Mike has been involved in product evaluation and testing for over 27 years. With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, he began his career as a Design Engineer for automated test equipment. Three years later he joined the fire science industry as a Research Engineer in product safety testing at Southwest Research Institute’s Fire Technology Department. During his 10-year tenure, he managed projects, managed departments, designed fire test equipment, and was heavily involved in fire resistance and intermediate-scale multistory testing. His experience with the U.S. Navy and the International Maritime Industry (IMO) developed him as an expert in fire resistance for those shipboard applications. After completing a Master’s in Business Management, he continued to pursue new opportunities with a large global TIC company, Intertek, where he worked for 11 years in various roles ranging from Sr. Project Engineer, Operations Manager of a Fire Lab, General Manager in North America, Director of Business Development in North America, to Regional General Manager for the Middle East, North Africa, & Pakistan where he was responsible testing, inspection, and certification. In 2017, Mike joined NTA to lead the Building Products Department where he built a Fire Testing Laboratory in Texas and reorganized the business (Testing, Inspections, and Certifications) to a more scalable operation. His efforts would help gain interest from the International Code Council (ICC) and in 2019, NTA was acquired by ICC and became ICC-NTA. His knowledge in fire testing was instrumental to further business for ICC-ES in Fire Design Listings and expansion of capabilities at the fire lab. He operated, trained, and taught new personnel in fire science and engineering evaluations for extension of data to tested systems. Mike now assumes the role of President of Priest & Associates Consulting (PAC) where he uses his experience to provide consulting services. He has been a 20+ year active member in Standard Development Organizations such as ASTM E05 (Fire Standards) and NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Tests and aided in development of the codes where fire standards were introduced into the United Arab Emirates’ building codes.