Regional Head of Contracts/Claim and Insurance Management
Middle East
Total years of experience :29 years, 6 Months
Regional Head of Contracts/Claim and Insurance Management, Middle East (promoted) July 2013- Present
Bilfinger, Oberhausen Germany - Abu Dhabi Branch, United Arab Emirates
Promoted to the position from Head of department (see below), with regional responsibility for the Gulf region encompassing Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Function reporting to the Senior Vice President of Contract and Claims management in corporate headquarters, Oberhausen, Germany. Responsible to manage all contract, claim and legal issues. Working with both external and internal legal counsel in the support of project management with senior management role.
• Appointed head of operations to manage 20 M USD Construction ICC Arbitration after writing a strong and case worthy delay and disruption claim for prolongation costs.
• Successful in the management of local court orders ex parte, etc.
• Successfully drawn down on bonds so as to avoid wrongful draw claims
• Drafted and Recovered 1.2 M Euro in subcontractor claims attributed to delay
• Drafted and negotiated 7 M Euro breach of duty claim against design engineer consultant
• Drafted and successfully negotiated a 5 M Euro delay claim against external consortium partner.
• Recovered 1 M USD claim against UK Water Company working for our Saudi operation company.
• Successfully settled a 19 Million USD Claim thereby avoiding further arbitration proceedings
• Successfully settled a claim oil and Gas client securing both settlement and extension of time.
• Draft and negotiated successful claim against Aluminum and petrochemical companies in the UAE
• Took over legal counsel duties to the extent possible during counsel's absence
• Responsible for all company Insurance business for the Middle East
Head of Commercial Project Management 2011 - July 2013
Deutsche Babcock, Bilfinger operation Company, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
CLIENTS ADNOC - Abu Dhabi national Oil Company, UAE
GASCO (Abu Dhabi Oil & Gas Company) Abu Dhabi, UAE
ADWEA (Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority), Abu Dhabi, UAE
Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company ("ADMA OPCO"), UAE
Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company (ADGAS), UAE
Ruwais Fertilizer Industries "Fertil" - UAE
Abu Dhabi Polymers Company Limited (Borouge)
DuBal (Dubai Aluminum Company), UAE
Emirates Aluminum (EMAL), UAE
Dubai Aluminum (DUBAL), UAE
The Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (TAKREER), UAE
Petrofac Gas, UAE
Fisia Italimpianti, (Impregilo Construction Company) - ltaly
Saudi Electric Company, Saudi Arabia
Ministry of Water and Electric, Kuwait
Responsible for the overall management of the commercial department and the seconding of commercial managers to projects awarded. The department also has the responsibility to manage the invoicing, document and cost control businesses of the projects as well as the contractual and legal aspects of project commercial management. Emphasis is given to maximize DBME's portfolio through the development of contracting and claim management strategies. The role is cross-functional with overall financial, corporate compliance and legal viability, as well as ongoing contract performance assessment/analysis.
Achievements
• Proactive and persistent involvement and lead in waiving and defending Bilfinger company in the replacement of Chillers, which would have resulted in an exposure to the company in excess of 4 M AED.
• Proactive and extended support to project management on issues related to the civil works by the supplier and advising on the preparation of strategy for back-up plan to mitigate the delay occurred and offsetting the additional costs with Subcontractor.
• Proactive measures implemented in the withholding invoices/payments after processing, in instances where the Bank Guarantees were not provided by the Suppliers.
• Proactive drafting, compilation and completion of a 7 M EUR claim for a municipality, saving the Bilfinger company money in paying a consultant to write the claim.
• Proactively pursuing FAC to ensure the release of millions AED still owed to the Babcock Company. In Feb 2013, after months of pursuing payment, success in receiving the payment of over 1.3 M AED owed.
• Successful in having the payment of retention monies paid to the company of 1.8 M USD after a year of gridlock. Defeated the argument with regard to the submission of QA/QC documentation.
• Proactive input in solely drafting the general terms and conditions of the key documents for Procurement; LNTP, T's and C's for the UAE version. Includes also reformatting of the Record of Negotiations (RON) . The terms include clauses that seek not to limit liability to the suppliers allowing the opportunity for Bilfinger to maximize subcontractor claims.
OTHER EXPERIENCE
Senior Contracts Manager 2009 - 2011
Alstom Power Inc., Legal Division -Switzerland,
Various Clients -EPC Projects - Supply of Heat Recovery Steam Generators ("HRSG")
Responsible for the management and control of the commercial / contractual risk aspects of the HRSG erection businesses and in particular the control and contract administration activities of 24 international Projects valued between 6 and 106 Million E. Reporting to senior project management on project activities in particular and primary liaison between the US business units and Alstom Legal, in Switzerland.
• My first commercially managed project for the company resulted in achieving a margin of net 10 M
USD.
