The Oil and Gas Practice of Decision Strategies, Inc generates value for its industry clients through decision analysis and risk analysis support, providing consultation, training, and software. The company uses industry best-practice methods to assure that results are consistent and realistic, and their methods are unique within the industry.

Dr. Brown (BS with Distinction in Geology, Duke University, MS, PhD, University of South Carolina) has more than 24 years industry experience, more than half of which is in this specific field. He is a Certified Petroleum Geologist, and during his career he has been involved in the assessment of chance of success, volumes, and value for literally hundreds of prospects, concessions, and plays worldwide.

Dr. Brown and his colleagues have used @RISK to build and market a unique collection of powerful and flexible Excel models that analyze prospects, plays, and other exploration opportunities. He has found that @RISK’s unlimited model size capacity, ease of use, and charting power add tremendous value to his analyses.

Dr. Cooper has served 15 years as a mathematician in energy technology planning and defense weapons systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has also served as energy economist for the U.S. Treasury Department where he based in Saudi Arabia as advisor at the Ministry of Finance. He has prepared expert testimony for rate cases before the California Public Utilities Commission. Currently, Dr. Cooper serves as a business consultant to electric and gas utilities and as an instructor in managerial finance and economics and ethics at Patten College, Oakland, CA. He has a background in teaching technical subjects in a way that is understandable to those with little or no technical backgrounds. He is adept at finding practical solutions to complex business problems.

Education: PhD, Economics, UC Berkeley; Certificate, Mechanical Engineering, UC Davis.

Decision Strategies is an international consulting group focused on creating and enabling client capabilities in decision-making, strategic planning, and project prioritization. DSI's primary purpose is to enhance the business value and work culture of their clients by enabling them to build and continuously improve internal capabilities in strategy development, decision-making, and implementation of results. DSI has offices in Houston, Atlanta, and Calgary with partners in other locations around the world.

Decision Strategies is unlike any other management consulting or training firm. DSI partners have broad-based experience and in-depth business knowledge gained from careers in the business world. DSI combines business knowledge with experience using Integrated Decision Management® methodology for conducting and implementing decision focused engagements within large organizations. DSI offers a transparent approach to quickly begin adding value to engagements and coaching roles with clients.

Contact: Gerald A. Bush
Office: (770) 392-1155
Decision Strategies, Inc.
7760 Sagebrush Drive
Atlanta, GA 30350-4734

Contact: David Skinner
Office: (713) 465-2345
Toll-free: (888) 343-6217
Decision Strategies, Inc.
11111 Katy Freeway – Suite 910
Houston, Texas 77079

Decision Strategies Canada, Inc.
Office: (403) 303-2886
300, 400 5th Ave. S.W.
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2P 0L6

Discern provides consulting services to satisfy the needs of the ever-changing U.S. healthcare industry.  Discern helps its clients in all aspects of transforming the healthcare system to improve its functionality and efficiency.

Specializing in the areas of pay-for-performance and decision analysis, Discern offers unique expertise in assisting our clients with the development and execution of several successful, national pay-for-performance programs.  We have developed numerous customizable, analytical tools for use in implementing these programs, such as ROI calculators, risk analysis, feasibility/readiness assessments, and benefit forecasting analysis (Quality Analysis).

In addition to our analytical expertise, Discern also provides services in project management, organization management, and strategic planning.  Visit our website, www.discernconsulting.com, for more information.

Guy D’Andrea
President, Discern Consulting
1501 Sulgrave Avenue, Suite 302
Baltimore, MD 21209

Tayo Fabusuyi has more than a decade of experience in the field of Operations Research and is currently the lead analyst at Numeritics where he sets the direction for the firm’s Strategy and Operations Management Unit. His expertise in MCDA has been utilized in determining how banks can minimize exposure to various forms of risks while maintaining the appropriate combination of asset and liability that maximizes shareholders’ wealth. It has also been applied in the manufacturing sector where he has conceptualized and implemented MCDA models that align firm’s operational activities with their strategic goals.

