Resumes & Biographies
Engineering & Construction
Technical Experts
Long International’s Engineering & Construction Technical Experts have extensive knowledge of and experience in the design and construction of engineering and construction projects, and in particular process plant and industrial projects. Our experts have the qualifications to evaluate the adequacy of the Owner’s design requirements, specifications, and bid packages, and identify problems associated with ambiguities and conflicting requirements that could lead to delays in the engineering process, improperly specified equipment and materials, inadequate or unsafe equipment and materials installations requiring extensive inspections, and the need for costly change orders or rework to resolve such problems. In addition, our experts can evaluate the Contractor’s performance, engineering deliverables, and construction practices with respect to standards of care. During the project, we evaluate the technical entitlement of the Contractor’s change order requests to determine if the requested change is indeed a change in scope or part of the original contract requirements. Such analyses are central to determining the Contractor’s entitlement to large delay and disruption claims including claims associated with the cumulative impact of changes.
Our Engineering & Construction Technical analysis experience includes the following types of reviews, evaluations, and analyses:
- FEED Package Reviews
- Detailed EPC Contract Bid Package Reviews
- Engineering & Construction Specifications Reviews
- Change Order Technical Evaluations
- Engineering Standard of Care
- Construction Means and Methods
- Design Development Requirements
- Ambiguity of Contractual Requirements and Analysis of Contract Language to Identify Exculpatory Clauses and Risks
- Analysis of Welding Defects
- Process Engineering Analysis
- Defective Materials Analysis
- Equipment Specifications
- Punch List Evaluations
- Nonconformance Reports
- Contractor-Caused Performance Problems
- Over-Inspection
- Differing Site Conditions
- Process and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs)
- Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs)
- Safety Issues
- W. Tom Thweatt, Senior Principal
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Mr. Thweatt is a Senior Principal with Long International and has over 40 years of engineering, construction, and management consulting experience. He has extensive experience in major U.S. and international refining, chemical, petrochemical, pipeline, infrastructure, and thermal/ hydroelectric power generation projects ranging from $40 million to $1.8 billion. He has worked extensively in projects that were executed by multi-national joint ventures on both the owner's and the contractor's sides. Mr. Thweatt has served on Joint Venture and Consortium Executive Committees and has participated directly in claims negotiations and settlement agreements in excess of $100 million.
Before joining Long International, Mr. Thweatt served as Vice President and Director of Engineering for Techint, S.A., a major EPC contractor based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He served as a member of the Technint Comite Direccion, the governing committee responsible for all strategic and operational decisions, and was in responsible charge of worldwide engineering operations for all proposals and projects.
Before relocating to South America, Mr. Thweatt served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations, for the Parsons Energy and Chemicals Group Inc., based in Houston, Texas. He had profit and loss responsibility for engineering, procurement, construction, estimating and project controls for all proposals and projects executed by the company's four major operating centers in Houston, Texas; Reading, Pennsylvania; Pasadena, California; and London, England.
Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Richard J. Long, P.E., Chief Executive Officer
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Richard J. Long, P.E. is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Long International, a Colorado-based construction claims and project management consulting firm that focuses its practice on owners, engineering and construction firms, and contractors performing petroleum refining, petrochemical, oil and gas, power/cogeneration, mineral processing, industrial, building, and infrastructure projects worldwide. He has over 40 years of U.S. and international consulting experience involving construction contract disputes analysis and resolution, arbitration/litigation support and expert testimony, project management, engineering/construction management, cost and schedule control, and process engineering. As an internationally recognized expert in the analysis and resolution of complex construction disputes for over 25 years, Mr. Long has served as the lead expert on over 300 projects having claims ranging in size from US $100,000 to over US $1 billion. He has presented and published numerous articles on the subjects of claims analysis, entitlement issues, CPM schedule and damages analyses, and claims prevention.
