Frederic Z. Samelian, PMP is President of Hill's Construction Claims Group. Mr. Samelian has more than 24 years of experience in construction management consulting, project management, business planning, marketing, and corporate management. He has directed or participated in numerous consulting engagements for both the public and private sectors in the United States and abroad. He is experienced as a speaker and lecturer, and was an Instructor in the Project Management Certification program, for the University of California, Irvine.
Before joining Hill, Mr. Samelian co-founded CONEX International, a claims consulting firm with clients in California and Nevada. Most recently, he was the expert on a large value dispute concerning the design management of a light rail program in Los Angeles and was also responsible for drafting the environmental claim on a major pipeline project in Southern California.
Mr. Samelian served in various capacities with Hill International, Inc. As President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Samelian was responsible for managing all day-to-day operations of the corporation. He was also a founding member of the Board of Directors of Gerens Hill, Madrid, Span, an affiliated company performing project management services in Europe and Latin America. He also served as Senior vice President of International Claims Operations, headquartered in Hill's London, UK offices.
Mr. Samelian also served as President of Hill's Western Region responsible for the firm's overall operations in the western United States and internationally. He was instrumental in Hill's initial entry into the project and construction management fields and helped forge the project management oversight concept for the Federal Transit Administration. Based in Hill's Newport Beach, California office, he provided management and oversight to Hill staff based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and San Diego, as well as all international offices.
Samelian earned a B.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University.
Frank J. Giunta P.E. Senior Vice President and Managing Director (Americas)
Frank J. Giunta is Senior Vice President and Managing Director in charge of Hill's Construction Claims operations throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has more than 25 years of extensive experience in engineering and construction consulting. He has been actively involved in the evaluation, presentation, resolution and management of construction claims, as well as project management oversight.
Mr. Giunta has managed complex consulting assignments on behalf of public and private owners, engineers, contractors, insurance and financial institutions. These assignments have involved a wide range of projects which include highways and bridges, dams, power related facilities, water and wastewater treatment, landfills and building construction. He has been engaged in the design of civil structures, including roads, highways, railroads, hydraulic structures, underground piping systems and has prepared engineer's estimates and technical specifications.
Mr. Giunta is a Professional Engineer with memberships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Mr. Giunta earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering & Construction Technology and a B.S., Cum Laude, in Civil Engineering from Temple University. Mr. Giunta earned an M.B.A. in Financial Management from Drexel University.
Renny Borhan Senior Vice President and Managing Director (Europe/Middle East/Africa)
Renny Borhan is Senior Vice President and Managing Director in charge of Hill's Construction Claims operations throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Borhan has over 20 years of project management, oversight and control experience in the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects, entertainment facilities, real estate developments, transportation systems, utility systems, energy plants, highly integrated systems, specialized facilities and management. He has worked in both the public and private sectors and is familiar with a broad spectrum of projects, including infrastructure and utility systems, power generation and distribution, onshore and offshore oil and gas facilities, resort and theme park developments, hospitals, airports and production facilities, as well as commercial and residential developments.
Mr. Borhan's expertise has been developed through the management of all aspects of project controls, including project/program management, project financing, economic modeling, purchasing and contracting, design, construction management, field supervision, project close-out and dispute settlement. His project experience includes a number of large United States and international projects, including the Southern California Disneyland Resort; EuroDisneyland in Paris, France; the Petronas Twin Towers, Kula Lumpur; the Hrasdan 300MW Power Station, Armenia; and extensive infrastructure development projects in eastern Europe.
Mr. Borhan is fluent in six languages, including English, Russian, French, Armenian, Greek and Farsi.
Mr. Borhan holds two MBAs in Global Management from Columbia University and London Business School and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dennis L. Allen CPA, CFE, CCIFP Senior Vice President
Dennis L. Allen, CPA, CFE, CCIFP, is Senior Vice President with Hill International. Mr. Allen is in charge of Hill's construction claims operations in Washington, DC.
