Our Team
Our team of consultants all want to make the world a better place – safer, cleaner, lower risk, and with greater opportunities for both us and our customers.
Our team provides a broad range of expertise and experience in the realm of operational excellence. We share a passion for excellence and finding hidden value for our customers in the areas of reliability, maintenance, asset management and supply chain.
The combined experience of this team is in excess of 400 years, all of it in real world practical situations. We train, coach, facilitate and all of us can do what we help our clients with. All of us are at the top of our game and consistently do our best to our clients with their challenges.
James Reyes-Picknell
(Barrie, ON)
James Reyes-Picknell is our Principal Consultant and Co-Founder. He specializes in the management of asset, maintenance, and reliability. He leads our process improvement efforts and delivers much of our training. He is a Professional Engineer, Certified Management Consultant, Certified Asset Management Assessor, Maintenance Management Professional, and Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional.
James has recently co-authored “Reliability Centered Maintenance – Re-engineered: Practical Optimization of the RCM Process with RCM-R®“, 2017. He is the best-selling author of “Uptime – Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management“, 2015, several other books and many published articles in a variety of magazines. James is a teacher, trainer, speaker, and management consultant who focuses on finding hidden value in your operations.
Aileen Reyes-Picknell
(Barrie, ON)
Aileen Reyes-Picknell, Co-founder, and Director of Business Operations. She is an entrepreneur with a high octane blend of passion, creativity, financial acumen and deep insight into what drives people. While she’s able to see, create and imagine infinite possibilities, Aileen is a natural skeptic who needs solid proof before allowing herself to be convinced to get behind a business, product or service. She brings a keen focus on business issues that often transcends what appears to be the immediate goal of our engagements, bringing the possibility of even greater generation of value for our customers.
Aileen is spearheading our development of Blockchain technologies to provide support to a variety of business processes for high impact value generation across entire industries.
Richard Beer
(Mississauga, ON)
Richard is a 1990 graduate of the MBA program at Concordia University and a Maintenance Management Specialist since 1993. Richard uses his knowledge and expertise to assist our client organizations to transition from reactive to proactive maintenance.
Richard brings practical experience having worked as a Maintenance Planner and Manager for Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport. In addition, Richard worked for Datastream Systems (now Info) as a lead consultant for their software implementations and training on their MP2 and MP5. Currently, he works largely with the Infor EAM systems.
Richard takes a strategic approach to his work, blending process improvement with technology to deliver the maximum value and performance our customers seek. He’s authored the “top ten golden rules of database management”. Richard has thrived in a “misunderstood” and often forgotten niche of business offering maintenance management solutions to manufacturing, pharmaceutical, food processing, and transportation industries in need of maximizing plant uptime, optimizing PM programs, stores management, and reducing maintenance costs.
Highly personable and down-to-earth, but at the same time, well-versed in technology and his Industry, Richard is a clear champion of “out-of-the-box” thinking. He knows what is needed to succeed.
Jesus Sifonte
(Toronto, ON & San Juan, PR)
Thought leader, conference speaker, consultant, instructor, and coach on asset reliability and maintenance. Creator of the RCM-R® method, an optimized approach of the original RCM methodology as conceived by the aircraft industry back in the seventies, and co-author of the Publication Reliability Centered Maintenance – Reengineered (RCM-R®): Practical Optimization of the RCM Process with RCM-R®. He is a co-founder of Conscious Reliability, president of PdMtech (in the USA and Canada), and Director of Condition Monitoring & Maintenance Institute (CMMI) which is dedicated to CBM and MRE certification training, having a presence all over Latin America and Spain. Some of his clients are: Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Bosch, Pemex, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Baxter, Lilly, Roche, Bristol Myers, Medtronic, General Motors, Southern Mining, Mercedes, Subte de Bueno Aires, and Komatsu.
Mick O’Sullivan
(Georgetown, ON)
With a vision of helping small to medium-sized businesses, whether in turmoil, preparing for growth, or developing succession plans, Mick wanted to be in a position of being able to contribute his knowledge and expertise. Thus, in the fall of 2014, he founded Venturi Vision to help these businesses become more organized, cohesive, and profitable. Mick’s experiences and successes have supported the further transition into M&A activity helping owners and entrepreneurs finalize their succession plans and assisting the next generation of engineers through teaching at a local University (Innovation and Entrepreneurship courses).
