Bernard (Barney) Berlinger, Jr.
President & CEO

In 1997, Mr. Berlinger founded Gear Innovations LLC and serves as its President and CEO.  The company is solely a gear technology development entity.  Several advancements in gear design, manufacture, and inspection technology have been developed and patented by the company.  Mr. Berlinger is the named inventor, or co-inventor, of several patents all dealing with gear drive technology.

Mr. Berlinger joined the American Gear Manufacturers Association in 1962, and has been a member ever since.  He served on the Management Seminar Planning Committee, Chaired the Fine Pitch Gearing Committee for several years, served on the Administrative Division Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Association.  He became Treasurer in 1984, Executive Vice President in 1985, and President in 1986.  He served as a Board Member of the AGMA Foundation, the research and development arm of this international association of gear manufacturers, designers, and academicians, members numbering over 400 around the world.

In addition, Mr. Berlinger served on the Board of Trustees of the Gear Research Institute from 1997 to 1999, and served as its Board Chairman from 2000 to 2002.  The GRI, located at the Applied Research Laboratories of Penn State University, does single client and consortium type research projects that support gear technology of the future.

Mr. Berlinger’s Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering was from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960.

Dr. John R. Colbourne
Chief Technology Officer (Passed June 2016)

Dr. Colbourne joined Gear Innovations, the holder of the Convoloid Patent Portfolio, in 1997. He was a Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, in Canada, obtaining his BS in Mechanical Sciences at Cambridge (UK) University. While there, he spent a full year of study at Darmstadt Technical Hochschule in Germany.

His PhD in Kinematic Theory was from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. He was Chair of the Nomenclature Committee of the AGMA, and was awarded the AGMA Technical Division Executive Committee Award for outstanding contributions to the art of gear design and utilization.

Allen J. Williston, P.E
Chief Engineer

Mr. Williston obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri and is a Professional Engineer registered in that state.

In 1990 Mr. Williston joined the Dorris Company, a prominent manufacturer of gear drive systems. Through his 16 years there he was steadily promoted to increasing levels of responsibility finishing as the Senior Project Engineer responsible for not only the design of the gearing portion of those systems but also all the associated components such as bearings, shafts, housings, manufacturing processing, and testing.

In 2005 as Chief Engineer of Gear Innovations he led a multi-year comprehensive testing program jointly executed by Gear Innovations and the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, to test newly designed and manufactured Convoloid gearing for wind turbines with power requirements up to 440 KW (~600 HP).

Since 2009 Mr. Williston has consulted with a power transmission and wind power company in developing advanced designs involving CFD, wind tunnel experimentation, gearing, aerodynamics, electromechanical components, power electronics, and program financial feasibility.

Mr. Williston joined the American Gear Manufacturers Association in 1991 and since 1997 has chaired the Computer Programming Committee charged with developing programs that accurately calculate ratings and related information for current AGMA and ISO standards. He is a member of the Wind Turbine TAG (Task Advisory Group) and has served on the Enclosed Drives and Components Committees.