Mr. Allen has spent over 30 years working with contractors, owners and developers in overall project development, preparing and monitoring project cost controls and helping to manage risk throughout the construction and operational processes. As a litigation consultant, he has served as an expert witness on some of the largest construction and real estate claims in the U.S. and overseas, analyzing issues such as labor and equipment costs, acceleration costs, lost profits, cumulative costs of changes, insurance claims, and delay costs.
Prior to joining Hill, Mr. Allen was a Senior Manager in the Construction Consulting Practice of Exponent, Inc. Mr. Allen is a certified public accountant, a certified fraud examiner, and a certified construction industry financial professional. Mr. Allen earned his B.B.A. in accounting from Texas Tech University.
John R. Brells Senior Vice President and Managing Director
John R. Brells is Senior Vice President and Managing Director in charge of Hill's Construction Claims Group operations throughout the Asia/Pacific Region. Mr. Brells has over 22 years of experience in many aspects of project controls and claims consulting. He has extensive experience in development, implementation and monitoring of project control systems, which include schedule, cost and document control systems. His experience covers a wide range of industries including the power, petrochemical, aerospace, government and environmental engineering industries. He also has extensive experience in schedule analysis, including Critical Path Time Impact Analyses, Total Time (Planned vs. Actual), As-Built But-For analyses and Impacted Planned and As-Built methodologies. In addition, Mr. Brells has multiple years of experience in cost control engineering in the government contracting environment.
Mr. Brells is proficient in the use of several project control software packages, including Primavera Project Planner, Suretrak, Parade, Microsoft Project, Claimdigger, SuperProjects, Quiknet Professional, Microsoft Expedition, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and other related software.
Mr. Brells earned a B.S. in Industrial Construction Management from Colorado State University.
Craig W. Johnson is Senior Vice President with Hill International. Mr. Johnson has over 27 years of national experience in project development, operations, owners' representative, and marketing of construction and construction management services for companies serving the hospitality, commercial, and healthcare industries. Mr. Johnson has proven capabilities in all phases of real estate development, including pre-construction, construction, development, FF&E procurement, financing, acquisition, partnership arrangements, and joint ventures. He has demonstrated capabilities in all phases of corporate management, including sales and marketing, project development, executive project management, project acquisitions and dispositions, and strategic alliances.
Mr. Johnson has had management responsibility for strategic planning, policy development, financial reporting, contract negotiations with solid leadership, communication, and problem solving skills and abilities.
As Vice President at Hill International, Mr. Johnson assists with the financing of major projects in the healthcare and hospitality/resort/casino marketplace. He also serves as Project Executive for major healthcare, resort, casino or mixed-use projects.
Mr. Johnson earned his B.S. in Business Administration from Marquette University and his M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.
Richard W. Lamb is Senior Vice President with Hill International. Mr. Lamb specializes in construction management, claims preparation and analysis, and a broad range of associated construction consulting services. Mr. Lamb has over 45 years of experience and has worked in engineering and contracts administration for several large companies and as an executive in construction businesses. He was contracts manager for a major aerospace contractor at Cape Kennedy during the Manned Space Flight Programs. Mr. Lamb was also project manager on hydroelectric projects, hospitals, office buildings, industrial complexes and other major construction projects.
Mr. Lamb's experience in construction consulting includes being president of two construction consulting firms and a construction analyst for a national law firm specializing in construction litigation. He has been involved with claims for delay and disruption, change, differing site conditions, and other construction-related problems. He has been responsible for claims preparation and analysis, project scheduling and administration, assisting counsel in trial preparation, litigation and expert witness testimony.