Mick has more than 30 years of executive and leadership managerial experience in roles in Engineering/Development, Production, Manufacturing, Materials Management, Strategy Formulation & Execution. He is recognized as a versatile, results-orientated leader with demonstrated and successful Lean, Quality & C.I. program implementation and P&L management.
With more than 30 years of senior progressive leadership experience in North American & international hi-tech Engineering and commercial large scale manufacturing operations with roles in Strategy Formulation and Execution, Business Growth, Risk Management, Engineering, Production & Manufacturing, Mick is well-positioned for this challenge. He is recognized for his ability to obtain results through demonstrated and successful collaborative leadership skills, P&L management, business savvy, strong work ethic and cultural change implementation. His integrity and openness in all of his dealings ensure that all clients are satisfied with the end result.
A keen advocate of LEAN manufacturing, he has effected business turnarounds through the implementation of people and process transformation initiatives and has driven globalization activities in UK/Brazil/Poland/China/Mexico for cost-effectiveness and manufacturing consistency.
Uri Wittenberg
(Burlington, ON)
Uri Wittenberg combines his creativity, breadth of experience, and foundation of analytical thinking to produce positive measurable results. He specializes in business excellence and logistics, continuous improvements, lean organization optimization and executive management coaching. Additionally, Uri is a solutions-oriented facilitator, team building, and conflict resolution expert.
Uri improves organizational effectiveness by using agile strategy, methods, and learning tools with focus and unity. His extensive experience as a facilitator and team builder allows him to amalgamate the insights of multi-disciplinary groups to attain sustainable enterprise-wide solutions. Uri is one of several contributing authors to “Uptime – Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management“, 3rd edition, and together with James, Uri co-authored our book, “No Surprises!”
Len Middleton
(Sarnia, ON)
Len works with clients to improve organizational performance by improving the management of their assets, through improvements in maintenance, reliability, asset management, & capital management processes & practices. Strong technical background, with a business focus on the organizational requirements based upon organizational objectives relative to operating & business environment, & organizational constraints. He is knowledgeable in outsourcing and contract management; assessments of maintenance, reliability, and asset management; assessments of project management practices; maintenance, reliability & asset management strategy; maintenance tactics development (RCM); maintenance work management; and maintenance performance measures & benchmarking.
David A de Castro
(Salvador, Brazil)
David A. de Castro is the president of Brasman Engenharia, Brazil. He is a registered consulting engineer with an MSc degree in mechanical engineering. David has over 25 years of experience in maintenance and reliability engineering with large corporations and on-the-job training in Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and USA. He has authored over 20 technical papers on maintenance engineering and MRO materials. For the past 10 years, David has specialized in scientific inventory control of MRO materials and spare parts. The work has involved developing and implementing innovative best practices and analytical tools to process facilities all over Brazil. David is a lecturer of post-graduation at the University of Salvador, Unifacs, Salvador, Brazil.
Danaka Porter
(Calgary, AB)
Danaka has a proven track record of success and a vast understanding of business concerns, in every type of company from NPO to Fortune 500. Her past work includes creating inventory optimization strategies, complex supply chain process improvement plans, and large-scale loss prevention programs. Each plan had an adjoining implementation program where she was the project lead. Danaka has benefited from a number of diverse roles in different corporate contexts, before deciding to focus on supply chain management and process optimization.
Danaka holds a Master of Engineering in Supply Chain from MIT, is a CMC Candidate, is LEAN Level I Certified, and has a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Economics, Environmental Science, and Math) from UBC.
Rod Hannah
(Saint John, NB)
Rod Hannah is a Professional Engineer (Mechanical). Rod began his career as a petrochemical process operator and assisted with the construction, commissioning, start-up operation of one of Canada’s largest oil refineries. Rod began his engineering career as a Logistics Support Engineer assisting in the mechanical design and maintenance planning for the complete life cycle support of Canadian warships. This was his first introduction to Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Since then, Rod has trained further to become a Certified RCM2 Instructor, CMMS/EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) expert, and Certified-Vibration Analyst Level 2. Rod has used these skills in the employ of leading maintenance management consulting firms such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers and spent the last 20 years helping upstream and downstream petrochemical plants, mine sites, Chemical plants, and power utilities, etc. throughout Canada and The USA progress towards best in class maintenance practices.
