Defining A New Era of Project Delivery

Roberto Arbulu has more than twenty years of experience in the delivery and optimization of energy, industrial, technology, and infrastructure capital projects and has worked with numerous owner operators and service providers across North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of technical publications in journals and conference proceedings that focus on project production system optimization, control, and project supply chains including the application of methods such as Project Production Management and Virtual Design & Construction (VDC).

For many years, Roberto has participated as a VDC instructor and technical advisor at Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering. He is a member of the Gulf Downstream Association (GDA)’s Project Management Technical Committee and also supports Project Production Institute (PPI) as an Instructor for professional certification programs.

Roberto earned a Civil Engineering Degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He has a Master of Engineering Degree in Construction Engineering & Management and a Certificate in Management of Technology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Batie is currently Director of Project Management at Genentech’s Vacaville biopharmaceutical production site, one of the world’s largest bulk monoclonal antibody production plants.

He leads the project delivery team executing commercial technology transfers, capital investments and life cycle projects.

Prior to joining Genentech, he was a project director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on the Integrative Genomics Building project.  Michael’s previous experience includes 15 years at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, with increasing levels of responsibility from senior project manager to Director of Plant Engineering, a pharmaceutical production plant debottlenecking project in Turku, Finland and over 10 years as a construction manager for various firms.

Michael is PMP and LEED certified, holds a B.S. in Construction Engineering Management from Oregon State University, and is currently an MBA candidate at National University.

H.J. James Choo, Ph.D is Chief Technical Officer of Strategic Project Solutions, Inc. and a member of the Technical Committee for Project Production Institute (PPI).

He has been leading research and development of project production management and its underlying framework of Operations Science knowledge, processes, and systems to support implementation of large capital projects globally since 2001.

James has worked with high profile organizations in oil & gas, life sciences, heavy industrial, civil infrastructure, aerospace & defense and other industries.  He has also worked with many manufacturing companies to improve their service levels by reducing lead times and optimizing inventory through the use of Operations Science.

James is a frequent contributor to research and curriculum for Texas A&M University, University of California at Berkeley, and California Polytechnic State University.

Prior to joining SPS, his experience included roles as a construction site engineer, research associate at research institutes, teaching assistant at universities, and software developer. He has been developing computer systems for implementation of Lean Construction since 1997 during his Ph.D. studies at UC Berkeley.

James has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Yonsei University, Korea.  He holds a Ph.D. in Construction Engineering & Management from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of University of California at Berkeley.  He is also certified as a Master Factory Physicist from Factory Physics, Inc.

James (Jim) E. Craig manages Chevron Corporation’s Project Resources Company (PRC) Project Production Management and Innovation Team located in Houston, TX. In this position, Craig is responsible for providing functional expertise/support to projects, deploying Chevron Project Production Management across the corporation’s worldwide major capital project portfolio and exploring innovative ways to execute projects.

Craig joined Chevron in 2004 and has executed Major Capital Projects globally including: Lobito Tomboco and Tombua Landana projects in Angola and FGP/WPMP project in Kazakhstan.

A native of Houston, Craig graduated in 1989 from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and later completed his MBA from Rice University in 2004. After graduating Texas A&M, he joined Brown & Root as a Design Engineer in Houston, TX. He has held numerous technical and leadership positions across the industry including: Project Engineer / Manager at Brown & Root, Assistant Chief Engineer at WFI International, Project Engineering / Manager Enron Engineering & Construction Company and Systems Engineer / Project Manager at FMC Corporation. Craig has worked and/or lived in Central America, Brazil, Angola, France, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom.

Craig is married and has three children and two dogs.

Ivan D. Damnjanovic is Professor and the Director of Engineering Project Management program at Texas A&M University. Dr. Damnjanovic specializes in qualitative and quantitative methods for management of engineering and project risks as well as management of infrastructure and transportation systems. He has an extensive experience in engineering risk and safety analysis applied to projects from different industry segments including transportation, oil&gas, and technology development.

Fernando Espana, as the President of Construct-X, provides clients with Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) implementation, education & training solutions that combine core concepts in lean, integrated project delivery (IPD) and governance structures, and production planning & control for construction. Fernando spearheads Construct-X partnerships with industry and technology leaders to ensure customers attain leading edge solutions and competitive advantage. Taking a whole project life cycle delivery perspective on managing complex and dynamic projects, Fernando ensures Construct-X meets or exceeds customer conditions of satisfaction.