Before forming Long International, Mr. Long was Senior Vice President, Contract Administration for a major electrical and mechanical contractor. In this role, he had corporate-wide responsibility for technical management and oversight of the preparation and resolution of construction claims. In addition, he was responsible for the development, training, and implementation of project management policies and procedures to ensure that profit, cost, schedule, scope, quality, and safety objectives were achieved. Mr. Long managed for 13 years the construction claims practices of two large consulting firms. Prior to his consulting career, Mr. Long gained 13 years of project management and process engineering experience on petroleum refining, oil shale, synfuels, mining and power generation projects with Tosco, Fluor, and Conoco. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Steven J. Bieniewicz, Senior Principal
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Steven J. Bieniewicz, a Senior Principal with Long International, Inc., has over 35 years experience in engineering, project management, project planning and scheduling, cost engineering, construction claims/dispute resolution, project performance audits, and corporate management. He has nearly 25 years of construction claims and contract dispute resolution experience including issue entitlement evaluation, schedule delay analysis, damages analysis, attorney support, and expert witness testimony on a large number of complex construction projects. Mr. Bieniewicz is recognized as an expert in the development of schedule delay and cost overrun analyses for construction projects. He has worked on over 100 claims ranging in size from US $50,000 to over US $2 billion. Before joining Long International, Mr. Bieniewicz had been a Principal in four consulting companies that focused on construction claims and project management.
Prior to entering the consulting field, Mr. Bieniewicz had direct experience on a number of construction projects including nuclear and fossil power plants, wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, and commercial buildings. As a Senior Project Manager for a contractor, he had complete management responsibility for several projects including hospitals and commercial buildings. As a Planning and Scheduling Engineer, he developed and maintained project schedules on a wide variety of projects. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Robert J. Lane, Senior Principal
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Mr. Lane, a Senior Principal for Long International, has over 35 years of experience working in or consulting for the engineering and construction industry. More than half of this time has been involved in the resolution of construction-related claims and disputes. He has expertise in project-related estimating, cost control and scheduling, retrospective schedule analysis, productivity analyses, and quantum/damages analyses. Mr. Lane has also worked in the areas of contract administration, claims management, and overall project and construction management.
Mr. Lane has significant background in the application of the Primavera scheduling systems to proactively develop and update project schedules and/or to retrospectively analyze the impact of various events to a project schedule, including evaluations of entitlement to time extensions, acceleration costs, liquidated damages, and delay-related costs. He has utilized these and other scheduling tools on major construction projects in the U.S. (Lower 48 and Alaska) as well as internationally.
Mr. Lane’s construction claims and property damage and business interruption experience includes refineries, gas plants, pipelines, storage facilities, petrochemical plants, offshore platforms, other offshore oil & gas facilities, power plants, transportation projects, and commercial and industrial buildings. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Douglas A. Kage, P.E., Principal
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Mr. Kage, a Principal with Long International, is a Professional Engineer with over 30 years of experience in the areas of construction claims, project control, project management, construction management, and engineering design services. He has experience in schedule delay analysis, cost evaluation, entitlement analysis, calculation of damages, and brings extensive industry experience to the topics of industry practice and standard of care.
Mr. Kage has served as project manager for design projects and studies in the power generation and telecommunications industries. In addition, while serving in various senior project management capacities, Mr. Kage has had experience on several billion dollars of EPC project work, both domestic and international. During more than 14 years as a project control professional, Mr. Kage has managed the project control departments for two different businesses, supervising 40 project control professionals. He also developed an estimating department. He has managed the purchasing, warehousing, and distribution of millions of dollars of materials for construction projects and has managed a construction management field office. He has also had pivotal involvement in process improvement initiatives, re-engineering efforts, and quality improvement programs. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Truman D. King, P.E., Principal
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Truman D. King, P.E., a Principal with Long International, has over 35 years of experience in engineering, procurement, and construction operations in the mining, oil and gas, refining, and real estate development industries. He has successfully completed assignments in the U.S., Middle East and Europe. Mr. King was a Senior Project Manager for Worley Parsons, where he managed the Front End Engineering Design and acquisition of Process Design Technology for a $500 million expansion of an oil refinery in the UAE to produce clean diesel fuel. He has also managed oil & gas, refining, power distribution, marine, and other engineering projects and provided analysis and resolution of contractor's claims. Mr. King has extensive knowledge of the owner's and contractor's project management responsibilities on EPC turnkey projects. He has successfully analyzed claims involving mismanagement, defective engineering, delay, disruption, and disputed change orders. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Philip R. Moncrief, P.E., Principal
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Philip R. Moncrief, P.E., a Principal with Long International, has over 40 years of U.S. and international consulting experience involving engineering and construction, contract disputes, project management, project development, engineering/construction management, and process engineering. As an internationally recognized expert in the engineering and construction industry, he has managed large projects and had profit and loss responsibility for the engineering and construction operations of four major engineering-construction companies. He has published two books and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado and Texas A&M University in their Construction Management Programs, and is a frequent presenter of project management topics to industry forums and seminars.
