My career started as a roughneck in the Odessa Permian Basin working for my father. I continued working at odd field jobs in West Texas while going to school at night until I completed my Odessa College undergraduate studies. I moved to Houston and enrolled in the University of Houston to complete my Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME).

I took a job with Sohio Petroleum Company in Oklahoma City and was subsequently transferred to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska as a Corrosion Engineer NACE Accredited Corrosion Specialist). After the BP purchase of Sohio, I had access to Intergraph 3D CADD tools, process simulation software and various other advanced tools. I studied CADD at night and on my weekends for four years until I reached a very high proficiency with this new tool. I began to teach AutoCAD both personally and as an adjunct professor with the University of Alaska, Anchorage. I was also teaching myself C++. I added C++ adjunct training to my teaching curriculum at the University.

I had an opportunity, with the Exxon Valdez incident, to join the Alyeska Pipeline Company as a Sr. Pipeline Engineer. With my corrosion engineering certification, I was active in the TransAlaska Pipeline Corrosion Investigation all along the pipeline (required by Congress due to the Exxon Valdez Incident). I was also the Pipeline Field Engineer.

I continued my personal studying of CADD until Autodesk came out with their 3D technology (1989). I was highly proficient in this new 3D CADD technology, so I decided to start my own company, assisting Alaskan companies with implementation of 3D CADD while also doing mechanical engineering consulting. The VFED, Inc. engineering consulting and the 3D CADD background provided a perfect launching ground for newly available advanced engineering technology of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as a service my company, VFED, Inc., provided.

An opportunity to move this advanced technology skills from Alaska to the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown, West Virginia arose. I chose this avenue to continue my education and pursue Advanced Fuel Cell/Microturbine Research. I joined Dr. David Tucker’s HYPER Fuel Cell Microturbine Research and began a successful 22-year research program to develop 72% efficient microturbine/fuel cell technology. During this time, I received my Masters of Science, Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University while developing close relationships with the Dean and Faculty of Statler College of Engineering and Minerals. I also took on an Adjunct Professor role for advanced FEA within the WVU Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program.

As the Fuel Cell/Microturbine research could now be supported remotely, I decided to return to Houston. I took a job with Jacobs Engineering as a Sr. Mechanical Engineer. I brought with me, my advanced engineering software from my company in Alaska.
FEA and CFD were new to Jacobs. As such, I began to perform critical client engineering with this software. The demand for such services was growing exponentially. Jacobs purchased software (ANSYS). I was asked to head their then newly created Advanced Technology Department.
I brought on a young, brilliant young engineer, Mr. Mo Temnati, and together, we began to build an advanced technology center that would span the globe with up to 22 advanced engineers servicing Jacobs worldwide. Our focus on using advanced technology for Root Cause Analyses and solution-based engineering propelled the group into every aspect of Jacobs’ business model.
With the purchase of Jacobs’s ECR company by Worley, Advanced Solutions Group (ASG, as it is now formally known) has continued worldwide advanced engineering support. With 431 successful advanced projects since 2006, ASG continues to serve Worley critical clients worldwide today.