Robinson, Stafford & Rude Team Leaders

Don H. Stafford, PE, CVS-Life
President

Don Stafford is a founding partner in Robinson, Stafford & Rude, Inc., currently serving the firm as President and as a Senior Project Manager.

Don’s professional career includes 40 years of experience in the planning, management, design, Value Engineering and construction of public and private capital projects across North America. For 25 years, he has been managing and leading Value Management, Value Analysis and Value Engineering studies, conducting more than 300 value studies. Complementing his Value Engineering experience is more than 15 years of additional experience in planning, management, design and construction of civil works projects. He is a registered civil engineer in four states and a Life-Certified, Certified Value Specialist. Don's employment experience has included public agencies (owners), designers, value engineers and contractors, providing him with a particularly broad range of perspectives on capital project issues.

Don’s Value Engineering study experience includes: roads and bridges; water and wastewater conveyance; storage and treatment facilities; and drainage facilities; as well as buildings for schools, libraries, health care, vehicle maintenance, and barracks. His diverse project experience also includes more unusual projects such as TV broadcast stations, missile maintenance facilities, medical and laboratory facilities and comprehensive water quality management programs. He has conducted Value Engineering studies on projects and programs with capital costs ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to $1.5 billion.

He is particularly adept at conducting Value Engineering studies on water and wastewater facilities, with extensive experience in this arena as an owner, designer and Value Engineering specialist.

He is also experienced in the application of Value Engineering to the improvement of business systems and procedures. These have included purchasing processes, capital project management systems, revenue enhancement programs, and record management systems. His project experience includes work for clients in the U.S. and Canada.

Mr. Stafford is also expert at facilitating workshops of other types, including constructability reviews, alternatives analysis workshops, decision-making workshops, planning workshops, peer reviews, and project initiation workshops.

Finally, he is in demand as an instructor in the Value Analysis and Value Engineering processes. He has taught numerous courses in Value Engineering for both public and private organizations, ranging in duration from one to six days, across North America.

Don has been involved in the Value Engineering professional organization, SAVE International, as chapter president, Regional Vice President and as a national board member for SAVE International. He has authored several papers on both engineering topics and Value Management.

Esther (Sam) Stafford, RN, AVS
Vice President

Esther (Sam) Stafford is a partner in Robinson, Stafford & Rude, Inc., currently serving the company as Vice President, chief financial officer and as a project manager. Sam has 5 years of Value Engineering and Value Management experience. Her previous project experience includes healthcare systems, public agency administrative systems, record-keeping/archive systems, children’s welfare programs, water and wastewater treatment, pipelines & tunnels, environmental restoration, highways, parks, fish hatcheries, Military facilities, maintenance facilities, SCADA, stormwater facilities, pumping facilities, and railroads, across North America.

She is certified by SAVE, International as an Associate Value Specialist (AVS). Her experience includes more than 35 VE studies. Prior to her current role with RSRI, Ms. Stafford had a more than 20-year career in the healthcare industry as a registered nurse. She also has a U.S. Coast Guard-issued captain’s license.

Ms. Stafford is an active member in SAVE International and is a published author on Value Engineering applied at the personal level.

Jim Mohart, PE, CVS-Life
Senior Consultant

Jim Mohart serves the firm as a senior consultant. His professional career spans more than 35 years and includes experience in the planning, design and Value Engineering of public and private capital projects throughout the US. For the past 30 years he has been participating in and leading Value Engineering studies. His experience includes more than 250 VE assignments on a wide variety of projects. Complementing his Value Engineering experience is more than 10 years of experience in the design, equipment submittals review, and standards development for civil works projects. He holds a BS in civil engineering and a master’s degree in environmental health. He is a registered civil engineer and a Life-Certified, Certified Value Specialist.

Jim’s Value Engineering experience includes power generation and large civil projects such as pumping stations, intakes and pipelines associated with water supply and water treatment facilities, industrial large civil projects, petrochemical process plants, power generating facilities and transportation projects. He has conducted VE studies for many large and unique projects including nine VE studies for the $550 million Tampa Bay Water, water supply/treatment project, two VE studies of the Panama Canal that developed repair techniques for the largest reconstruction project on the canal in the past 50 years, three studies for a $2.0 billion gas plant that included parallel 48 inch and 54 inch pipelines approximately 120 miles long operating at 960 psi, a study for a 3,000 psi oil field seawater injection plant, and numerous service facilities such as vehicle and equipment maintenance centers.

Jim has used his in-depth VE experience to help pioneer the Value Planning process, and conduct strategic planning meetings and constructability reviews using the VE process. He has combined VE studies with constructibility reviews when projects are in the latter stages of design, or when design is complete. He has conducted introductory classes in Value Engineering for practicing engineers in the public and private sector and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Kansas.

Jim is a member of SAVE, International and has written a number of papers on Value Engineering. He is currently preparing a book on Value Engineering to be published in 2008.