Industry consultant, analyst, author, and speaker Terry Wohlers is president of Wohlers Associates, Inc., an independent consulting firm he founded 30 years ago. The company provides technical and strategic consulting on the new developments and trends in rapid product development, additive manufacturing, and 3D printing. Through this company, Wohlers has provided consulting assistance to more than 260 organizations in 26 countries. Also, he has provided advice to 180 companies in the investment community, most being institutional investors that represent mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity valued at billions of dollars.
For two decades, Wohlers has served as a voice in the additive manufacturing industry. Wohlers has been cited by Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, CNNMoney, Computerworld, Discovery News from the Discovery Channel, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, Inc. magazine, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. He has been included in articles published by Investor's Business Daily, Newsweek (Japan), Reuters, Scientific American, ScienceNews, WIRED, and countless domestic and foreign magazines, journals, and newspapers.
Wohlers has twice served as a featured speaker at events held at the U.S. White House. He has appeared on many television and radio news programs, including NPR, CBS Radio News, CNN, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox Business, Australia's Sky News, and China's CCTV. 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 420 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 more than 150 keynote presentations on five continents in cities ranging from Seoul to Pretoria and São Paulo to Melbourne. He has visited more than 200 organizations worldwide to witness their capabilities, best practices, and challenges.
Wohlers is a partner and platinum member of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (commonly known as America Makes), a $100 million initiative funded by the U.S. government and industry and academic partners. This important national program was announced and launched in Q3 2012.
Wohlers is a principal author of Wohlers Report 2018, a publication that provides data of critical importance to product developers, manufacturers, service providers, investors, researchers, and educators worldwide. The 344-page report, representing the 23rd annual edition, was developed with assistance from 76 co-authors in 32 countries. It was also developed with support from 92 service providers, 64 system manufacturers, 19 producers of third-party materials and desktop 3D printters, and many others worldwide.
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 May 2016, Wohlers became an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
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. Today, it is known as the Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing Community of SME. In 1998, Wohlers co-founded the Global Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations (GARPA) involving 22 member nations around the world. For many years, GARPA served as a catalyst for the exchange of information on additive manufacturing technologies and applications across international borders.
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