• Member of the CII AWP Community of Business Advancement Leadership
• Co-Chair on CII AWP Community of Business Advancement Subcommittee Business Accelerator
• Co-Chair on CII AWP Community of Business Advancement AWP + Lean Joint Working Group
• Board of Advisors for the AWP Community of Practice for North America and Europe

Gary Fischer is the Executive Director of the Project Production Institute (PPI) and Chair of the PPI Energy Working Group.  He has over 40 years of experience in all aspects of capital project development and execution across downstream, chemicals and upstream in Chevron.  As GM of Chevron’s Project Resources Company, he was responsible for Chevron’s project management system, a supporting team of subject matter experts, an early concept development group, and Chevron’s decision analysis function.  Before retiring he took a special assignment to deploy Project Production Management and digital transformation across Chevron’s global portfolio of capital projects.  Gary’s prior experience includes project leadership roles in engineering, construction, and project management spanning across all segments and many locations. He also served as the upstream director of capital projects for Eurasia, Europe, and a gas to liquids venture with Sasol.

Gary holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Colorado State University and is a licensed Professional Engineer.

Martin Fischer is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and (by Courtesy) Computer Science at Stanford University. He is also the Director of the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, a Senior Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy, and the Coordinator of the Building Energy Efficiency Research at the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center.

His research focuses on modeling, predicting, measuring, and improving the life-cycle performance of the built environment. He is known globally for his work and leadership in developing virtual 4D modeling methods to improve project planning, enhance facility performance, increase the productivity of project teams, and further the sustainability of the built environment. His award winning research results have been used by many small and large industrial and government organizations around the world. He has published over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters and given over 50 keynote lectures on his research.

He has lived, worked, consulted, and taught in Europe, South America, North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. His consulting work includes building owners, architecture and engineering firms, construction firms, government and research organizations, and software companies.

He holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur in Civil Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, a MS in Industrial Engineering – Engineering Management and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering – Construction Engineering from Stanford. He received the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 1996, was named a top 25 Newsmaker by Engineering News Record in 1996, won the best paper award from the ASCE Journal on Computing in Civil Engineering in 2002, and was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2012.

Stanislav is a Project Manager with McKinsey & Company based in Jakarta, Indonesia.

He serves major E&C and basic materials clients in Southeast Asia, Russia and the Middle East on operational transformations and capital portfolio optimization projects.

Prior to McKinsey he had extensive experience in fabrication, EPC and offshore capital projects, spending 8 years with Chevron on LNG projects in Australia and working offshore in the North Sea. Stanislav earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Warwick.

Andro Hubarat brings more than 15 years of experiences in Project Management, Commercial & Business Development, Improvement & Transformation in Energy, Oil & Gas, Power, Infrastructure sector.

Andro has a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering from Maranatha Christian University, and an Indonesia Master Degree in Strategic Management & Business from IPB University, Indonesia.

Shubhraneel is Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company as part of their Capex and Sustainability practice in SE Asia.

He has decades of experience working across the Energy and Materials sector, especially across the EPC, O&G, rail and power clients, and has advised public sector, private and multinational companies on various aspects of the business to improve business performance including shift to cleaner technologies like Hydrogen and EV.

Corie Nalder is currently a project engineer at Clayco. She is a recent graduate from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management, where she completed her senior project in the area of Project Production Management. She has worked mainly on industrial projects which range from a 3.4 million square foot fulfillment center to a 500,000 square foot manufacturing facility.

For her senior research project, she was drawn to the subject of PPM because almost any activity in construction can be analyzed as an operation or process. Corie analyzed a prefab process through a project production management lens by comparing the capacity utilization of a steel erection method to the traditional stick-built method.

After applying project production management to steel erection, she then was able to apply PPM to many facets of construction, including the sequencing of trades and researching other onsite prefabrication processes.

Hunter Newby is an American entrepreneur, investor, conservationist and the owner of Newby Ventures.

Guillermo has worked with public and private organizations in South American and North America in the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Prado is part of the technical committee that assists the Peruvian public sector with the development of a National BIM policy.

His current areas of interests include BIM, lean production, and application of operations science in project delivery. He earned a Civil Engineering Degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, a Certificate in Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) from Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering and is currently enrolled in the Engineering & Project Management (E&PM) Master of Science program at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a fourth-generation owner, Bob Snyder has worked and been involved in the mechanical contracting industry since his youth. Bob’s experience spans all aspects of the business including Sales and Estimating, Project Controls and Management, Engineering and Drafting, Purchasing, Information Technology, and Financial Management.

