Jim Graef, is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada with a Mechanical Engineering Degree. He served 6.5 years in the Canadian Armed Forces prior to getting out of the military to start his own consulting business. He ran a successful engineering, training and consulting business (Kinetic Safety Inc.) that specialized in finding solutions for workers who worked at height in various industries such as drilling, construction, manufacturing and utilities from 1995-2000. He sold that business to the largest fall protection equipment manufacturer in the world (Capital Safety) in 2000, and worked for Capital for the next 15 years, where he also got his MBA in Executive Management from Royal Roads University. Some of his roles with Capital Safety included: North American Training Director, Canadian Engineering Manager, Canadian Marketing Manager, and Global Oil and Gas Sales Director based out of Houston, TX. Capital Safety was acquired by 3M in 2015 for $2.5 billon and Jim was asked to head up Sales in Canada for their newly acquired fall protection division.
Jim has been educating adults for almost 30 years. He started working part time at Mohawk College teaching various mathematics courses in the engineering department in 2011. In August 2019 he was hired on full time to teach various courses in the Supply Chain Management, Global Business Management and International Business Management programs. Jim has a passion for learning and for giving back knowledge to the younger generation. He is a proponent of case-based learning, and challenges his students to use critical thinking to solve real world problems. Jim is also a volunteer fire fighter, black belt in judo, and a high school/club rugby coach.