As a construction consultant, Mr. Lamb is an expert witness to nationally recognized law firms specializing in construction litigation, and is listed an expert in the American Bar Association's Register of Expert Witnesses in the Construction Industry. He has qualified and testified as an expert in CPM scheduling, delay and disruption analyses, direct costs and delay damages on 42 occasions on a wide variety of projects including airport/aviation, highway, road and bridge, industrial, process and assembly plants, combined cycle power plants, wastewater treatment plants, commercial and government office buildings, hospitals, resort/hotels, military installations, institutional and correctional facilities, residential, underground pipeline and fiber optic, educational and entertainment/stadium projects.
Mr. Lamb is a past-member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association. He has lectured in the field of construction scheduling, project cost control and construction management. He has contributed to several articles dealing with related construction topics, and is co-author of The Mechanical Contractor's Handbook of Claims Avoidance and Management, 1985.
Mr. Lamb earned an A.S. in Electronics Technology from Humphreys College.
Maurice R. Masucci, P.E. is Senior Vice President in charge of Hill's construction claims operations in the company's Marlton, New Jersey office.
Mr. Masucci has over 33 years of progressively responsible experience in civil, geotechnical, and environmental engineering, specialty consulting services, engineering and design services, building design, renovation and modification services, construction, project and engineering management and forensic and claims consulting services. Mr. Masucci has performed in various capacities from principal-in-charge, overall program manager, project engineer, responsible task manager; responsible engineer-of-record, consultant or technical specialist; and construction/field liaison engineer. As a construction claims consultant, Mr. Masucci participates in a broad range of dispute resolution consulting services, claims preparation and analysis, and claims defense, and has testified as an expert witness.
Mr. Masucci has managed building renovation and repair projects for government and industrial clients, building alteration and new facilities for the wireless industry, and the engineering, design and construction of commercial/industrial and residential buildings, including the entire architectural, structural electrical, i/c and mechanical aspects of the projects.
Mr. Masucci earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and his M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida and Alaska.
James W. Palmer is Senior Vice President and Director of Hill's Transportation Group. Mr. Palmer's broad-based experience in rail transportation translates into nationally recognized, award-winning projects. He possesses a unique ability to develop solutions and transform difficult situations using strong analytical skills and control systems. Mr. Palmer's background includes the integration of design, construction, maintenance and operations, as well as aggressive and efficient team building. His work with state transportation and planning departments, as well as top-level positions with major transportation corporations, exemplify his commitment to efficiency and results-oriented performance.
Mr. Palmer earned his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario and he is a registered professional engineer in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Keith A. Pickavance is Senior Vice President with Hill International. Mr. Pickavance is a Registered Architect in the United Kingdom with over 35 years of experience in construction management, project planning, risk management, critical path method of retrospective delay analysis, and delay and disruption claims for buildings, civil engineering, and oil and gas engineering contracts. United Kingdom and International experience includes hotels, public and private swimming pools, commercial offices, multi-storey tower blocks, libraries, industrial buildings and process plants, health and hospital buildings, railway and bus stations, power stations, airports, roadways and tunnels, oil and gas pipelines, oil terminals, steel storage tanks, liquefied natural gas docks, fertilizer plants, and shipping facilities. Mr. Pickavance has advised on projects situated in Argentina, British West Indies, Cyprus, Eire, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Oman, Mexico Peru, St Lucia, Scotland, Sudan, Thailand, The Channel Islands, The Isle of Man, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE and Wales.
Mr. Pickavance studied architecture at Brighton and was admitted as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1970. In 1972 he became a partner in his first practice. After reading for an honours degree in law at the University of London, Mr. Pickavance set up his own multi-disciplinary practice in partnership with his brother, a quantity surveyor. His practice turned to computers in 1982; and as a result of development work carried out by the practice in computer programs for the construction industry, he developed a suite of management software for architects. His experience over the following 21 years produced an unusual mixture of experience in construction management, design and build, and traditional methods of contracting which, when combined with his studies in law and computers and the integrated multi-disciplinary practice, produced an abundance of experience in construction management and the problems of analysis of delay and disruption.
Mr Pickavance's honorary appointments include service on the Architects Registration Council of the UK, membership of the drafting committee of the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol and is currently Senior Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Building.
