--- title: Our story and team | Athion description: Why Marsha Wisely started Athion, where it is going, and the team building it. --- [![Athion](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/wordmark.png)](https://www.athion.io/?hsLang=en) [Use cases](https://www.athion.io/use-cases?hsLang=en)[Platform](https://www.athion.io/platform?hsLang=en) Services ▾ [Athion services](https://www.athion.io/services?hsLang=en)[Find a service provider](https://www.athion.io/find-integrator?hsLang=en)[Athion for integrators](https://www.athion.io/integrators?hsLang=en) [Security](https://www.athion.io/security?hsLang=en) Company ▾ [About Athion](https://www.athion.io/about?hsLang=en)[Our story and team](https://www.athion.io/story?hsLang=en)[News](https://www.athion.io/news?hsLang=en) [Get started today](https://www.athion.io/get-started?hsLang=en) Company # Our story I remember sitting at my desk as a young engineer and thinking that we were doing a lot of rework. To build the simulation, you lay out the plant. To build a graphic, you lay out the plant. To write the requirement specification, you lay out the plant. To create the drawing, somebody laid out the plant. And many of those drawings and documents were completely flat, so finding anything meant a tedious search. I spent the first part of my career reconciling documentation for brownfield facilities and modernizations. As my career went on, platforms and pieces of information came and went, but the problem stayed. Even the platforms that brought everything together took a big lift to set up. Knowing, reliably and deterministically, that your documentation is aligned, and being able to query it, so you have the data to solve any problem in the plant, became an obsession. I left to start my own company because I was frustrated with the speed of innovation at the corporate level, and I was passionate about architecting solutions that solve real customer problems. Corporate solutions are often priced out of reach for most plants. It started with design: combining the control strategy with the physical layout of the plant, for better insight during the project phase. The first thing we did was bring the P&ID to life, so that an operator could, at a glance, understand whether the control was going to be acceptable. That was our first epiphany. From there it grew into a vision of one environment where any plant, greenfield or brownfield, on any control system, can pull its documentation together and get a clear picture of the whole plant. If documentation is missing, Athion generates it. Version control and change management mean the plant is regulated, and the design stays a lifecycle asset for troubleshooting and optimization. None of it should be a major undertaking, because plants already have the data. We just need to plug it together. ### Where we are going In three years, a customer should be able to say that because of Athion their plant has more uptime, and that when things go wrong it is easier to figure out what is going on. Athion should make plants more collaborative and help them streamline workflows to make space for innovation. ## Team ![Marsha Wisely](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/team-marsha.jpg) ### Marsha Wisely Founder and CEO A solution consultant who breaks down problems into their component parts to create lifecycle solutions. Has worked on projects from loop checks in the field to digital twins in the cloud. [LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshawisely/) ![Ben Blackson](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/team-ben.jpg) ### Ben Blackson CTO Comes from embedded systems, bringing rigor and an understanding of manufacturing. [LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-blackson/) ![Michael Wisely](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/team-michael.jpg) ### Michael Wisely Director of Technology A UX expert. [LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wisely/) ## Design partners Onyx 360 and Next Generation Controls are Athion's design partners and help shape how it works. ![Onyx 360](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/logo-onyx360.png) ![Next Generation Controls](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/logo-ngc.png) [Meet our integrators →](https://www.athion.io/find-integrator?hsLang=en) ## Interested in learning more? Schedule a time, or [start using Athion today](https://www.athion.io/get-started?hsLang=en). [Schedule a time](https://www.athion.io/book-a-demo?hsLang=en)[Get started today](https://www.athion.io/get-started?hsLang=en) ![Athion](https://www.athion.io/hubfs/athion-site/wordmark.png)The system of record for your manufacturing site.© 2026 PlantWise Industrial Consulting LLC [Use cases](https://www.athion.io/use-cases?hsLang=en)[Platform](https://www.athion.io/platform?hsLang=en)[Product](https://www.athion.io/product?hsLang=en) [Athion services](https://www.athion.io/services?hsLang=en)[Find a service provider](https://www.athion.io/find-integrator?hsLang=en)[Athion for integrators](https://www.athion.io/integrators?hsLang=en)[Security](https://www.athion.io/security?hsLang=en) [News](https://www.athion.io/news?hsLang=en)[About Athion](https://www.athion.io/about?hsLang=en)[Our story and team](https://www.athion.io/story?hsLang=en)[Book a demo](https://www.athion.io/book-a-demo?hsLang=en)[Get started](https://www.athion.io/get-started?hsLang=en)