Before associating with Long International, Mr. Moncrief was Senior Vice President and General Manager of CDI Engineering Solutions’ Houston office, Vice President and General Manager of Technip’s Houston office, Vice President Project Management for Bechtel, Senior Vice President of Davy McKee and Vice President of Fluor Corporation. In these roles, he had responsibility for management and oversight of engineering and construction projects in the US and internationally including the development and implementation of project management policies and procedures to ensure that profit, cost, schedule, scope, quality, and safety objectives were achieved.
Mr. Moncrief is a graduate of Rice University with a Masters in Chemical Engineering. He has wide experience in the Refining, Petrochemical, Chemical, Pipeline, Terminals, LNG and other areas including treatment of waste from the facilities. His knowledge and experience includes process design, overall facility design, project management, project engineering, procurement of materials and equipment and construction of numerous facilities thorough out the world. His experience with these projects includes conceptual development, estimating of project cost, economic analysis, scheduling, contracts, marketing, and all areas of facility management and operations. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Peter van der Schans, Principal
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Peter van der Schans, a Principal with Long International, has 40 years of project management, engineering management, and engineering experience. His extensive international experience includes the overall responsibility for engineering, project control, procurement, construction, and start-up of oil refining, oil and gas, gas to liquids, petrochemical, chemical, industrial facilities, municipal and refinery hazardous waste processing, and environmental projects. His experience covers all project phases from feasibility studies, preparation of FEED packages, EP and EPC project execution to start-up and operational troubleshooting. He has extensive experience in execution of refinery and petrochemical plant projects. He has analyzed delay, cost overrun, and lost production claims for refinery, offshore, and petrochemical plants.
Mr. van der Schans has experience in detailed commissioning planning of refineries, and mechanical completion and handover efforts, and has extensive commissioning and start-up experience. He also resolved many warranty claims to the satisfaction of the owner and contractor by technical and operational analysis of damages. He participated in many HAZID and HAZOP reviews, and functioned as HAZOP Chairman. He was an expert witness in a large reactor damage claim, and was a Process Consultant for FPSO conversions. He participated in contract negotiations with Contractors for US $50 to $450 million contracts on behalf of the owner.
Before joining Long International, Mr. van der Schans served as Senior Project Manager with Parsons E&C for 5 years, primarily as a leader of Project Management Consulting Teams and as individual Project Management Advisor for Middle Eastern Refiners and Oil Producers. He also served 23 years with Badger and Raytheon Engineers and Constructors as a Process Engineer, Technical Services and Start-up Engineer, Project Engineer, Project Engineering Manager, and Project and Sr. Project Manager. He started his career with Selas of America in process design, engineering, and start-up of Hydrogen, Ammonia and Methanol Syngas, and Olefins plants. He served as Director and Vice President of Engineering and Technology for Power Recovery Systems Inc., and as Director for Project Engineering Services GmbH. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - James S. Dielschneider
Managing Director, Europe & Asia Operations -
James S. Dielschneider is the Managing Director of European and Asia Operations of Long International, Inc. He provides onsite investigation, analysis, presentations, and expert witness testimony regarding engineering and construction disputes involving project, program, and construction management issues. Mr. Dielschneider testifies in arbitrations, High Court, and US Courts, and serves as a mediator and arbitrator of complex design, procurement, and construction disputes.
Mr. Dielschneider's dispute testimony includes: program, project, design and construction management, programming, quantity surveys, cost estimates, budgeting, estimating errors, scheduling, defective design, late drawings, errors and omissions, contractor approval problems, procurement delays, substitutions, changes, unforeseen conditions, constructability, change orders, resource allocation, safety constraints, interference of construction work, costs of acceleration of work, revenue loss, profit loss, overpayment, productivity loss, equipment standby costs, delays, acceleration, time extensions, quality control, final acceptance problems, rework, and impacts of these problems on construction projects and ongoing facilities operations.
