Houston – PMA Consultants

The PMA Houston office was established in 1985 to meet of the needs of global oil and gas clients. The company’s expertise in delivering highly complex, confidential, and first-to-market projects has driven our expansion into multiple markets. Home to PMA’s risk management practice, the Houston location provides a thorough approach to risk analysis that produce high-quality assessments. This region is responsible for our expanding footprint in the oil and gas industry and for growing our risk project portfolio to include hundreds of projects in countries around the world, ranging from multimillion to multibillion in size. PMA risk services are further strengthened by robust and diverse projects in program, project, and construction management and in cost and schedule controls.

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Jerry Klanac

Managing Director

Leadership

•Don Fredlund

•Robert Sanders

•Jerry Klanac

PMA People

Learn more about our people and their work.

Shannon Katt

Q&A with Shannon PMA PEOPLE

Don Fredlund

Q&A with Don PMA PEOPLE

Jerry Klanac

Q&A with Jerry PMA PEOPLE

Robert Sanders

Q&A with Bob PMA PEOPLE

BP Cherry Point Clean Diesel Project

Blaine, WA

BP Whiting Refinery

Whiting, IN

Cairn Rajasthan Development & Pipeline

Rajasthan, India

PEMEX Cadereyta

Monterrey, Mexico

Shannon Katt

Director, Phoenix

What challenges exist for women in the construction and engineering industry? Any path you’ve taken to overcome these?
The construction industry has changed significantly since I first started on jobsites. The construction arena used to be a very tough place to work. There were constant challenges from men to a woman’s knowledge and authority, both in the field and in the trailer. To overcome these challenges, you had to do your job well and know everything there was to know about your work. You also had to have very thick skin and be able to ignore a lot of negativity and misogyny. That posture doesn’t happen much anymore. Enough women have joined the industry, such that we aren’t an anomaly, and we aren’t assumed to be unqualified.

What current projects are you working on?
A claim for the Toronto Transit Commission, scheduling support for a Brewery in Mexicali, Mexico, scheduling support for a hospital in New York, helping a contractor with some change order issues in Edmonton, a schedule risk analysis in an undisclosed location in Asia, and a schedule risk analysis for a mega-project in Texas.

What is your career highlight so far? (at PMA?)
There’s not really a single highlight. I’m very lucky to get to travel all over the world doing scheduling and schedule risk analysis work in the oil and gas industry. It’s challenging work in interesting locations.

What is something new or innovative happening in your industry?
We are seeing more use of NetPoint from our clients, which is fun to see since I’ve been part of the testing team since the very beginning of the software.

What university or college did you graduate from?
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. My degree is in Aeronautical Engineering.

What is your favorite local establishment/feature (restaurant, museum, stadium, etc.)?
The Wrigley Mansion. The mansion was built by the Wrigley family (think chewing gum). It’s a historic landmark in Phoenix with a really interesting history. After ownership passed from the Wrigley family, the mansion went through a series of owners and bankruptcies and was finally saved by Geordie Hormel (think canned foods). He remembered spending time there as a child and couldn’t allow the mansion to be demolished. His family wanted local residents to be able to enjoy it, so it’s been turned into a club that includes a bar and restaurant. The mansion has the best view of Phoenix in the city.

Provide a Fun Fact?
I’m on the board of a local charity called SniffAZ that raises money to fund spay/neuter services to low income residents. Did you know that every two s/n surgeries saves one animal from the euthanasia list (at least in Phoenix)?

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Don Fredlund

Chief Operations Officer, Phoenix

What current project(s) are you working on?
Expert Assignments:
• Claims on 3 separate construction contracts associated with the $2.6B Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Project located in Toronto, CN
• Claim on the $140M JW McCormack Post Office/Courthouse Repair and Alternations Project located in Boston, MA
• Claim on the BP-432 (Pods C and D) Baggage Handling System Expansion Project located in Orlando, FL
• Insurance Claims on the $1B East End Crossing Project located in Indiana/Kentucky
Contract Specifications Upgrade:
• Santa Clara Valley Water District

What is your career highlight so far?
Becoming part of PMA leadership when I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to start our “west coast presence”; I also got involved with corporate matters. That met one of my key career goals and reasons I came to PMA after spending many years working for large contracting firms (i.e., being one of thousands). It gave me much more opportunity to grow professionally in all aspects of management and have a say/control over my career while I helped a small company at the time to grow to what PMA is today.