Bill Thompson
(Montreal, QC)
Bill is originally from Southwestern Ontario. Following initial turnaround business successes in manufacturing, training, and leading operations as an infantry officer in the Canadian Forces, he undertook undergrad studies at Queen’s University. Bill moved to Quebec in his 20s, became fluently bilingual. He then pursued his education (MSc Project Management UQTR & HEC entirely in French) and drove his organizational turnaround career from a Montreal base, primarily with aerospace tier 1&2 suppliers.
Bill has over 30 years of professional success as an entrepreneur and working for and with Canadian, English, French, and American companies all over North America. At different times he has coached MBA and Doctoral students in management and lectured on community organization at the University of Pittsburgh.
Specialized in strategic and organizational management, process and lead time optimization, Supplier turnaround & Optimization he has led, managed, guided, and coached organizations facing varied challenges to success, growth, and enhanced profitability.
His interest is in seeing concrete results achieved rather than reporting on activities.
Alp has worked with multi-national companies as an operations and maintenance professional. With his engineering background, he leverages his experience in business strategy and operations to help mining companies to optimize production and achieve their business objectives.
His areas of expertise are asset management, operational excellence, and value creation.
Alp is a Canadian citizen residing in Chicago, Illinois (USA). He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a mining specialization from McGill University.
Professional Engineer, P.Eng
Lean Six Sigma – Green Belt
Project Management Professional
Maintenance Management Professional
Psychology of Leadership Certificate
Serge Rivoallan, ing, CRL
(Quebec, QC)
Serge fournit des services-conseils aux entreprises dans les domaines de la maintenance et de la fiabilité, de la stratégie, de l’amélioration des processus, du coaching exécutif / de gestion, de la gestion du changement, des logiciels de gestion des actifs d’entreprise et des conseils généraux aux clients. Il détient une certification de CRL (Certified Reliability Leader) et est ingénieur professionnel. Serge est titulaire d’un diplôme en génie mécanique de l’Université Laval à Québec. Il possède plus de 26 ans d’expérience pratique dans les domaines de l’ingénierie, des opérations, de la maintenance, de la gestion d’actifs et de conseil en gestion.
Son expérience inclut:
- Gestion de la maintenance des usines et des installations,
- Élaboration et mise en œuvre de stratégie d’amélioration de la gestion des actifs,
- Gestion des actifs (PAS 55, ISO 5500x)
- Gestion de la fiabilité,
- Détermination et gestion des stocks des pièces de rechange,
- Coût, gestion et analyse du cycle de vie,
- Diagnostics stratégiques,
- Benchmark des meilleures pratiques,
- Refonte des processus de maintenance et de la gestion des stocks,
- Systèmes de gestion des actifs d’entreprise,
- Enseignement et rédaction sur la gestion des actifs.
Serge provides business consulting services in the areas of maintenance and reliability, strategy, process improvement, executive/management coaching, change management, enterprise asset management software, and general client advisory. He is a Certified Reliability Leader and a licensed Professional Engineer. Serge owns a Mechanical Engineering degree from Laval University in Quebec. He has over 26 years of hands-on experience in engineering, operations, maintenance, asset management, and management consulting.
His experience includes:
- Plant and facility maintenance management,
- Physical Asset Management improvement strategy development and implementation,
- Asset Management (PAS 55, ISO 5500x)
- Reliability management and engineering,
- Spares and operating supplies determination and inventory management,
- Life cycle costing, management and analysis,
- Strategic diagnostic assessments,
- Benchmarking for best practices,
- Maintenance and materials management process redesign,
- Enterprise Asset Management systems,
- Teaching and writing on Physical Asset Management.
