About Us

Advisory Board

There are dozens of engineers, technicians, and consultants involved in the development and production of each of our products. Sometimes they are Tormach employees or contractors, while others are friends, customers, or business acquaintances. The most influential among them are the members of our Board of Advisors.

Herb Hannam

Herbert Hannam, BS - Electrical Engineering 1975
Herb Hannam has 18 years of experience in engineering management, much of which occurred during the 25 year period he worked at Giddings & Lewis. During Herb's tenure at G&L the company acquired Cross & Trecker and Fadal Engineering, then became acquired themselves by Thyssen AG. The result was that the most important machine tool manufacturer in North America became a part of the largest machine tool manufacturer in the world. Herb is currently Director of Engineering at Digi-Star LLC.

Randy Kohl

Randy Kohl, BS - BioChem 1974, MS Horticulture 1977
Herb Mr. Kohl began programming CNC machine tools long before CAM software made it easy. After 21 years as lead machinist and co-owner of an engineering and manufacturing company, Randy has decided to pursue other interests. With experience ranging from horticulture to designing artificial hearts, Randy is the quintessential renaissance man. Mr. Kohl is currently designing electrical equipment for a power utility company.

Dr. Nanping Wu

Dr. Nanping Wu, PhD - Engineering Mechanics 1990, MBA 2003
Dr. Wu completed his undergraduate work in Shanghai and his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, were he focused on vibration, composite materials, and thermal analysis. Dr. Wu gained US citizenship in 1993. Over the years Nanping has applied his expertise to a wide variety industrial machines and processes, largely in the areas of thermal and structural finite element analysis and machine dynamics. Dr. Wu is currently Senior Product Engineer at Invensys APV.

John Prentice

John Prentice, BS - Electrical Engineering 1965, CEng, MIEE
John Prentice graduated in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London. His career has included posts in a wide variety of engineering disciplines ranging from designing control gear for diesel electric locomotives to managing mainframe operating systems and networking in a university computer service. In 1990, he was appointed Head of Faculty of Design & Technology at Guthlaxton College, Leicester. Since formally retiring, he has been consulting on software engineering and CNC projects worldwide, working at the University of Nottingham as Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Fellow in Design Engineering, and even finding time for projects in his horological workshop.

Robert Turnquist

Robert Turnquist, PE - BSME 1971
Mr. Turnquist has 34 years of experience in industrial machine design. Working on both the mechanical and control aspects of complex machinery has given him a wide perspective on design issues. Formerly Director of Engineering at a major manufacturer of converting machinery and custom equipment, Bob is now working with Foth & Van Dyke, a private consulting firm of scientists and engineers. Bob is a Professional Engineer, registered with the State of Wisconsin.