About Jim Osborne

Jim was inspired to become an engineer by his father, Robert Osborne. Robert founded Osborne Transformer Corporation in 1932, after several successful years working as transformer design engineer. As a young man, Jim was involved in many aspects of the growing business, and he pursued a technical education at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. It was an exciting time, and the electrical curriculum at Cass Tech was a national leader in technical studies.

Jim further developed his career by studying for an electrical engineering degree at Michigan State University. At MSU, he was involved in many campus oganizations, and inducted into the Etta Kappa Nu, the National Electrical Engineering Honor Society. Still a proud Spartan, Jim supports the MSU engineering faculty with various research and student led projects. Jim has also contributed his time to research projects at the University of Michigan, Princeton, Yale, and other institutions.

Jim became President and Chief Design Engineer of Osborne Transformer in 1970. Since then he has designed many types of electromagnetic components, including:

  •   power transformers,
  •   instrument transformers,
  •   high-impedance transformers,
  •   constant voltage transformers,
  •   audio transformers,
  •   auto-transformers,
  •   isolation transformers, and
  •   rectifier transformers.

Jim has also developed many innovative inductor designs, such as:

  •   filter chokes,
  •   line reactors,
  •   harmonic trap inductors,
  •   air core inductors, and
  •   load simulating inductors.

Jim’s expertise in electromagnetic components has enabled him to design a variety of specialty AC & DC electromagnets. He is also the lead consulting engineer on the Osborne team, and his clients have included many local and multinational organizations.

One of Jim’s most enjoyable accomplishments has been to develop and foster Osborne’s quality management system. Osborne Transformer is proudly certified to the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard.

Osborne Transformer is fortunate to work with Jim’s talented wife, Suzie Osborne. Jim also has two sons; Jeffrey (a senior member of Osborne’s management team), and Jamie (a transportation analyst and planner).

Jim participates in the following IEEE societies:

  •   Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
  •   Industrial Electronics
  •   Industry Applications
  •   Magnetics
  •   Power Electronics