Karl Bergey, Chairman & CEO

A co-founder of BWC and its chairman & CEO, Karl Bergey is an aeronautical engineer with degrees from Penn State and M.I.T. He served for many years on the engineering faculty at the University of Oklahoma and is a recognized expert in small aircraft design and aerodynamics. From 1957 through 1968, he served as Assistant Chief Engineer at the Piper Development Center in Vero Beach, Florida, where he designed such notable aircraft as the Piper Cherokee. Over 35,000 Piper Cherokees have been sold, making it the best selling family of small planes in the U.S.

From 1968 to 1970 Mr. Bergey was Vice President for Research and Engineering for the General Aviation Division of North American Rockwell. He joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1970, where he has won several teaching awards and his students have won numerous national design competitions. He retired from the University in 1996. He has authored more than 50 technical papers, served as a consultant to industry and government, and is a registered professional engineer. He holds ten patents relating to aerospace, wind power, and medical technology.

In addition to his responsibilities with Bergey Windpower, he is also involved in the design of new aircraft as president of Bergey Aerospace, Inc.

Mike Bergey, President

A co-founder of BWC and president since 1987, Mike Bergey is a mechanical engineer and an internationally recognized expert in the field of small wind turbines, distributed generation, and rural electrification. He has authored more than 70 technical papers and articles in the field, provided testimony to Congress, and serves as a consultant to numerous government and international agencies. He holds one patent in the wind energy field.

He has twice served as president of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and served on the AWEA Board of Directors from 1981 to 2007. He is a past chairman of the U.S. Export Council for Renewable Energy, member of the U.S. Department of Commerce “Environmental Technology Trade Advisory Committee”, and a past president of the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council.

Mr. Bergey is the acting-president of the newly formed national trade association, the Distributed Wind Energy Association.

He chaired the AWEA Small Wind Turbine Committee for over 20 years and authored the 2002 AWEA “U.S. Small Wind Turbine Industry Roadmap: A 20-year Industry Plan for Small Wind Technology”. He chairs the AWEA Small Wind Turbine Certification Committee, which drafted the AWEA 9.1-2009 certification standard has been adopted in the U.K. (as a BWEA standard). U.S. and Canadian adoption is pending. Mr. Bergey initiated the formation of and serves on the board of the Small Wind Certification Council (SWCC).

In 1981 he was recognized by AWEA for development of the “For Leadership in the Development of a National Performance Standard for Small Wind Turbines”, which was the basis for the IEC 61400-12 performance testing standard. In 1994 he was recognized as AWEA’s “Wind Industry Man of the Year”

In 2003 Mr. Bergey served on Oklahoma Governor Henry’s EDGE Committee, which prepared a strategic plan for economic development in Oklahoma. He then served two terms on the Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development. Mr. Bergey was Workforce Oklahoma’s “Cleveland County Businessman of the Year” in 2005. He was president of the Norman Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and served on the Chamber Board from 2003-2010.

Ken Craig, Vice President

One of the engineers who developed the BWC Excel turbine, Ken Craig worked with BWC from 1980 to 1985. He has a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from the University of Delaware and a Masters of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Oklahoma. From 1972 to 1979, Ken served as Professor of Chemistry at Edinboro State University in Pennsylvania.

In 1977 he co-founded Indiana Analytical Laboratories, a company that provided chemistry and engineering services for the coal industry. The company grew to 34 employees by 1980, when he left to pursue an engineering career at BWC. In 1986 he returned to teaching as a member of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Norwich University , in Vermont, where he served as Department Head from 1991 to 1996.

His areas of expertise in engineering are Fluid Mechanics, Manufacturing, and Computer and Instrumentation Systems. He is the only engineering faculty member who has earned the highest teaching honor awarded by Norwich University. Ken used a sabbatical leave to work with BWC in 1993-94, and returned to full time status with the company in 1997. He is a registered Professional Engineer.

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