Industrial Processes and Controls Expert Witnesses: 5

Summary

Stephen (Steve) T. Hopper, P.E., is Founder and Principal of Inviscid Consulting. Over four decades serving the supply chain industry, Steve has helped his clients plan and streamline their warehousing, fulfillment, distribution, and logistics operations by driving down costs, boosting capacity, improving service levels, mitigating risk, implementing effective supply chain solutions, emphasizing safety, and enhancing the performance of their supply chain resources: people, processes, inventory, facilities, equipment, material handling and storage systems, automation, transportation assets, and supply chain information technology (IT). Steve has advised 200+ clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 corporations. He has also served as an expert witness on dozens of cases involving supply chain operations in the US, Canada, and Australia and has advised private equity and venture capital investors.

Industry Experience

• 3PL / Outsourced warehousing, fulfillment, distribution, and logistics
• Apparel / Footwear
• Building materials
• Consumer goods
• Direct-to-consumer / Ecommerce / Catalog
• Food / Beverage / Grocery
• Furniture
• High-tech / Electronics
• Industrial / Automotive / Aerospace
• Mining / Drilling
• Pharmaceutical / Health and life sciences
• Rentals
• Retail
• Reverse logistics / Returns
• Wholesale / General distribution

Supply Chain Solutions Expertise

• Warehouse management systems (WMS)
• Warehouse control systems (WCS)
• Warehouse execution systems (WES)
• Slotting and order picking systems
• Transportation management systems (TMS)
• Labor management systems (LMS)
• Order management systems (OMS)
• Voice and automatic identification systems
• Equipment, automation, robotics, and software used for handling, packaging, storing, and transporting materials
• Logistics network design tools
• Other supply chain solutions, automation, equipment, and related tools

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Industrial Engineering (BIE), The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)
• Licensed, registered Professional Engineer (P.E.)

Florida Office:
Andrew Avalon, PE, PSP
Chairman & CEO
8633 Willow Kane Court
Orlando, FL 32835
aavalon@long-intl.com
T: (407) 445-0825     F: (407) 650-3399

Long International provides expert engineering and construction claims analysis, expert testimony, project management consulting, and insurance claims analysis services. We focus on projects in the following industries: building and construction; gas, gasification, GTL, LNG, and NGL; industrial and manufacturing; mineral and mineral processing; offshore oil and gas; oil sands; pipelines and utilities; power; refineries, petrochemical, and chemical; transportation; and water, wastewater, dams, and marine. We analyze claims, not limited to, disputed change orders, schedule delay, acceleration, time extensions, liquidated damages, loss of productivity, defective specifications, and deficient project management performance.

Richard J. Long, P.E., P.Eng., Founder of Long International, has over 50 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 35 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$2 billion. He has presented and published numerous articles on claims analysis, entitlement issues, CPM schedule and damages analyses, cumulative impact claims, and claims prevention.

Rod C. Carter, CCP, PSP is President of Long International and has over 20 years of experience in construction project controls, contract disputes and resolution, negotiations, mediation, arbitration support, and expert testimony on scheduling, loss of productivity, and quantum issues.  He has experience in entitlement, schedule, and damages analyses on over 30 construction disputes ranging in value from US$100,000 to US$7 billion, related to oil and gas, oil refinery, LNG, heavy civil, nuclear, environmental, chemical, power, industrial, commercial, and residential construction projects. Mr. Carter specializes in loss of productivity, cumulative impact, and quantum calculations, and had a lead role in assessing damages on more than a dozen major disputes.  In addition, Mr. Carter has developed cost and schedule risk analysis models using Monte Carlo simulations to address the uncertainty of estimates and claims.

Scott M. Francis, P.E., PSP is a Vice President of Long International and has over 20 years of experience in project management, contract disputes analysis and resolution, CPM schedule preparation, execution, and analysis, productivity analysis, contract administration, design engineering, construction management, and government contracting.  He provides schedule development and assurance services, cost estimating, and claims analysis services on projects for both owners and contractors.  Specific responsibilities include CPM development and reviews, CPM schedule delay and acceleration analyses, change order impact analysis, issue identification, correlation of impacts to schedule activities, and productivity evaluations.

Panorama Consulting Group specializes in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems and has multiple testifying experts for failed software litigation. This high-profile firm is called upon to investigate the feasibility of litigation, provide software expert witness testimony, and build background reporting for some of the industry’s highest-profile software lawsuits. They have worked with organizations ranging from multi-national conglomerates to boutique and large law firms, as well as state offices of the Attorney General.

As independent enterprise software experts, Panorama Consulting Group has hands-on experience with hundreds of software vendors. Their firm is not tied to a single law firm or software vendor, allowing them to focus on all types of clients and industries.

Litigation Support: The experts at Panorama Consulting Group work for both plaintiffs and defendants, software vendors and system integrators, and their customers. Their differentiator is using a team-based approach to provide expertise beyond just the testifying expert, which is cost-effective and efficient for their clients. They have multiple software expert witnesses available for provision of reports, depositions, and testimonies.

