Biography
Buddy Lee, CMRP, MBA, CRL is a 2013 MBA graduate of the University of
the Tennessee Graduate School of Business and a 1987 graduate of the
University of Tennessee, College of Engineering, holding a Bachelor of
Science in Electrical Engineering. His first degree is a Bachelor of Arts in
Music from Carson-Newman College in 1982. While the 1986 Chairman of
the 300-member student chapter of the IEEE, he founded and published
Common Ground, the first and only student produced magazine of the IEEE
at the University, with a press run of 9,000 copies.
After his 1987 graduation from UT, Buddy was employed by the
Department of Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he was responsible
for data entry oversight for five energy databases. In 1989 he joined CSI as an Applications Engineer, and was
subsequently promoted to sales, where he was Salesman of the Year in 1992. In 1996, he founded MAARS
(Machinery Analysis And Reliability Systems) where he served as President for 11 years. He is co-holder of US
Patent #6,276,213 “Signal Conditioner for a Vibration Sensor”. In January of 2007 he merged MAARS with
Windrock, Inc. In July of 2009 he joined AESSSEAL, Inc. as National Account Manager for North America. Under
company reorganization in January of 2011 he became the Strategic Marketing and Reliability Manager at
AESSEAL. In May of 2013 he was employed by Industrial Information Resources as Sr. Account Manager, Ohio
Valley. April 1, 2015 he joined Mobius Institute as Reliability Training Specialist for North America. He became a
Certified Reliability Leader (CRL) in May of 2015.
Buddy has been active in the field of machinery monitoring for 24 years, publishing several papers. Vibrations
Magazine "Motor Current Analysis Using a PC-Based System" Technical Article, September, 1992. Hydrocarbon
Processing Magazine "Using Wireless Technology and the Internet for Predictive Maintenance" May, 2001. Buddy
is an active speaker at Conferences and Seminars, including Process Reliability, PPM, SMRP, PdM and various
chapter meetings of the Vibration Institute. Buddy’s interest turned to Industrial Reliability in 2004, and he became
a CMRP in 2007. He co-organized and led the development of the Greater East Tennessee Chapter of the SMRP in
2010, and was elected Immediate Past Chair, and currently serves on the GET SMRP Chapter Board of Directors. In
2012 he was confirmed as the Chairman of the Membership Committee for the National SMRP.
The SMRP approved two papers for presentation at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, OH in October 2015.
“Industrial Perception of the Correlation of Reliability and Safety” presented the results of Buddy’s year-long
MBA program study on the current perception of the correlation of Safety and Reliability among plant personnel.
This paper attempts to answer the question “Are industrial plants with reliability programs in place safer places to
work than those without reliability programs?” The second paper, “Wireless Condition Monitoring of High Value
Assets” presented the lessons learned in four case histories over the last 7 years. This paper will attempt to answer
the question “Does Wireless Condition Monitoring technology work to deliver viable financial returns for heavyasset,
harsh-environment applications?” The four case histories are from the Power, Paper, Nuclear and Roll
Service Industries. In October of 2016, Buddy presented “The Life-cycle Costs of Mechanical Seals” at the SMRP
Annual meeting, which resulted in the following evaluation from one of the attendees: “This was the best presenter
with the most specific and technical information of the entire conference. Most others marketed services or products or just
presented broad, general overviews of implementing an improvement project. I was looking for specific, technical reliability
information and this one (the last of the conference) and this one delivered.” October 2016 SMRP Annual Meeting,
Jacksonville, FL.
In October of 2017, Buddy presented two papers at the SMRP Annual Meeting: “Accelerating Your Reliability
Program” and “Fault Trees and Event Trees: Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Reliability”.
In June of 2015 Buddy was accepted into the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tennessee where
he began working on his Master’s Degree in Reliability in the Fall of 2015.
In August of 2016 Buddy was admitted to Lincoln Memorial University’s first DBA Cohort, where he is currently
enrolled in addition to his enrollment at UT (he is dual-enrolled at both Universities). Buddy has a 4.0 GPA at LMU
after four semesters (Fall 2017), two-thirds through the classes section of the program.
After a position as Director of Engineering at Tekwell Services, Buddy founded iRAMX, a reliability consulting and
training company.
In addition to refereeing Upward League church basketball games and playing bad golf, he enjoys flying, boating
and skiing with his wife Lisa, son Adam, and daughter Ashley.
