Rich Makela

Engineer

Instructional Designer

Technical Trainer

Technical Communicator

Performance Consultant

Rich is an engineer and technical communicator who has worked at the interface between people and technology for more than 35 years.

He served 15 years as manager of customer training for a major manufacturer of automatic control systems.

He pioneered in the development of individualized (self-paced, self-directed) technical training for engineers, technicians, and plant operators in paper mills, chemical plants, refineries, pharmaceutical plants, steel mills, telecommunications networks, and other technically complex operations.

He has created:

Instruction manuals, job aids, practice exercises, instructor guides, and qualification tests for operators of automated machine tools and other complex production systems.

Computer simulations of industrial processes (boilers, distillation columns, heat exchangers, batch chemical reactors) and business processes (profit forecasting models, price/volume models).

He is skilled in the use of MS Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, MS Project, Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PhotoShop, Dreamweaver/Fireworks, Toolbook II, and other Windows applications used to create performance support resources.

He has 35 years of hands-on experience with instrumentation and automatic control systems as applied to chemical, thermal and metallurgical processes, and automated machinery.

He holds a BSEE from Purdue University.