Tayo graduated with highest distinction from Carnegie Mellon University with a M.Sc. in Public Policy and Analysis and a concentration in Information Systems and Management Science. He also received a M.Phil degree in Economics from the University of Oxford where he was an American Institute of Economic Research Fellow. He has given presentations at various forums on productivity and resource allocation issues and is an active member of INFORMS.

For the past forty years, David Eller has led business growth projects requiring cost reduction programs, financial risk simulation, establishing new profit centers, and corporate financing. Called a “cost cutting and financial growth strategist,” David is a popular national writer about new strategies for coping with the weak economy. While working in industry, he was the Director of Business Development and Strategic Studies for Gulf Oil Corporation. Before joining Gulf, he was the Senior Wall Street government securities trader and investment advisor with Bank of New York Mellon.

The Investment Banking Simulator is the only real-world, employment and job assignment simulator for the Investment Banking Industry… both in practice and accountability. Users have the opportunity to learn, build experience, and master the skills commensurate of the industry’s entry level analyst position, as an industry analyst, before ever having set foot in an investment bank.

Financial Modeling, Leveraged Buy Out and DCF Modeling, Accretion/Dilution, Pitching, Full Merger Modeling… if it’s a skill needed in an Investment Bank’s Corporate Finance Department, a user can tackle it. Further, as one’s experience grows, so does one’s e-portfolio showcasing their completed assignments and reviewer assessments; the perfect objective marketing tool to set one apart from any would-be job competition.

So, be a level above your competition. Have skills proficiency previously unseen in new industry entrants and even master advanced risk analysis and Monte Carlo simulation tools such as @RISK and The DecisionTools Suite. With the Investment Banking Simulator, the only limit to the amount of experience one can gain is the amount of time they choose to invest; placing the user with unprecedented and complete control over their marketable level of experience and professional qualifications. Finally, you’re in control!

Dr. McKibbin is a consultant to management specializing in strategic and operational planning, business modeling, risk analysis, financial engineering, systems integration, process design, project management, due diligence, turnarounds, executive coaching, and team leadership.

Dr. McKibbin's client list includes names such as Intel, Oracle, Chevron, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Pfeizer, Guggenheim Capital, and others.

Dr. McKibbin has been in professional practice serving companies, boards, and executives in various capacities as consultant, director, and interim management since 1998.

MCR LLC is a professional services firm founded in 1977 to provide integrated program management support services to domestic government agencies, and through its subsidiary MCR Technologies, to private organizations and foreign entities.  We specialize in cost/schedule analysis, acquisition management, program and technical assessment, and financial management.  Our offices are located across the country in close proximity to our clients.  MCR’s outstanding staff of more than 300 professionals has educational backgrounds with synergistic skill sets in diverse areas including engineering, economics, mathematics/statistics, operations research, and computer science.  The MCR Training Institute offers a wide variety of courses in the company’s core competencies.

Contact:Jason Dechoretz
2000 Corporate Ridge, Suite 400
McLean, VA   22102

Contact: Neal D. Hulkower, Ph.D.
210 12th St S., Suite 806
Arlington, VA   22202

Contact: Ken Thomson
22299 Exploration Dr., Suite 104
Lexington Park, MD  20653

Experience: Don started Mettler Consulting in 1998 to provide high quality technical consulting services to their clients. Their clients come from a variety of industries; this includes aerospace, pharmaceutical, consumer products, financial, manufacturing, technology, and insurance. His Palisade skills focus on the implementation of Excel-based models in production environments where the power of models can be utilized by many. This is accomplished in two ways. First, through the use of the Palisade developer kits, Excel models are replicated using technologies such as C# or VB.NET, into a callable component. These components can then be exposed to applications that run on many different computers or to web based applications. The enables the power of your business models to be shared among an unlimited number of users. For example Don designed and built an inventory optimization model that interfaced directly with an ordering system to adjust order quantities based on the model's findings using Palisade's @RISK and Evolver developer kits. Second, models can be rolled out to many users by standardizing, enhancing, and stabilizing existing Excel models. This way many individual similar models can be combined into a best-of-breed model and then deployed to groups working together.