Allegations Addressed:

View Panorama Consulting Group's Consulting Profile.

Expert Background: Dr. Thomas L. Read is the Principal and CEO at A. Read Consulting, LLC. He received his PhD. from Stanford University in 1972 and has over 25 years of manufacturing experience in electronics, metallurgy, factory safety, failure analysis, glass fracture, glass failure and bottle failure. As a member of the electronics industry, he has earned process patents and has an extensive background in manufacturing techniques. In parallel, Dr. Read has spent over twenty five years as a consultant to attorneys and engineers. He has given more than 100 depositions and has appeared in court numerous times. Company Profile: Read Consulting, LLC is a full service laboratory providing services in the following areas:

• Failure Analysis; Factory Safety and Personal Injury (including machine guards and manufacturing safety)
• Glass Failure Analysis - Glass Fracture, Glass Failures and Bottle Failure
• Metal and Ceramic Failure
• Grinding Wheel Failures
• Intellectual Property and Patent Disputes
• Product Liability and Product Quality
• Manufacturing Disagreements (such as Intellectual Property, Failed equipment and Contract Disputes)
• Reverse Engineering

RedSpire, LLC delivers end-to-end Exposure Science and Occupational Epidemiology services to support data-driven decision making. RedSpire's expert analysis is fast, deep, and cost-effective and their technology amplifies their expertise. RedSpire's scientists turn strategy into actionable outcomes.

Litigation Support - Ideal clients are attorneys or firms involved in toxic tort litigation, particularly those with occupational exposures, who are interested in a technology-forward approach to streamline the expert witness work. RedSpire is interested in clients who want to transform how the industry integrates science into legal cases, through more systemic applications of technology that can bring the science of a case to the forefront in ways that reduce the reliance on expensive and time-consuming expert witness work.

Dr. Kristen Good is an Epidemiologist and Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) with over 15 years of scientific background and experience in risk assessment, toxicology, exposure assessment, and environmental sciences, across academia/research, private industry, and government sectors. She is passionate about identifying data-driven, scientifically-supported solutions to complex problems - and communicating those solutions to stakeholders and the public. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Health with an epidemiology concentration from Colorado State University, a Master's degree in Environmental Management, toxicology focus, from Duke University, and a B.S. in Biology from Boston College.

Dr. Good has served as the leading technical authority in occupational health and indoor air quality at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) since 2020. She manages the state’s indoor air quality improvement programs and occupational health surveillance and response initiatives. She regularly advises partners, workplace managers, and the general public on health and safety regulations and best practices, PPE and administrative controls to reduce exposures/safety risks, employer liabilities related to occupational health and safety, and post-incident response related to a variety of occupational health and safety concerns and scenarios.

From 2020-2022, Dr. Good led the Industry Response Team of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic response. She was responsible for advising on workplace outbreak prevention, investigation, and response for hundreds of workplace outbreaks, and employer responsibility across a wide variety of industry sectors. She also worked with the Governor’s Office and other state agencies on COVID-19 guidance and policy development.

Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Nicholas Good, Co-Founder and Exposure Science Lead, is an Aerosol Scientist with over 20 years of experience in Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, and Deployment. He has worked across academia, research, and private industry in atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, indoor air quality, and environmental health. Dr. Good focuses on bridging emerging technology—both hardware and software—from the research laboratory into solutions for practical real-world problems. He holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Manchester University and a B.S in Physics from The University of Manchester.

Dr. Good provides consulting services supporting clients' needs in occupational health and safety, exposure assessment, and environmental health issues—with particular focus on asbestos and benzene exposure reconstructions. In addition to his role with RedSpire, Dr. Good owns Good Science LLC (2019-present), which provides specialized environmental consulting services primarily for legal clients, and co-founded CloudSci LLC (2023) a company commercializing airborne particle measurement technologies for research and related markets.

Since 2017, Dr. Good has served as Research Scientist at Colorado State University (first in the Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences, and now in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), leading research on air quality and human health with emphasis on indoor air quality, building performance, bioaerosols, and novel health effects of air pollution.

Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Gavin McMeeking, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, is an Aerosol Scientist with over 20 years of experience in Scientific Instrument Development, Evaluation, and Deployment. He has worked across academia, research, and private industry in atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics, indoor air quality, and environmental health. Dr. McMeeking focuses on bridging emerging technology—both hardware and software—from the research laboratory into solutions to practical real-world problems. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Science from UC Berkeley.

Dr. McMeeking leads the company's strategic direction and client services. He co-founded CloudSci LLC (2023), which commercializes airborne particle measurement technologies for research and related markets. Previously, he held leadership roles at Handix Scientific LLC, first as a Senior/Principal Scientist (2015-1010) and then as VP of Research & Development (2020-2022), and worked as a Scientist/Sales Specialist at Droplet Measurement Technologies (2012-2015). He has advised governmental organizations including the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and NASA on topics ranging from instrument development, atmospheric measurement techniques, black carbon aerosol impacts, wildfire emission characterization, and technology translation.

Areas of Expertise:

View RedSpire, LLC's Consulting Profile.