Robert Jaques
(Raleigh, NC, USA)
Serge provides business consulting services in the areas of maintenance and reliability, strategy, process improvement, executive/management coaching, change management, enterprise asset management software, and general client advisory. He is a Certified Reliability Leader and a licensed Professional Engineer. Serge owns a Mechanical Engineering degree from Laval University in Quebec. He has over 26 years of hands-on experience in engineering, operations, maintenance, asset management, and management consulting.
His experience includes:
- Plant and facility maintenance management,
- Physical Asset Management improvement strategy development and implementation,
- Asset Management (PAS 55, ISO 5500x)
- Reliability management and engineering,
- Spares and operating supplies determination and inventory management,
- Life cycle costing, management, and analysis,
- Strategic diagnostic assessments,
- Benchmarking for best practices,
- Maintenance and materials management process redesign,
- Enterprise Asset Management systems,
- Teaching and writing on Physical Asset Management.
Ghyslain Hubert, PGM
(Montreal, PQ)
Ghyslain est le Président-Directeur-Général, Fondateur et Conseiller Principal de Bonnes Pratiques en Maintenance, BPM Inc, à Saint-Constant (Montréal, Québec, Canada).
Il fournit aux entreprises manufacturières, des services de consultation en gestion des actifs, fiabilité, établissement de stratégies et optimisation des processus de maintenance.
Dans un monde où la gestion des données (Big Data/Data Science) est de plus en plus présente, il fournit des solutions d’outil de gestion automatisée pour l’optimisation des processus de maintenance tel que :
• ICP connectés sur la base de données PGI/GMAO, automatisés, en temps réel pour visualiser l’avancement des travaux et la progression des performances de l’équipe de maintenance.
• Outils de visualisation connectés aux budgets.
• Développement de grilles d’analyse AMDEC, RCM2.
Ghyslain offre aussi les services d’impartition pour couvrir les besoins ponctuels de remplacement au niveau Directeur ou Surintendant de maintenance.
Ceci donne l’opportunité de faire l’implantation des bonnes pratiques en maintenance et d’augmenter l’efficacité (l’efficience) de l’équipe de maintenance.
Il est certifié PGM, Professionnel en Gestion de la Maintenance par l’organisation PEMAC, Association en Gestion des Actifs du Canada.
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Ghyslain is the President and CEO, Founder, and Senior Consultant of Best Practices in Maintenance, BPM Inc, in Saint-Constant (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
He provides consulting services to manufacturing companies, in asset management, reliability, the establishment of strategies, and optimization of maintenance processes.
In a world where data management (Big Data/Data Science) is increasingly present, he provides automated management tool solutions for the optimization of maintenance processes such as:
• KPIs connected to the ERP/CMMS database, automated, in real-time to visualize improvement of workflow and performance progress of the maintenance team.
• Visualization tools connected to budgets.
• Development of FMEA, RCM2 analysis grids.
Ghyslain also offers outsourcing services to cover occasional replacement needs at the Director or Maintenance Superintendent level.
This gives the opportunity to implement good maintenance practices and increase the effectiveness (efficiency) of the maintenance team.
He is certified MMP, Maintenance Management Professional by the PEMAC organization, Asset Management Association of Canada.
Stephen Matthews
(Montreal, PQ)
Stephen is a bilingual change management and maintenance and reliability process improvement specialist based in Montreal. He has a bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, and a diploma in production and inventory management from Dawson College.
He has over 43 years of professional experience and has worked with dozens of companies, assisting them to improve the quality and performance of their people, processes, systems and physical assets.
He has worked in a wide variety of industries throughout Canada, USA and in Russia in SME, supervisory, section and project management, training, coaching, facilitation and consulting roles in engineering, operations, maintenance and IT. Industry sectors include metal and mining, forest products, pulp and paper, rail transportation, bulk port facilities, food and beverage, packaging, printing and distribution.
He ha analyzed millions of data records to identify trends and needs and has applied and tailored SMRP, ILS, Lean, 6σ, PMI best practices.
His experience encompasses all functional areas of discrete and process manufacturing, planning, and scheduling, and reliability & maintenance of physical assets (plant, mobile, linear equipment) impacting health & safety, environment, quality, cost and delivery performance.