Petroleum / Oil & Gas / Propane Pipelines Expert Witnesses

Greg Gerganoff, CSP, Esq., possesses extensive experience in safety compliance and practice involving OSHA and MSHA.  He obtained is law degree from Western Michigan University, Cooley Law School and practiced general civil law for approximately 12 years in Colorado prior to entering the safety profession.  He earned a Certified Safety Professional certification and has 18 years of field safety experience in mining, oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, power plant outages, and light rail construction.

• An Authorized Outreach Trainer for OSHA General Industry.
• A PEC Safeland Basic and Core instructor (Oil and gas).
• An MSHA Approved Instructor (Blue Card) for Surface, Metal/nonmetal.
• A member of the American Society of Safety Professionals.

His professional safety experience includes OSHA / MSHA Safety field work and compliance with experience in the heavy construction, manufacturing, light rail construction, power plant outages, public schools, oil and gas, mining, pipeline, and trenching and excavation industries.

Litigation Support: Mr. Gerganoff assists with discovery questions regarding safety matters. Safety opinions based upon statutory, administrative, judicial rulings and related industry association safety policies ancillary to OSHA and MSHA.   Mr. Gerganoff is retained by attorneys for both Plaintiff and Defendant.

Some of the subject matter litigation he has handled include:

• Forklift Safety and Operation
• Lock Out Tag Out/Natural Gas Compressor Stations
• Oil and Gas Safety
• Manufacturing Safety
• Construction Safety
• Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety
• Crane and Aerial Lift Safety
• Mining Safety
• Traffic Control Plans/MUTCD
• Working at Heights, Employee Safety Training
• Fall Protection, Ladders, Stairways

View Greg Gerganoff's Consulting Profile.

Florida Office:
Andrew Avalon, PE, PSP
President
8633 Willow Kane Court
Orlando, FL 32835
T: (407) 445-0825     F: (407) 445-0821

Long International provides expert claims analysis, dispute resolution, and project management services to the Process Plant Engineering and Construction industry worldwide. Our primary focus is on petroleum refining, petrochemical, chemical, oil and gas production, mining/mineral processing, power, cogeneration, and other process plant and industrial projects. We also have extensive experience in hospital, commercial and industrial building, pipeline, wastewater, highway and transit, heavy civil, microchip manufacturing, and airport projects.

Richard J. Long, PE, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Long International 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. He has presented and published numerous articles on the subjects of claims analysis, entitlement issues, CPM schedule and damages analyses, cumulative impact claims, and claims prevention. As an internationally recognized expert in the analysis and resolution of complex construction disputes for 30 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.

Andrew Avalon, PE, PSP is President of Long International and has over 30 years of engineering, construction management and claims consulting experience. He is an expert in the preparation and evaluation of construction claims, insurance claims, schedule delay analysis, arbitration/ litigation support, and dispute resolution. Mr. Avalon has prepared more than 30 CPM schedule analyses, expert witness reports, and testified in deposition, mediation, and arbitration proceedings. In addition, he has published numerous articles on the subjects of CPM schedule delay analysis and entitlement issues affecting construction claims and is a contributor to AACE® International’s Recommended Practice No. 29R-03 for Forensic Schedule Analysis. He has served as a Project Manager on numerous claims ranging in size from US$100,000 to over US$1 billion.

W. Tom 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, offshore oil & gas development, pipeline, infrastructure, and thermal / hydroelectric power generation projects ranging from US$40 million to US$12 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 US$100 million.

Expert Witness Consulting Services, LLC (EWCS) provides a range of services to law firms, litigation trustees and others engaged in expert witness and related activities. We provide up-front assessment of cases, drafting assistance in writing the economic core of complaints; other consulting expert work; and testifying expert witness reports and testimony. As an affiliate of Gordian Group (one of the leading national restructuring investment banking firms), EWCS can tap Gordian's vast experience in litigation assignments, particularly relating to matters involving solvency, valuation, fairness and Board of Directors responsibilities. In addition, EWCS has built a nationwide cadre of other independent experts so that we can assist law firms and mediators in finding the right expert for each case.EWCS connects vetted and specialized expert witness professionals to law firms across the nation. With its incremental, litigation-experienced professional resources and national recognition within the legal community, EWCS’ mission is to work diligently with client law firms and mediators to provide exceptional work product in an efficient manner, starting with finding the right expert for each case. 

As Experts and Consultants, the professionals at EWCS are able to provide clients and Boards of Directors with advice and guidance in structuring transactions appropriately, and in delivering financial opinions in connection with the same. They can reconstruct financial data through forensic analysis in order to explain how financial markets or decision makers may have made decisions. When it comes to evaluating the performance of boards, management teams, and financial institutions, the experts at EWCS are well-positioned to have a credible point of view, given their experience in cleaning up the aftermath of corporate disasters and fraud up close. The EWCS professionals have substantial experience in most industries, including but not limited to aerospace and defense; consumer goods; electronic technology; finance and insurance; food and beverages; heavy industry and manufacturing; life sciences; metals & mining; oil & gas and energy; real estate and hospitality; and retail and apparel. Their experts have done transactions within these segments, and use their “real world” experience in approaching projects. 