It’s all about the people one works with and it’s rarely the result of one person’s efforts. That said, I have numerous highlights as an expert where a team of PMA professionals’ technical excellence resulted in a “win” via a ruling by a judge or jury that went the way we saw it, and our client was extremely happy with the result. Perhaps the most notable on a personal note was our firm’s expert work in South Carolina for a major pharmaceutical client that involved over a 2-3 year period and as many as 25 PMA employees flying back and forth to South Carolina from many offices. Testifying in a 100-year-old courthouse in the “south” (velvet curtains and all) was surreal! Plus, we got the ruling we and our client hoped for…can’t beat that. It was a complete and total team effort by many PMA employees who sacrificed a lot personally, a shining moment for PMA, and an opportunity to work with one of the country’s premier construction law firms.

What is something new or innovative happening in your industry?
While this is not so new or innovative relatively speaking in PMA standards, there is a continued trend toward the use of project delivery systems that allow for public and private clients to pick contractors on a qualifications basis or not strictly on price. Being the relationship firm we are and what we have to offer our clients technically, that trend is right up our alley. Throw increased use of and appreciation by some large players in the industry of NetPoint® and GPM® (PMA’s proprietary scheduling software) into that mix and we (meaning PMA, the consultants, contractors, and owners) will all benefit from that in the future.

What university or college did you graduate from?
Michigan Technical University located in Houghton, Michigan, where they only allow in and train technically smart and physically tough engineers as evidenced by PMA’s tendency to hire lots of people from there, including some of its best leaders.

What is your favorite local establishment/feature (restaurant, museum, stadium, etc.)?
I have eaten at so, so many restaurants in the U.S. and a few international spots (e.g., Mexico City and Shanghai, China) over the last 30 years and have flown into/out of every major airport in the U.S. it seems. Impossible to pick a favorite. Now if the question was the most unusual food eaten, that is an easy one. In a nice, quaint, and upscale restaurant just outside of San Francisco, one time I had “pigeon legs.” Yes, we were with a client. The things one does for client relationships. Guess what? It tasted like…wait for it…chicken.”

Fun Fact!
Now that is a good question. My wife of almost 44 years says we really have only been married 22 years because I am gone half of the time. That is technically not true, but one reason I have been married that long is because I have learned not to argue technicalities.

Looking back to the major pharmaceutical client assignment described above, after testifying on the witness stand and in response to some question from the judge, I actually said, “This was fun.” He laughed and gave me a strange look. Go figure.

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Jerry Klanac

Managing Director, Chicago

What current project(s) are you working on?
Since early June 2015, I’ve been doing extended work for AstraZeneca (AZ) as an assist to the Global Head of Project Controls, who is Pete Jackson, a former PMA employee. It is an exciting time at AZ because they are reorganizing their Global Engineering Group. Pete and I are assisting the vice president in a series of activities to transform the organization. PMA is actively involved in revising project organization structures and processes to best use the talents that AZ has gathered. In addition, we also review project controls efforts on all major AZ projects worldwide. One of the recent projects I reviewed was for expansion of their Dunkirk, France, operations.

I am also doing a similar engagement for the BP Whiting Refinery Mid-Cap project group. In this situation, PMA is asked to assess the project management competencies of project leaders and define mechanisms to close the gaps—whether through additional training or refining of current project development and execution processes.

What is your career highlight so far?
There are many career highlights but I am most proud of these two:

Development of Quantitative Risk Analysis: I have played a key PMA part in creating an exciting line of consulting work that relates to the application of project risk management principles, techniques, and tools. I was involved in establishing a six-step process for conducting cost and schedule risk analysis—a process seen by our peers as the industry standard for projects. Through this initiative, I have helped to mentor several colleagues in becoming extremely talented risk analysts, and they are now taking this effort to new levels.

Adjunct Faculty Member: I have always desired to be a teacher, and it is very rewarding to leverage my experiences on worldwide projects and to teach project management at both the university level at University of Dayton and at the industry level at venues such as the BPWay and Moscow School of Management. There is much joy in being the “know-it-all game show host” who gives the “Who Wants to be a Project Management Zillionaire” lecture. The version we delivered at the BPWay training was just as glitzy and theatrical as the television show!

What is something new or innovative happening in your industry?
I think project management and construction across all industries are trying to adapt to breakthroughs in technology that allow more data and information to be seen in real time and communications shared nearly instantaneously. There is a demand to analyze project performance information quickly and thoroughly, and then use illustrative graphics to convey information in a meaningful way. What I used to do in a week in the 1980s for project controls can now be done in a few hours when the technology at hand is used effectively.

What university or college did you graduate from?
I have an undergraduate civil engineering degree from the University of Dayton and an MBA in finance, business statistics, and policy studies from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

What is your favorite local establishment/feature (restaurant, museum, stadium, etc.)?
“The world is my oyster …” so something local is not necessarily nearby: 18 holes of golf at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island. I try to play there every year.

Fun Fact!
I pitched my co-rec softball team to the Ann Arbor City Championship in 1994 with only 9 players!

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