• Successfully managed 15 active EPC projects from 5 to 106 M USD.
• Draft and negotiated various settlement agreement that saved Alstom 5 M EURO.
• Negotiated and prevail in the settlement of HRSG erection claims due to lack of substantiation as required under • the contract - 3.1 to 17 M E.
• Negotiated change opportunities 5 M E
• Negotiated and settled claims with equipment/material suppliers for the procurement group which resulted in the successful collection of Liquidated damages in excess of 500K E and back charges at 2.7 M E.
• Successfully prevailed in defeating the draw down on various letters of credit held for clients or suppliers,
19 M E, heading off legal action by company.
• Provides input to the development and negotiation of sound contractual terms and conditions to support sales that resulted in saving to Alstom of almost 200K USD.
Lead Contracts Specialist and Court Policy Advisor 2005 - 2009
Client: Administrative Office of the Courts, California, USA
Reported to the Chief Justice of California in the role of contracts and court policy advisor to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) which serves as the administrative arm of the Judicial Council and manages and delivers services to the entire California court system through its divisions and offices.
• Supported all 54 courts from a satellite office in the California State and assisted, using the Material Management module of SAP to advise and train courts in the generation of purchase orders and reports.
• Nominated by senior management and successfully acquired with agency's committee, a statewide solicitation valued at 400 M USD for Court debt.
• Assisted in the RFP and the award of contracts to individual courts with an accumulated value of 2 M USD.
• Nominated by the court administration based on past exemplary customer service to service courts to work directly within the court and to assist, train and manage their contract operations until replacement managers were hired.
Senior Contracts Manager 2001 - 2005
Calpine Power Corporation, Project Management, Power Plant Construction Division
Clients: General Electric and RWE Power
Responsible for the commercial and financing management of over 15 turnkey EPC;s erection, single cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant projects and related works in the domestic USA. The company owns, leases and operates low-carbon, natural gas-fired and renewable geothermal power plants.
• Team lead appointed by the VP of Business and Project Management to financed six projects that had encumbered liens. Successfully worked to remove those liens and to secure an 800 M USD finance package.
• Appointed as team leader for the construction and online power agreements for the initiative sponsored by the California Governor Grey and subsequently Governor Schwarzenegger in the building of nine 45 Mega Watt power plants in nine California counties during California's energy crisis between 2002 - 2004.
Contracts Manager, Gas and Steam Turbines 1999 - 2001
Siemens Power Generation Division
Clients: Enron, Calpine, Dynegy, General Electric, Florida Power and Light and Others
Responsible for the successful contract management of Siemens gas and steam turbine sale contracts for several clients.
• Successfully managed mediation between client & company on claims and matters that saved the company
• 480 M USD.
• Successfully managed and optimized revenue for 30 turbine power contracts valued over 5 M USD for customers
including: Enron, Dynegy, Mirant & Calpine Corporation
• Due to my successful administration of these contracts, Calpine Corporation acquired my contract management
Services.
Contracts Manager & Department Head 1997 - 1999
Westinghouse and Mitsui Babcock Consortium Joint Venture EPC
Client: Huaneng Power International, Peoples Republic of China
Responsible for the commercial management of an EPC project on-site in China for the Westinghouse company.
This EPC project was for a plant located on the outskirts of Dalian, China. It has an installed capacity of 1, 400MW and consists of four 350MW coal-fired units. Two units of the Dalian Power Plant Phase I use equipment produced by the Mitsubishi Consortium and commenced commercial operations in September and December 1988, respectively. The equipment used in the Dalian Phase II expansion was supplied by an international consortium consisting of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Mitsui Babcock Energy Ltd., U.K., etc. Construction commenced in March 1996 and the coal-fired units commenced operations successively in December 1998.
• Successful in fostering good relations between the Chinese and Westinghouse company and was therefore assigned chief liaison between Siemens and Chinese government.
• Successful in resolving the gridlock between Westinghouse and Chinese over the non -payment of invoices for TFA staff and secured over $100 M USD in invoice payments due to Westinghouse Siemens.
• Appointed US representative to local Chinese immigration and successful in negotiating country visa extensions for Westinghouse staff residing in China.
• For my efforts in China, I was promoted to Contracts Projects at the Siemens headquarters in US.
Other Posts Held: Director of Talent Contracts, Universal Studios, Florida, USA 1993-1997
Director of Special Projects, Photography and Film - 8 Studios, Broadway, New York, USA 1991-1993
Junior Manager, Citicorp Investments, London, UK 1987-1991
Front Desk Manager, Intercontinental Hotel, London, UK 1985-1987
High School diploma - UK Principles of English Law Degree- UK Associate of Arts (General Studies Degree) - USA Bachelors of Science (HON) - Law - USA Juris Doctorate (Law Degree) - USA MBA (pending) - USA