He has over 40 years of international management, design, construction, and consulting experience involving electrical power plants, waste treatment plants, water systems, sewer systems, roads, highways, bridges, rail, tunnels, utilities, airports, moorage facilities, oil refineries, environmental remediation, electronic manufacturing plants, research facilities, hospitals, universities, high rise office buildings, school facilities, hotels, recreation facilities, parks, retirement centers, dams, and other large, complex projects costing up to US$1 billion. Mr. Dielschneider has presented seminars, provided training, and published numerous articles on project management, construction management, multiple project scheduling, project planning and control systems, and mediation. He authored a book on construction planning and scheduling. This capability is founded on the actual performance of planning, programming, quantity surveying, estimating, scheduling; the management of programs, projects, design, procurement and construction; and the direct field management of construction crews and subcontractors. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Bruce E. Hallock, CFCC, PSP, Senior Executive Consultant
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Mr. Hallock is a Senior Executive Consultant with Long International and has over 37 years of experience in engineering, construction management, and claims consulting. Mr. Hallock has served as a Principal Contracts Engineer, Corporate Contracts and Risk Manager, Project Manager, Claims Manager, Commercial Manager, and Construction Claims Consultant with extensive experience advising public and private organizations in the resolution of construction disputes and as an expert witness in trial, arbitration, and mediation. He is an expert in the preparation and evaluation of construction claims, schedule delay analysis, arbitration/litigation support, and dispute resolution. Mr. Hallock has published and presented numerous technical papers and articles on construction management, engineering management, contract administration, project controls, scheduling, change management, and other topics. Mr. Hallock has international experience in petrochemical, oil refining, pipeline, power, airport, transportation, commercial, educational, and medical projects. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - F. Paul HerrNeckar, Senior Executive Consultant
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F. Paul HerrNeckar is a Senior Executive Consultant with over 40 years of U.S. and international project management, engineering and construction management, and construction claims experience in petrochemical, oil & gas, power, refining, chemicals, pharmaceutical, pulp & paper, food, and water-related projects. Mr. HerrNeckar also has extensive process control engineering and construction management experience in process control projects. He is skilled in the management of lump-sum turnkey projects in the United Sates as well as internationally. He has participated directly in claims negotiations and settlement agreements in excess of $100 million.
Mr. HerrNeckar provides claims analysis and dispute resolution services include a wide variety of projects for owners and contractors. Specific responsibilities include analysis of engineering project management performance under the contract, job cost analysis, delay analysis, procurement issues analysis, problems affecting instrumentation and process control systems, and change order analysis.
Before joining Long International, Mr. HerrNeckar managed projects as large as $450 million while living in the Middle East. He also was Projects Engineering Manager for 45 projects valued in excess of $2.6 billion, managing approximately 120 engineers from different disciplines as well as surveying and document control. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - Richard L. (Dick) Kelley, P.E., Senior Executive Consultant
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Richard L. (Dick) Kelley, P.E. is a Senior Executive Consultant with Long International and has more than 30 years of U.S. and international experience in the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Mr. Kelley has held leadership roles in the development of facilities projects from concept through operations phases. He has managed aspects of both long-term and fast-track projects ranging in value from $35 million to $2 billion, which included natural gas processing plants (NGL and LNG) as well as onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities. His core areas of expertise include: integration of multi-discipline technical and commercial team performance, application of stage-gate project management processes, and preparation, negotiation and administration of engineering, construction, operation and utility contracts. Mr. Kelley has also provided depositions and court testimony as the owner’s representative in two U.S. natural gas royalty litigations and an International Chamber of Commerce EPC contract arbitration.
Mr. Kelley began his professional career with Amoco Production Company as a process engineer, initially focused on design, start-up, and operation of new cryogenic Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) recovery plants. He then moved into project engineering functions and ultimately project management roles in a variety of oil and gas developments in Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma and internationally in Egypt, Algeria, and Indonesia. His most recent roles and projects for British Petroleum (BP) were Director of Tangguh Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Phase 2 expansion in West Papua, Indonesia and Construction Manager for the In Amenas Gas Project in the Sahara Desert in central Algeria. Between his employment with Amoco and BP, he worked for a small engineering design firm and as a private consultant in the route survey and permitting of fiber optic backbone systems in the central and west coast areas of the U.S. Summary Resume Detailed Resume - David D. Svoboda, Senior Consultant
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Mr. Svoboda is a Senior Consultant with Long International and has over 25 years experience working for engineering and construction companies in the power plant, process, and mining industries. He has written and administered requests for quotations, contracts and purchase orders, and negotiated all commercial aspects of the contracts including terms and conditions, terms of payment, and delivery schedules. Mr. Svoboda is responsible for evaluating construction claims, assessing the performance of owners, engineers, and contractors, performing searches and developing narratives on issues from document databases, and performing reviews of change orders on numerous types of projects, both in the U.S. and internationally. Summary Resume Detailed Resume