Robert C. Hoffman Jr, PE, CFEI, is a licensed Professional Engineer certified as a Fire and Explosion Investigator. With 30 years of experience, the primary focus of his knowledge is a deep understanding and application of all aspects of Product Safety for the Consumer Goods Industry.

Background Experience: For 27 years, Mr. Hoffman worked with the Whirlpool Corporation in various roles. He served the company as a Drum Sub-System Design/Development Engineer, a Laundry Product Approval Engineer, and Dryer Platform Structures Sub-System Leader and Engineer. His final position with the company before retirement was Principal Engineer, a position he served in for 8 years. 

Mr. Hoffman's primary areas of specialization are Heat / Combustion Containment strategies, and Electrical System Design strategies in expected customer abnormal use.  His involvement in field investigation evaluations and product liability support allow him to understand how products react in the field and produce both relevance safety tests and design solutions.

Litigation Support: Mr. Hoffman works as an expert witness with clients needing to understand if a product in the field has some type of design or manufacturing defect, as well as clients needing support to defend their product against a potential field hazard allegation. His background in statistics and presentation of data allows him to take complex situations and break the information down into simple, yet accurate assessments of the situation.

Mr. Hoffman's services include product failure mode and effects analysis, root cause investigations, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Expertise:

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Paul Chen is a Consumer Product (Non-Food) Safety, Regulatory and Retail Compliance, Quality Assurance and control, 3rd party lab testing / inspection / auditing, CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act), Federal / State / Local law compliance consultant and expert. He is on-call 24/7 and speaks Chinese fluently.

Background - Mr. Chen has over 17 years of experience in the Consumer Products Industry, most recently for the Product Safety & Compliance division at Walmart Stores, Inc. He was responsible for managing the regulatory compliance testing and auditing programs / policies / procedures / protocols / practices for general merchandise (non-food) items offered for sale in the Walmart, Walmart.com, Sam's Club, samsclub.com, and Puerto Rico formats. This included direct import, domestic, private label, supplier and national brand items in 20+ departments/categories.

In addition to being employed with the world's largest retailer (and company), Mr. Chen was also previously employed with Intertek, a global 3rd party test lab and QA/QC service provider and various consumer product companies, importers and manufacturers.

Litigation Support - Mr. Chen serves as an expert witness for attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. His services include review, inspection, consultation, thorough reporting, depositions and trial testimony, as needed. Mr. Chen has experience in the following consumer products areas in various capacities: 

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