Don is a graduate of University of Colorado at Boulder and resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Don Mettler, President
Mettler Consulting, Inc.
5700 Spur Circle
Norcross, GA 30092
USA

Jim Murtha, a registered petroleum engineer, presents seminars and training courses and advises clients in building probabilistic models in risk analysis and decision making. Jim is an industry-recognized expert on risk and decision analysis; he was elected to Distinguished Membership in SPE in 1999, the recipient of the 1998 SPE Award in Economics and Evaluation, and was 1996-7 SPE Distinguished Lecturer in Risk and Decision Analysis. Since 1992, over 4500 professionals have taken his classes.  SPE has further honored Jim by choosing him as the principal author of the Chapter on Risk and Decision Analysis in the new edition of the SPE Petroleum Engineering Handbook.  He has published Decisions Involving Uncertainty - An @RISK Tutorial for the Petroleum Industry.  In 25 years of academic experience, he chaired a math department, taught petroleum engineering, served as academic dean of a college, and co-authored two texts in mathematics and statistics. Jim has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the U of Wisconsin, a MS in petroleum & natural gas engineering from Penn State, and a BS in mathematics from Marietta College.

Areas of Expertise: Risk Management, Strategic Business Analysis, Operations Analysis, and Decision Analysis.
Since 1994, Mr. Slezak and the FinEx Company have provided clients with strategic consulting services built upon Palisade’s suite of software tools, especially @RISK, RISKOptimizer, and StatTools. Using these powerful risk simulation and analytical programs, FinEx Company provides clients a full range of sophisticated strategic planning services. Clients include health care institutions, investment management companies, agribusiness, commodities traders, and non-profit organizations.

Besides modeling and simulating business and financial operations, Mr. Slezak has prepared asset allocation studies for investment firms and developed commodities trading strategies for agribusiness industry. He has modeled and simulated multi-million dollar hedging strategies in fixed income, equities, commodities, and derivatives. FinEx Company is known globally for excellence and thoroughness.

FinEx Company has also taught clients the art and science of computer modeling and simulation using @RISK and other software tools.

Representative Projects:
2007 – Developed strategic business plans and financial analyses for major health care system and medical clinics; helped direct several successful efforts for millions of dollars of private placements of bond financing for major capital projects.
2006 – Analyzed market and production operations for start-up alternative energy company. Modeled structured finance for capital projects and strategic studies in health care industry. Modeled fixed income securities and portfolios.
2005 – Numerous structured finance projects and strategic studies in the health care industry.
2004 – Strategic financial analysis of business opportunities for aviation company moving into new business line. Modeled strategies for commodities traders in Chicago. Analyzed risk management strategies of derivatives trading firm. Analyzed $300 million hedging strategy in bonds and fixed income derivatives.
2003 – Simulated performance of high school math students in a large public school system. Modeled stock price sensitivity to changes in interest rates for publicly traded company.

Qualifications:
Steven Slezak holds an MBA in Finance and a graduate certificate in investment management from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Slezak is a member of the adjunct faculty of finance and mathematics at the California State Polytechnic University. He also taught in the Finance Department at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. He took a BS in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1981.

Areas of Expertise: Financial and Economic Modeling and Simulation for Forecasting.

William Strauss is the President and founder of FutureMetrics, LLC. He brings more than thirty-five years of strategic planning, project management, data analysis, and modeling experience into the company’s stock of knowledge capital. FutureMetrics specializes in creating custom stochastic models for forecasting future outcomes. We have provided key metrics for projects in many sectors and areas including financial services, commodity pricing, aviation, resort development, land use, and alternative energy.

The FutureMetrics’ team covers many areas of expertise. Bill’s professional history includes executive positions as director, president, and senior vice president, as well as positions as senior analyst and field coordinator. He has an MBA (specializing in Finance) and a PhD (Economics). Bill is a member of the New England Complex Systems Institute, a member of the Eastern Economics Association, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a founding Principle Partner of Maine Alternative Energy, LLC, is an Executive Consultant for Aviation Management Systems, Inc., and is President of Lightval Mines, Limited.