily in New Jersey since the age of five. He spent his high school and college vacation times working in a small, family owned electrical contracting firm. Vic married his high school sweetheart after his sophomore year at North Carolina State University, from which both graduated with honors two years later. After four years in the Army, during which time their first child was born in Germany, Vic and Anne alternated getting MBA degrees. They now have three married children and six grandchildren.

After a number of years of running the family electrical contracting business while his father’s health declined, Vic trained and turned the business over to his brother-in-law. He then returned to the engineering field in which he had been trained. Vic is a registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey and has served in an engineering management role for several engineering and architectural/engineering firms. He’s now a senior electrical engineer for Jacobs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Morristown, New Jersey.

Vic and Anne now reside in west central New Jersey in an area with a few dozen families among over a thousand acres of woodlands. Yes, there are still woodlands in New Jersey; we haven’t gotten around to paving them all yet. Vic and Anne, who will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2019, are avid square- and ballroom-dancers, and are presidents of their local cluband the Northern New Jersey Square Dance Association. Vic is also a woodworker and an amateur beekeeper. Both are active in several capacities in their church.

 


Steve Arne

Training Director AETech Electrical Training Center Rapid City, South Dakota www.ElectricianClass.com

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.


Mike Culbreath

Master Electrician, Graphic Artist–Mike Holt Enterprises

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


Ryan Jackson

Inspector/Instructor City of Draper, Utah

Ryan Jackson is a combination inspector in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area who began his career as a carpenter while in high school. He began doing electrical work when he was 18 and, at the age of 23, Ryan landed his first job as an electrical inspector and subsequently became certified in building, plumbing, and mechanical inspection (commercial and residential), as well as building and electrical plan review. Two years after becoming an inspector, he was approached by a friend in the area asking him to fill in at an electrical seminar for him. After his first class Ryan was hooked, and is now a highly sought after seminar instructor. He has taught in several states, and loves helping people increase their understanding of the Code.

In 2005, Ryan met Mike Holt in Salt Lake City, and they became friends immediately. He helped Mike with his Understanding the NEC, Volume 2 videos and began editing his books as well. He believes that there are only a small handful of opportunities that change a person’s life and career, and meeting Mike was one of them.

When Ryan isn’t working, he can often be found in his garage turning wood on his lathe, or in the kitchen where he enjoys wine making. Ryan married his high school sweetheart, Sharie, and they have two beautiful children together: Kaitlynn and Aaron.


Jeff Larus

Electrical Inspector/Instructor Rapid City, SD

Jeff Larus started his electrical career by completing programs in Industrial Electronics and Electronics Technology at Western Dakota Vocational Technical School in Rapid City, South Dakota right after graduating from high school. Jeff completed his electrical apprenticeship and two years as a journeyman working in his father’s electrical contracting business. He tested for and received his South Dakota Electrical Inspector’s license as soon as he was eligible to test.

Since 1990, Jeff has worked for the City of Rapid City as an Electrical Inspector. As a combination inspector for the city, Jeff does primarily electrical and mechanical inspections. Over the years, he has acquired many certifications in all aspects of building inspection and plan review. He holds licenses from the State of South Dakota and the City of Rapid City as well as certifications from the International Association of Electrical Inspectors, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, and the International Code Council. Jeff teaches electrical continuing education classes for Western Dakota Tech and local electrical trade groups. He has volunteered with the Pennington County Search and Rescue Team for the past 19 years.

Jeff and his wife Kae of 11 years live in Rapid City, South Dakota where they have two children Jessy and Tabitha in grade school. Jeff and Kae have been active in Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Black Hills and the Casey Family Foster Care Program.


Michael Pillarella

Owner, Pillarella School of Electrical Code & Theory Assonet, Massachusetts www.pillarellaschool.com

Mike Pillarella holds a Master’s Degree in Education, a BA in Industrial Arts, and an AA in Electric and Electronics Engineering Technology. He became a Certified Electrical Related & Shop Instructor in the Massachusetts School system. In 1988, Mike established Electrical Contractors, Inc. (EMI) which provides electrical maintenance and installation services in the New England South Shore area.

In 2007, Mike established the proprietary Pillarella School of Electrical Code & Theory. While serving as an electrical inspector, he became increasingly aware of the areas in which more education was needed and structured his curriculum accordingly. His proudest moment as an instructor was when his son, Tim, earned his Master’s license—the first attendee of the school to do so. Mike holds master licenses in MA, RI, NH, VT and ME, and is an approved CEU provider and OSHA Outreach Construction instructor in these states. He’s President of the Massachusetts Electrical Contractors Association, Bristol Chapter, and President and Education Chairman of the International Association of Electrical Inspectors, Roger Williams Chapter.

Mike served for several years as an instructor for the MA Firefighters’ Academy teaching Electrical Safety, Fire, and Arson Investigation. He served his community for 17 years as a firefighter, EMT, and finished as Fire Chief.

Mike is extremely proud of his wife, Valerie, and their three children, Amy, Michael and Tim.


Phil Simmons

Simmons Electrical Services PO Box 2377, Olympia, WA 98507

Phil Simmons is self-employed as Simmons Electrical Services. Services include consulting on the National Electrical Code and other Codes, writing, editing, illustrating and producing technical publications and inspection of complex electrical installations. He develops training programs related to electrical codes and safety and has been a presenter at numerous seminars and conferences. Phil also provides plan review of electrical construction documents.

Phil began his electrical career in a light-industrial plant. He is licensed as a master electrician and was owner and manager of Simmons Electric Inc., an electrical contracting company. Phil previously served as Chief Electrical Inspector for the State of Washington from 1984 to 1990. He also served as Executive Director for the International Association of Electrical Inspectors as Executive Director and as Education, Codes and Standards Coordinator. He was International President in 1987. He also served as Editor of IAEI News and updated the Electrical Inspection Certification Study Guides as well as the Neon Installations Manual. He served Underwriters Laboratories, as a Corporate Member and on the Electrical Council and on the UL Board of Directors.

Phil presently serves NFPA on Code Making Panel-5 of the National Electrical Code Committee. He previously served on the NEC CMP-1, as Chair of CMP-19 and member of CMP-17. He served six years on the NFPA Standards Council, as NFPA Electrical Section President and on the NEC Technical Correlating Committee.


Eric Stromberg

Master Electrician, Electrical Engineer, Instructor

Eric@MikeHolt.com

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.


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