In addition to office and management experience, Bob worked in tool and fabrication shops, spent time on the road in a service van working in the field with service technicians and developed hands-on skills on projects working with the plumber and pipefitter craftsmen. As a graduate engineer, Bob has strong technical and design aptitude and has a vast understanding of both conceptual and technical aspects of mechanical systems. He also has a great level of experience in information technology and has been involved in designing the project control systems used at Binsky. Bob has devoted significant time to the Mechanical Contracting Association of New Jersey and Industry Council, currently sits on the Board of Directors, and holds the position of Secretary/Treasurer. In addition, Bob has served as a Trustee on Plumbers Local 24 and currently on Pipefitters Local 475.

Iris D. Tommelein is a Professor of Engineering and Project Management in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and directs the Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL) at the University of California, Berkeley.

She has been studying, developing, and applying principles and methods of project-based production management for the architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry, what is termed Lean Construction. Her pioneering research in Lean Construction includes teaming up with design specialists, general- and specialty contractors, owners, suppliers, and other stakeholders in order to increase process and product development performance. She is an expert on site layout and logistics, operations and methods design, materials management, and supply-chain management. She is involved in developing digital twins and related decision-support systems, enabled through the use of information technology systems that leverage sensor data, heuristic- and mathematical optimization as well as artificial intelligence (AI), and graphical and interactive user interfaces. Her current research focuses on takt planning.

Iris has led many industry workshops, hosted conferences on Lean Construction, and is actively engaged in consulting work. She has published over 250 refereed articles and book chapters and given numerous keynote lectures on her research.

Iris graduated as Civil Engineer-Architect from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. She also holds a MS in Construction Engineering and Management, an MS in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence), and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford. She was recognized with the Lean Pioneer Award 2015 from the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) and is a member of the National Academy of Construction (NAC).

Al-Azahary is currently leading a team to drive transformation in PETRONAS Group Project Delivery. He has seventeen years of working experience in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry. He was involved in plant operations and maintenance before assuming a Project Manager role overseeing various plant change and rejuvenation projects. He is currently spearheading Project Production Management (PPM) implementation within PETRONAS projects, and also playing the role to shape Malaysia’s Oil & Gas industry players to adopt the methodology for improved project delivery performance.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and a Master’s degree in Process Plant Management from University of Technology Malaysia.

John Strickland has been a pioneer in bringing innovative thinking to the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry with passion for workplace safety, learning, innovation and smooth flow.

Many years of jobsite and corporate construction operations leadership combined with extensive study and research of project delivery systems led to a series of breakthrough projects.  He has introduced Lean thinking to countless teams and led 3 major clients as they transformed their project delivery organizations around Lean IPD.  He is currently co-chair on a Joint Working Group supported by the Lean Construction Institute (LCI), the Construction Industry Institute (CII) and Project Production Institute (PPI).

Dr. Woo holds a Master’s degree in Construction Management and Ph.D. in Architecture from Texas A&M University. His undergraduate degree was earned in Architectural Engineering from Kyung Won University.

Dr. Woo is Department Head of Construction Management at Cal Poly.

Prior to that, Dr. Woo directed the Construction Management Program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) since 2014 and has served as a faculty member there for the past 12 years. He has been an active coach of winning ASC and DBIA regional and national competition teams. He has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate CM courses including Construction Methods, Estimating, Scheduling, BIM, Project Management, and Senior Design-Build Studio.

He has consulted and worked for a wide variety of construction and design firms, most recently with Autodesk developing online curricula for Autodesk Design Academy. Much of his early career was spent as an estimator and project engineer for major international projects. Dr. Woo has been very successful at attracting major research and development grants, recently in the area of developing Net Zero Energy projects and Smart Grid innovations. He is an active scholar who has authored or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications.

Todd is the Founder and President of Strategic Project Solutions, Inc (SPS). Zabelle has more than thirty years of experience in the delivery of complex and critical capital projects ranging in size from $500K to $55 billion. He is the Founder & CEO of Strategic Project Solutions, Inc. is the Founder & CEO of Pacific Contracting, a founder and equity partner in the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) (prior to making it a not for profit), and founder of the Project Production Institute (PPI). He is also a Forbes Featured Author.

Prior to founding SPS, Todd founded Pacific Contracting. Established in 1993, Pacific Contracting was recognized in the mid 90’s for its use of various innovations including Lean Construction and Virtual Design & Construction. In July 1998, these efforts were acknowledged in the UK Government’s Re-Thinking Construction report.

Over the past two decades, Todd has authored numerous papers on the topic of optimizing engineering, fabrication and construction. These papers have been published various in technical journals, presented at numerous conferences around the world and cited by several other authors.