Areas of Expertise:

Financial Services Economics Restructuring Bankruptcy International Business (particularly in Asia) Fiduciary Duties Private Placements Damages

Equity Compensation Market Assessments Business Valuations Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals Technology Intellectual Property / Patents Real Estate Market Feasibility

Kelly T. Hickel, Co-founder at EWCS, is a Financial and Business Advisor who has served as a senior executive for over 30 years. Mr. Hickel has many years of experience in the technology industry and with turnarounds of troubled companies. Throughout his career, he has arranged numerous private and public company financings and financial restructurings and has raised and/or returned over a $1 billion to investors and lenders. Mr. Hickel served as Turn-around President to Miniscribe Corp., a troubled Fortune 500, $600 million annual revenue disk drive manufacturer, and President of the Maxwell Technology Information Systems Group from 1993 until 1997, during which, Maxwell was the 9th best performing stock on NASDAQ and the #1 performing stock in California in 1996. As Chairman and Chief Restructuring Office of The Tyree Company in Farmingdale, New York, Mr. Hickel was responsible for running the largest oil downstream services company in the northeast. With all of his experience, he then founded and managed emerging Pharmaceutical companies, taking a product through FDA approval for a supplement through distribution in over 2000 retail pharmacy outlets. Beltway Catalyst recently interviewed Kelly T. Hickel for their Thought Leader Spotlight. Check out the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gPg23ue 

Jim Timmins, ASA BV/IA, MAFF, CEP, is the Managing Director and heads the valuation, litigation, and advisory services practices at Teknos. He has worked in Silicon Valley for more than 35 years, as a Valuation expert, a Venture Capitalist, and an Investment Banker. Mr. Timmins has overseen 1,000s of valuations, fairness opinions, and solvency opinions in connection with financial reporting, tax compliance, merger and acquisition transactions, financings, spin-offs, and recapitalizations, and litigation. He has also participated in numerous merger and acquisition transactions, private placements, and public offerings during his career. Prior to forming Teknos, Mr. Timmins was a Managing Director at Pagemill Partners, where he created and managed the valuation practice. Before that he was the Managing Director of the Silicon Valley office of NIF Ventures (the venture capital arm of Daiwa Securities SMBC of Japan), and a General Partner of Glenwood Ventures and Glenwood Capital. Earlier in his career, he held positions in investment banking at Hambrecht & Quist and Salomon Brothers. Mr. Timmins has served as an expert witness for more than 60 cases involving valuation, fiduciary duty, and venture capital practice. He has been retained as an expert by both plaintiffs and defendants.

Paul S. Black, President of Paul S. Black & Assoc., Inc. has more than 35 years of experience as a Real Estate Market Feasibility Analyst, including multiple types of residential, office, retail, industrial and mixed-use properties. Mr. Black has been employed by local and international accounting firms in their real estate consulting groups as well as local and regional consulting companies. For 20 years, Mr. Black has served as a lecturer/adjunct professor teaching Real Estate Principles and Practices as well as Real Estate Market Analysis at the graduate (MBA) and undergraduate levels. Areas of Expertise: Economic Damages, Construction Defects / Delay Damages, Lost Revenue / Profits, Unjust Enrichment, Due Diligence, Commission Disputes, Procuring Cause, Real Estate Brokerage, Broker/Realtor Standard of Care, Code of Ethics – National Association of Realtors (NAR), Real Estate Disputes, Fraud / Misrepresentation, Insurance Defense, Eminent Domain, Market Feasibility / Evaluation.

Geoffrey Beresford Hartwell is a Chartered Engineer who practices as an Arbitrator, Adjudicator and Expert for Determination. Geoffrey is the former Senior Partner of Consulting Mechanical and Electrical Engineers BHA Cromwell House.

A one time Chairman of the Expert Witness Society, Geoffrey Hartwell has experience giving evidence in court (in both civil and criminal matters) and in International Arbitration. He sometimes is retained as a Single Joint Expert or as a Tribunal Expert. His services are offered to both Plaintiff and Defense. Even when retained on behalf of a Client he, like all Experts, has an overriding responsibility to the Court or Tribunal.

After his early career in aerospace and nuclear energy, Geoffrey entered private practice in association with the late Leslie Heap and Gerald Lewis of Heap and Digby, Consulting Engineers, in 1969. While with them he designed water and sewage equipment and also the bascule moving machinery for the Lowestoft Bridge, in Suffolk. He practiced also as Beresford Hartwell and Associates and, in 1971 established a separate office in Wallington, South London.

In parallel with his design career, Geoffrey was first appointed as arbitrator in 1972 and his first foreign arbitration, an ICC appointment in Switzerland, took place later that year. He studied Law to Intermediate level and then transferred to the examinations of the Institute of Arbitrators (now Chartered) of which he became Chairman in 1996-1997 and for whom he taught in various countries on several courses, including the prestigious Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration.

Technical Expertise:

Electrical Engineering and Design Mechanical Engineering and Design Instrumentation Automation and Computer Control Systems Maritime and Infrastructure Engineering Process Engineering Solid Waste Handling

Communications Manufacturing Computer Cartography Moving Bridges and Lock Gates Construction Project Management Nuclear Energy Water and Waste Water Treatment

Arbitration: Geoffrey Hartwell also acts as an arbitrator and adjudicator, as an expert mediator and conciliator, as an expert investigator and assessor for arbitral tribunals, and also as a Special Referee in the High Court of Justice of the Isle of Man. His services have been required in the UK and internationally.

Dispute Boards: Geoffrey Hartwell has experience both as Member and as Chairman of Dispute Boards?. He has been a member of Dispute Boards, retained from the beginning of a project or, alternatively, appointed on an ad hoc basis when a problem arises, Dispute Adjudication Boards to determine a binding decision, and on Dispute Review Boards to make decisions that are advisory but not binding.

Adjudication: Similar to arbitration, Mr. Hartwell adjudicates domestic and international disputes which are only temporarily binding unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties.

View Geoffrey Beresford Hartwell's Consulting Profile.