Christopher Niebuhr

Chief Executive Officer Industrial Inspection & Analysis

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Christopher Niebuhr is Chief Executive Officer of Industrial Inspection & Analysis (IIA), an industrial inspection, testing, laboratory and certification company based in the Atlanta area and backed by SRM Equity Partners. IIA was founded in 2015 and has grown largely by acquisition. It combines inspection, non-destructive testing, calibration, metrology, fluid analysis and lifting-equipment certification businesses, some of them decades old. Niebuhr joined as CEO in September 2019, coming from industrial services, where he had been President and Chief Operating Officer of Thompson Industrial Services. Since then IIA has made a series of acquisitions in the United States and Canada, and by late 2024 IIA described itself as the largest third-party lift inspection company in North America.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Industrial Inspection & Analysis since 3 September 2019.
• Under his leadership IIA acquired Q-PLUS Labs in November 2023, Aerial & Crane Experts in May 2024, Tribologik Laboratories in October 2024 and Kova Engineering in December 2024.
• With the Kova deal, IIA reported 32 locations, 16 of them in Canada.
• Previously President and Chief Operating Officer of Thompson Industrial Services, which IIA says grew by nearly four times and greatly improved profitability under his leadership.
• Held technical sales and engineering positions at Nalco Chemical Company.
• BS in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from The Citadel.

Professional Journey

Niebuhr trained as a chemical engineer at Iowa State University. He started at Nalco Chemical Company, where he held positions in the Engineering Group and worked as a Technical Sales Representative. He later earned an MBA at The Citadel.

His longest role before IIA was at Thompson Industrial Services, where he became President and Chief Operating Officer. When IIA announced his appointment it said that under his leadership Thompson “grew by nearly 4x and greatly improved profitability”. It pointed to his experience running multi-office industrial service operations across the country.

He joined Industrial Inspection & Analysis as CEO on 3 September 2019, based at its Atlanta headquarters. IIA was then a four-year-old platform formed in 2015 to build “a best-in-class industrial inspection and certification company” by combining established testing and inspection firms. His stated agenda on arrival was customer service, organic growth and continued acquisitions, and tying capabilities together across the businesses.

The acquisitions have continued. IIA bought Q-PLUS Labs, an Irvine, California dimensional metrology laboratory, in November 2023. In 2024 it added Aerial & Crane Experts, a Sonora, California material-handling and lift inspection specialist, in May, and Tribologik Laboratories, a Hammond, Indiana fluid-analysis provider with labs in North and South America, in October. In December 2024 it bought Kova Engineering, a Canadian engineering, inspection and crane-certification firm. Niebuhr said the Kova deal brought together companies with “shared values of investing in employees and being growth-minded”. IIA said it made the company the largest third-party lift inspection company in North America, with 32 locations, 16 of them in Canada.

IIA is a portfolio company of SRM Equity Partners. Its current leadership team under Niebuhr includes a President and Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Revenue Officer and a Chief Financial Officer.

Education

Iowa State University

BS, Chemical Engineering

The Citadel

MBA