John Barnes

CEO and Founder

The Barnes Global Advisors

John has a 30+ year career in product development and aerospace with Honeywell, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works™, Australia’s CSIRO, and Arconic. He has founded The Barnes Global Advisors and Metal Powder Works.  He’s been involved in metal additive manufacturing throughout this career beginning in the late 1990s where he was part of the Sandia National Labs LENS™ CRADA. He has been in and around AM working both technical and business cases for implementation and development efforts in materials, powders, processing, and printing to mature the technology for applications. John is recognized internationally for contributions to additive manufacturing, product development, and leadership in engineering. 

His teams boast world firsts in medical, therapeutic, and aerospace additive manufacturing. He is a Materials Engineer by background but has developed expertise in manufacturing, airframe structures, gas turbines and low observables. 

He has over 14 Patents or patents in application. He has many publications and invited presentations. He was Purdue University’s Materials Engineer of the Year in 2014.  His team won the Silver Medal in the 2020 US Air Force AM Olympics.  He is active in professional service, serving on the SAM AMS-AM Committee and is a member of the ASTM F42. He serves Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) as the Vice Chair of the AM Advisors based upon active industry contributions, reputation, and personal commitment to expand the use of additive manufacturing. He is also the Chair of the America Makes Executive Committee and was awarded an America Makes AM Ambassador in 2019.  He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University and is an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and RMIT University.