Marine

Flight Data Specialist

Summary

Naval Architect, P.E., is a licensed professional naval architect with over 26 years of experience providing engineering services in the areas of stability, strength, resistance, propulsion, vessel controllability, cargo operations, project management, and worldwide logistics support skills. His primary concentrations entail conceptual, preliminary, and contract level design of military to commercial vessels. He is experienced and well versed on ruling authorities such as U.S. Coast Guard (USCG CFR), American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), International Maritime Organization (IMO), and Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS).

A marine accident investigator certified with the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA). He also has over 20 years of experience in the litigation and claims industries and more than 10 years’ experience in commercial construction operations and management. he leads RTI’s visual aid consulting Imaging Sciences Group, the Unmanned Aircraft (drone), and Evidence Inspection Programs. When in the field, he takes the lead on marine accident investigations, scene documentation and preservation as well as mechanical roof damage inspections. He is also an experienced interactive design and graphic communications professional, specializing in visualizing complex matters for litigation and settlement.

He a Marine Director trained at sea and ashore with Cunard before joining the founding team that over 20 years developed a specialist ro-ro/container line between Europe and Africa, where the development of security and risk management systems were key to the company’s success.
He spent 10 years running his own consultancy CMR providing Market research, Business Development and PR consultancy to the maritime industry plus due diligence studies and country briefings for the African market.

Master Mariner

This expert has over 32 years of professional experience in marine operations, vessel movements, and marine incident case work.  He has been involved in more than 160 cases, resulting in favorable outcomes for his clients’ interests.  He has successfully testified in Federal and State Courts.

Mechanical Engineer

This expert specializes in fire and explosion investigation and accident reconstruction. He is a Certified Fire & Explosion Investigator and Certified Vehicle Fire Investigator through the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI). In addition to passenger vehicles, his expertise in Motor Vehicle Accident Reconstruction includes heavy trucks and recreation vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, and off-highway vehicles. He is nationally certified through the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction (ACTAR).

This expert is a Registered Professional Engineer in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He has significant knowledge of internal combustion engines and generators, residential and commercial mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and structural water/moisture origin determination. He also is an expert in maritime industries and marine engineering, and has worked on cases involving recreational marine vessels, including power and sail operation, and propulsion and power generator systems (diesel and gasoline)

He has provided expert testimony as to his findings in various courts of law, including both local and federal venues.

A marine environmental pollution response specialist with over 20 years of experience in environmental emergency response, emergency response planning and training, technical and policy planning.  He had delivered numerous training courses and exercises on contingency planning and response to oil spills and HAZMAT incidents to industry and governments throughout the world.

Has responded to some 50 emergency mishaps such as marine and land-based oil and chemical spills from vessels, trains, industries and natural disasters in the US, Canada and abroad.  He has also served as a shoreline cleanup assessment team leader during the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Louisiana, USA.  He has lead review of governmental emergency programs in order to improve prevention and preparedness activities within a multiple-stakeholders environment.

Provided expert technical and scientific advice to National authorities and oil industry worldwide during marine emergencies, workshop and contingency planning process.

A marine consultant for maritime regulatory and investigative cases involving ocean-going ships, commercial shipping activities, inland waterway vessel operations, and recreational boating.  Retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2001 with 21 years of active duty in the Marine Safety, Security and Environmental Protection field. 

During that time he held numerous positions of responsibility during seven tours of duty in the Coast Guard while posted at Marine Safety Offices and Detachments from American Samoa to Miami, Florida.  In the period since that time, he has been a maritime expert for Lloyd’s Register, a world-class ship classification society, responsible for ensuring clients’ needs are met for ship classification, statutory surveys, port state control issues, technical consultancy, marine training  and other marine industry activities.  He is a respected authority on current maritime topics and issues and a frequent guest speaker at major maritime venues.

Lead Marine Casualty Investigator whose responsibilities includes expertise in conducting damage surveys, appraise losses, investigate claims, approve repair estimates, and assist in planning various marine ventures for clients. Notable investigations include cargo damage inspections and salvage operations,  loading and unloading of ocean vessels – outturns, containerized cargo, project cargo, loss control and general cargoes being moved via any and all conveyances. Warehouse inspection/condition surveys and loss investigations.  Load, stow and securement of heavy lift or oversized and specialized cargoes. Expert witness for various cargoes as well as hull claims. Handling Ocean and Inland Marine cargo insurance claims. Condition and on hire/off hire for all classes of commercial vessels, inland and deep sea. Hull and machinery damage surveys, including collision, grounding, fire and fuel oil contamination.  Hull and machinery condition surveys, including layup and reactivation. Surveys for trip-in-tow, including dead ships, combined with cargo. Tug and Barge damage and condition surveys.Surveys of Shipyards and Port Facilities, including risk assessment. P & I investigations, particularly vessel condition surveys.

A Marine Engineer with more than 30 years experience in Maritime and Environmental consulting.  His areas of expertise include machinery such as boilers, steam turbines, diesel engines, hydraulics, pneumatics, refrigeration, desalinization units, and centrifugal purification/separation units.  An expert in environmental compliance equipment including ballast water treatment systems, oil content meters and discharge monitoring equipment, IMO approved incinerators, marine sanitary devices, and NOX and SOX emissions control systems.  Other areas of knowledge include piping systems, liquid cargo, power automation and control systems, electrical troubleshooter, and carpentry.

This expert has over 40 years of professional experience in geology, oceanography, atmospheric and space sciences, acoustics, medical geology, marine biogeochemistry, physics and archaeology.  His work has involved basic issues of geology and oceanography including: flooding; subsidence; construction collapse; erosion; evaluation of resources and existing analyses; effects of man-made or natural disasters; pollution sources and  abatement; archaeological investigations; and investigation of classified and non-classified matters related to Navy and Marine Corps operational issues.

He has consulted for law firms, insurance companies and various government and non-governmental laboratories and worked with other forensic investigators on multi-disciplinary cases.  He has testified in federal court.

Retired from a tenured professorship at the U.S. Naval Academy in 2007 as Professor of Physical Geology.  For more than 35 years he taught courses in Physical and Marine Geology, Oceanography, Underwater Sonar and Acoustics and Introductory Physics.  He has authored over 30 scientific and technical articles, a laboratory manual and prepared over 60 reports for consulting clients and while serving as Associate Director for Oceans, Atmosphere and Space Sciences in the Office of Naval Research’s International Field Office in Tokyo, Japan.  He has presented over 50 papers at national and international scientific meetings and developed and/or co-chaired technical sessions at past AGU annual fall meetings.

He is a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG 03990), a Senior Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the American Geophysical Union.