James Bridges is President and CEO of Knowledge
Systems, Inc., which he founded in 1985. Knowledge Systems provides state of
the art technology and services in the area of geopressure and geomechanical
software and services to the world's leading operators and service providers
with a focus on providing exploration and drilling teams with innovative
software to avoid costly problems and improve exploration and drilling success.
Mr. Bridges has been
involved in the design, development and support of engineering software for
more than 30 years. He is a strong advocate of funding company growth with
positive cash flow. Both software
companies he has founded and managed have grown into multi-million dollar sized
companies with minimal starting capital. His companies have been characterized
by rapid growth as evidenced by Knowledge Systems' listings in the Houston Fast
Tech 50 and Houston 100.
A registered professional engineer with a BS and MS
in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M, Jim developed the conviction early in
his career that one of the few opportunities to express creativity in the
scientific field was in the development of software to increase the productivity
of engineers and scientists. He founded Knowledge Systems in 1985 and in 1989
the company focused on geopressure analysis as its primary business after
senior management in several major oil companies confirmed that the
quantification of formation pressures prior to and while drilling was a major
challenge, with failures in this area costing the industry several billion
dollars each year in lost time and lost wells.
Jim has conceived and managed a number of industry
consortium projects that have resulted in new methodology and best practice
that have improved the ability of the industry to drill wells safely and
economically in deep water. The most recent project completion was funded by 21
of the top industry companies and was the second phase of a two-year project to
develop an improved methodology for predicting geopressures for wells drilled
in deep water.
Mr. Bridges takes a 'hands-on' approach and has
been actively involved in designing and developing software used by thousands
of engineers and scientists in hundreds of major companies, in all parts of the
world. He has authored numerous magazine articles and technical papers and is a
frequent speaker at industry technical conferences and forums.
At this time in his life, Mr. Bridges is interested
in “giving back” to society and to the technological fields that have afforded
him a good livelihood over the time of his career. He serves on a number of non- profit boards that range from
Second Mile Mission, a faith based benevolence organization to serving as an
advisor to the board of a small technology company in the chemical process
area, to serving on an entrepreneurial support board in the Business School of
his Alma Mata. He is particularly
interested in standards committees such as Open Spirit and POSC and believes
that with his thirty plus years in managing software development and building
software products that he can make a significant contribution
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