ABOUT US

imPower Technologies is driven to deliver the highest quality IBM i educational training. Our classes transform corporate culture, nutures and enhances workforce skills, and delivers maximum ROI for the corporate education budget.

Jim Buck

Jim Buck

President - CEO

Jim is the president and founder of imPower Technologies. He is active in the IBM i community working to help companies train their employees in the latest IBM technologies and helps companies develop the next generation of IBM i professionals.

Jim Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35+ years, primarily in college education, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Past president (13 years) of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (www.wmcpa.org) and has served on several teams developing IBM and COMMON certification tests. Jim has co-authored several IBM i books with Bryan Meyers that are used by many companies and in colleges worldwide, "Programming in ILE RPG" 5th Edition being the latest in 2015.

Other accomplishments include:

  • 2007 IBM System i Innovation – Education Excellence Award
  • 2014 COMMON Presidents Award
  • 2013/2016/2017/2018/2019/2020/2021/2022 IBM Champion - Power Systems.
Michelle Lyons

Michelle Lyons

Chief Operating Officer

Michelle Lyons became involved with IBM i in 2012 while working as a web developer and attending college as one of Jim Buck’s students. While training she realized there were tremendous opportunities for programmers with current IBM i and web skills.

Currently, Michelle is an independent IBM i consultant and co-owner of imPower Technologies. She has been actively involved in the IBM i community – volunteering for COMMON, working on “Women in IT” day for WMCPA, and serving as Webmaster for WMCPA for a number of years.

imPower Technologies was co-founded in 2016 by IBM i educator and author Jim Buck and Michelle Lyons to prepare the next generation of IBM i professionals. Organizations looking for candidates with current IBM i platform skills can leverage imPower Technologies’ training programs to train programmers with legacy IBM skills as well as candidates with non IBM backgrounds on the latest RPG techniques, tools and the IBM i operating system. This can be a powerful first step to any modernization efforts.

As a College instructor for 15 years, Jim introduced students to the IBM i platform and he successfully equipped them with the necessary tools to work on the IBM i platform. imPower Technologies will fulfill Jim’s longtime desire to broaden his reach to educate many more students on the IBM i platform.