Mark Sanders

As a Principal of Alpha3, Mark provides leadership on some of our largest projects, provides training, and supports company management and business development. While he enjoys these roles, Mark does not let his position as a Principal keep him from continuing to engage directly in field work. He has been serving as the Project Controls Manager on the GenOn Conemaugh waste-water-treatment plant expansion for the past year.

Mark has designed and implemented project controls programs on small and large projects and at the enterprise level. His approach to project controls is results oriented.

“I focus on finding the most efficient solution to deliver real results in cost and schedule management. That means that our clients have the information that they need to make timely and accurate decisions, without getting bogged down by systems that become a burden without providing the information that they need to manage their projects.”

Since 2006, Mark has worked extensively for GenOn Energy. He started supporting long-term outage planning, then moved on to support planning of the spring 2007 outages at Lovett Generating Station in Tompkins Cove, NY. Mark served briefly as Operations Coordinator at Lovett, and later worked on the Dickerson FGD project in Maryland. He then supported the spring 2009 outages at Dickerson and began work on the WWT project at Conemaugh station.

Mark says that he is most satisfied when he is working with clients to deliver complex programs efficiently, using the latest available project management tools to leverage industry-specific experience and complete projects on time and on budget. His personal goal at Alpha3 is to continue to deliver truly world-class project controls to our expanding list of clients.

Mark identified two major projects as career highlights to date—the Dickerson FGD project and the Marquette Interchange Program. Mark served as Program Controls Manager on the $810-million Marquette Interchange Reconstruction Program in Milwaukee, WI. The project was the largest ever undertaken by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, and it was completed three months ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget. More recently, Mark served as Project Controls Manager on the Dickerson Flue Gas Desulfurization Project and provided a variety of services at the two other power stations included in this $1.7 billion program. All of the scrubbers went into service prior to the required compliance date at the end of 2009.

Mark is honored by GenOn CEO Ed Muller and SVP Jim Garlick for his work on the Dickerson FGD Project.

In addition to his current assignment at Conemaugh, Mark is working on managing an enterprise-wide project controls program for Altran Solutions. The program involves the development of a standard set of project metrics for the management of transmission and distribution, nuclear, fossil, petrochemical, and technology projects throughout the United States.

Mark has extensive experience in forensic scheduling and dispute resolution. He is recognized as an expert in CPM scheduling, including forensic schedule analysis and productivity analysis. He has contributed to published recommended practices as a subject matter expert; presented at court-ordered mediation proceedings; has been recognized as an expert witness; and has testified in deposition and at trial.

Mark routinely presents papers at the AACE International and Project Management Institute Scheduling Community of Practice conferences. He has been authoring a series of papers that present textbook examples of forensic schedule analysis techniques in order to facilitate industry consensus on the analysis of schedule impacts. Mark has presented two of these papers at AACE International’s Annual Meetings, and he will present the third in San Antonio in July. The second paper in the series was published in the January 2012 issue of Cost Engineering.

Mark attended Villanova University and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering. While his work now is more focused in engineering and construction project management, Mark admits that he misses the rewards of design at times, and he looks for opportunities to apply his engineering training. For example, Mark appreciated the opportunity to design a small retaining wall to address a problematic grade change at Dickerson Generating Station between the scrubber booster fans and the railroad tracks used to supply limestone and remove gypsum from the scrubber system.

Another focus of Mark’s work at Alpha3 has been the development of our training courses. Mark has developed courses on CPM scheduling and cost control, along with a review course for the PSP certification. Mark has provided training to clients including Altran Solutions, GenOn Energy, and Orbital Sciences.

Mark is always looking for the next challenge for himself and for Alpha3. He is looking to expand on our vision of matching industry experience with world-class project controls expertise to deliver successful projects for Alpha3’s clients. After five years of work at Alpha3, Mark comments, “I enjoy the variety of clients and the work that we do.