Mr. Pickavance earned a Diploma in Architecture from the Brighton College of Art and a Bachelor of Law from the University of London.
Alann M. Ramirez is Senior Vice President with Hill International. Mr. Ramirez is responsible for performing contractual and technical analysis of engineering and construction disputes. His experience includes the evaluation, preparation, and defense of construction claims. He is an expert in claim strategy, contract administration and construction business practices. He has developed claim strategy, assisted in settlement negotiations, performed schedule and delay analyses, and examined issues such as: differing site conditions, constructive acceleration, design errors and omissions, third party interferences, suspensions, change order impacts, terminations and wrongful terminations, productivity analyses, and numerous other issues. He has resolved construction disputes for projects such as: high-rise buildings, office buildings, wastewater treatment plants, airport runways, railways, rail car manufacturing, power and cogeneration plants, shipyards, hazardous waste remediation, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and other commercial and industrial facilities.
Mr. Ramirez is a Construction Mediator and has been involved in a variety of Alternative Dispute Resolution programs including mediation, arbitration, and settlement negotiations, as well as acting as a fact-finding independent neutral. Mr. Ramirez has successfully managed several significant Project Neutral assignments, each with disputes ranging from $15 to $24 million, and with one smaller project having a $2 million dispute, which resulted in early negotiated settlements in all cases. Mr. Ramirez recently managed, and testified, on various analyses and issues representing the owner of two 3-unit, 1100 MW combined cycle power plants.
Mr. Ramirez is an attorney and Professional Engineer. He received a B.S., with honors, in Marine Engineering from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and a J.D. from the Delaware Law School of Widener University. Mr. Ramirez is also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Construction Specifications Institute and the Association of General Contractors of California.
Simon E. McKenny is Senior Vice President of the Northern UK Region of Knowles Ltd, a Hill International company. McKenny has over 20 years experience in the construction and engineering industry working on a wide range of projects advising contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and employers on contractual issues and dispute resolution.
Originally trained as a quantity surveyor, McKenny developed an interest in legal aspects of the building and civil engineering industry and, after studying law, provided contractual advice in relation to both contentious and non-contentious matters arising from construction and engineering contracts. McKenny has undertaken a wide range of appointments as adjudicator regarding construction and engineering disputes in the United Kingdom. He has extensive experience advising public bodies in respect to the procurement of major building and civil engineering projects. In the role of overall legal advisor and advocate, McKenny has experience in the field of arbitration, both domestic and international, and was involved in advising in relation to numerous adjudication references and acting as adjudicator. In addition to the United Kingdom, McKenny's projects have been located in Ireland, France, Spain, Holland, Dubai, and Singapore.
McKenny earned his law degree from the University of London, his B.Sc. in quantity surveying from Liverpool University and was called to the bar in 1991.
Andrew P. Rainsberry is Senior Vice President in charge of the Southern UK Region of Knowles Ltd, a Hill International company. Rainsberry, a chartered civil engineer and barrister, has more than 25 years of experience in the construction industry including design, contracting and claims on a wide range of building and civil engineering projects including industrial units, offices, retail schemes, roads, water treatment works and petrochemical plants. These projects have included responsibility for the design and construction of reinforced concrete and structural steel frames, roads, drainage systems, earthworks, piling operations and temporary works.
As a consultant, Rainsberry has expertise in preparation/defence of time and disruption claims, negotiations, adjudications, arbitrations and matters which have subsequently proceeded to litigation including private housing, leisure centers, commercial properties, process plants and various subcontracts. He has dealt as client or opponent of the following clients: private individuals, subcontractors, main contractors and employers such as local authorities, government departments, educational establishments, property developers, industrial, retail and commercial companies.
Rainsberry earned his barrister qualification from the Inns of Court School of Law, his M.Sc. in construction law and arbitration from King's College University of London and his B.Eng. from Kingston University.
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