When a program, plant or crew starts slipping, I step in and steady it.

What was wrong

• A two-site construction-security program, one year in and failing.
• Site openings had been missed. Three program managers had already left.
• The contract's ratings and its next option year were at risk.

What I did

• Talked with close to 100 staff in two days, then with the client.
• Set up a quick client approval to send people home when a post was no longer needed.
• Built a live hour-by-hour chart of who was on site and cut the overstaffed midday shift change.
• Wrote the procedures, including the plan to keep essential services running during a government shutdown. The government accepted it, and it was used during the shutdown.

What changed

• 600 fewer paid hours a week, with no post left empty.
• A gate breach was reported and handled the same day, with no mark against the company.
• Everything was in place before I left. The client asked me to stay.

What was wrong

• A new large multi-purpose critical facility that can never shut down, handed from the builders to a new operations team.
• The outgoing vendors and the prime contractor weren't getting along.
• 30% of new staff left within three months, and there was no system to track the work.

What I did

• As part of the 30-person phase-in team, led the vendor handoff for my section and got 250+ hours of their knowledge, by persuasion, not demands.
• Built the daily online log the whole team used: every job, every technician, every day.
• Worked with the maintenance-system technicians on what the system had to track.
• Helped set the quality standard with the superintendents.

What changed

• One shared record for technicians, supervisors and managers, used for years afterward.
• Written procedures covering 80% of how the site runs.
• I was promoted to Service Order Manager (project 3).

What was wrong

• 11 jobs at once, $40K to $1.4M each, inside secured buildings that stayed open.
• Every job needed sign-off from eight different parties.
• Finished work was never submitted for government processing, so it was never billed.

What I did

• Ran every job the same way: drawings, materials list, sourcing, price, four-level approval.
• Rebuilt the hours, supplies and paperwork for 612 hours of that work, submitted it, and got it paid.
• Delivered emergency power, safety showers, door access control and security-lock work.

What changed

• Approvals cut from eight parties to four: me, the superintendents, billing, and the government.
• 8+ work orders worth $300K, and $1.4M more in the pipeline.
• The emergency power job came in exactly on its hours and materials estimate.

The projects

• Emergency safety showers (done). Two showers in a building for 3,000+ people. I scheduled the building-wide water shutoff overnight on a holiday. The valve on site didn't match the drawings, so we restored water, got the right part, fixed the drawings and finished.
• Emergency power (done, passed inspection). Backup power run to three new operations and data rooms, under the floor and through fire walls, with live systems running.
• Door access and alarms (done). Building-wide, covering every exit for one secure area. Picked up after it had been dropped, and finished.
• Government-approved locks, doors and containers (approved, handed off). 20+ items across new construction, rebuilds and repairs. The package was only a materials list and a scope of work. I wrote the contract language, reviewed the schematics and met with the client several times to restart it, then got it approved and handed it off.
• LED lighting upgrade (proposed). About 1,000 fluorescent lights, roughly $500K, saving about $300K over five years. Not funded, because the prime contractor lost the contract.

What was wrong

• A joint-venture power plant on a military installation.
• The program manager and the site manager both left in quick succession.
• The crew was working double shifts, and the hazardous-materials yard needed rebuilding.

What I did

• Ran operations, people, vendors and reporting.
• Made the case to stop running equipment that wasn't needed.
• Got the client to supply most of the hazmat yard materials, since his audit rating depended on it.

What changed

• Fuel, oil, parts and fuel-delivery overhead cut in half.
• $20K in purchase orders cancelled.
• 6 local nationals and 3 Americans run as one crew.

What was wrong

• Five trucks hauling frozen food and produce.
• Big shippers won't sign a trucking company less than a year old.
• Customers took 30 to 120 days to pay, so cash was always tight.

What I did

• Called every large company I could reach and earned the brokers' trust.
• Kept the books myself and financed $30K–$40K of invoices a week.
• Vetted every customer and chased every unpaid load until it was settled.

What changed

• New routes with large companies, and revenue up 75%.
• We never got stuck with a liability.
• Closed in October 2021, when truck leasing costs outran flat freight rates.

What was wrong

• Routes and drivers were ready, but there was no money for trucks.
• Long-haul, partial-load and international freight all had to run at once.

What I did

• Each investor owned the earnings of their own trucks. No loans, no shares.
• Built the investor presentations, the use-of-funds plan and a 13-week cash forecast.
• Modeled cost per mile, fuel, driver hours, leasing and invoice financing.

What changed

• About 8 trucks on the road within 5 weeks.
• It ended when the truck lessor changed terms as we grew toward 20.
• I told the investors the truth and laid out their options.

What I carry into client work

Clients sit at the table. Before they commit, they understand what they're getting into, and they're in the room for the decisions that affect them. Nobody should fund or sign something they don't understand.

What was wrong

• Everything a deployed force runs on needs power: radios, satellites, command centers, cooling, sleeping quarters.
• A heavy backlog of repairs.

What I did

• Used mission priority to swap equipment between units and send repairs out to other shops.
• Wrote and taught a one-week licensing course to eight Marines.

What changed

• Backlog cleared, and completion rates up 70%.
• Power for five large multinational exercises of 3,500 people, on land and aboard USS Essex.

What was wrong

• Sites that had to keep running for the client's most important operations.
• Air-conditioning, electrical and generator parts were needed fast, so they had to come from local suppliers.
• If a site went down, the client lost the reason it was there.

What I did

• Built 15+ local supplier relationships through a regional network.
• Put capable but unproven suppliers through a strict check before they touched the work.
• Inspected critical communications systems at three sites.

What changed

• Not one supplier failed. Some said no, then came back with another way to deliver.
• The $30K emergency fund was never spent.
• Every site stayed supplied and running.

What was wrong

• A specialized client team of 400+ people working in the field for 100+ days.
• Every location needed power that never dropped.
• The contract leaned toward spending the whole budget, not stretching it.

What I did

• Led a three-person team from first inspection to closeout.
• Turned inspections of 30 units into a parts and supply plan.
• Set three maintenance cycles and coached crews on fuel purging, inspections and special equipment.

What changed

• 1,000+ hours of uninterrupted power.
• Written procedures for 155+ gallons of hazardous waste and 50+ used filters.
• The budget was used as planned, and running it efficiently left the contract stronger.