About Us

Meet the Pierian Academy Team
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About Pierian Academy

A coming together of like-minded professionals and companies

Team Pierian consists of three partner companies, Andromeda Systems Incorporated, Aspire Consulting Ltd, and TFD Global, coming together to provide decades of experience and knowledge in product support.

We deliver advice, guidance, and support through training and offer consulting services to organizations looking to adopt and implement complex specifications and standards to maximize through-life product support.

Andromeda Systems Incorporated

Andromeda Systems Incorporated

Andromeda Systems Incorporated (ASI) provides tools and services to assist Physical Asset Owners, Fleet Managers, and Military Program Managers in gaining critical insights into their equipment’s performance, identifying system improvements, optimizing operations & support, making better business decisions, and achieving measurable life-cycle cost savings.

As a leading provider of professional and high-technology services and solutions, Andromeda Systems Incorporated serves the Department of Defense, U.S. civilian agencies, and private industry. ASI is an ISO 9001:2015 Certified Veteran-Owned Business.

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Aspire Consulting Limited Logo

Aspire Consulting Ltd

Since its inception in 1996, Aspire Consulting Ltd has been central to the development of the Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) discipline and has developed, applied, and championed a systems approach to ILS and Logistic Support Analysis (LSA). Aspire prides itself on its blend of innovation, pragmatism, and on the thought leadership that it has provided over the last two decades via consultancy, contracts, papers, seminars, and training. Employing its working familiarity with all the major ILS standards – including ASD S-Series, IEC, ISO, SAE, UK Defence Standards (Def Stan) and Joint Service Publications (JSPs) and US Military Standards (Mil-Std) – Aspire Consulting has provided consultancy and training services to the Support Engineering community in the Australasia region, the Araba world,  Europe, the UK, and the USA, to clients ranging from large Original Equipment Manufacturers [OEMs] to Government Departments to Defence SMEs.

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TFD Global

TFD Global

Tools For Decision Global (TFDG) is the world leader in the development of analytical methods and software tools for logistics decision support. If you are a planner, provider, buyer, designer, owner, operator, or maintainer of a hardware system, then TFDG is here to help.

For over 40 years, TFD have been delivering solutions that enable our customers worldwide to make logistics decisions affecting the design, cost, and performance of their systems. With proven experience of military and commercial hardware systems in the air, land, maritime and space environments, we have developed a range of software-based tools and services to help you plan, control, and optimize.

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Our Trainers

Meet Our Team

Our team has developed a unique set of skills and deep domain know-how.

David Nelson

David Nelson, ASI

David Nelson is a Principal Engineer at ASI, with over 16 years of experience leading and performing Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) for multiple projects for the Department of Defense. He also performs RCM for commercial projects including wastewater treatment, rotating equipment (pumps, motors, and compressors), off-highway vehicles, and diesel engines. He is a Certified NAVAIR Level III RCM Analyst and RCM Instructor who has taught over 50 classes and has developed a curriculum for the Department of Defense and Commercial customers since 2006.

David holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and has led several large RCM projects and Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) efforts while providing engineering support to many others. He is also a tutorial instructor for the annual IEEE/ASQ Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS). Mr. Nelson serves as an SAE Reliability (G41) and Health Monitoring (HM-1) committee member for standards in Design for Reliability (DfR), RCM, and Condition Based Maintenance (CBM). He has authored several technical papers on applying RCM, CBM, RCFA, Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics, and Fault Tree Analysis. He is also an American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE), ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), and Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP) Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP).

David is experienced and knowledgeable in the fields of condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines including development, design, testing, and implementation of diagnostic and prognostic algorithms using methodologies described by ISO 17359, ISO 13373, ISO 13374, ISO 13381, and related standards. He is highly skilled in the statistical analysis methods for reliability engineering (Life Data Analysis/Weibull, R&M Trending/Crow – AMSAA), modeling and simulation (Discrete Event Simulation, Functional Block Modeling), measurement system analysis (repeatability and reproducibility), and other applied statistical analysis methods for engineering.

Dennis Pries

Dennis Pries, ASI

Dennis Pries is a Senior Analyst at ASI. Dennis has over twenty years of experience in all facets of Maintenance Supportability. He has performed and supervised major Department of Defense efforts in Level of Repair Analysis (LORA), Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA), and Provisioning projects. He possesses extensive experience in the development of logistics support documentation and source data, such as Logistics Operational Management/User documents, Integrated Logistics Support Plans, User Logistics Support Summaries, Post-Production Support Plans, and Logistics Implementation Plans. He performed Failure Mode Effects Criticality Analysis FMECA and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) analysis for various transportation platforms He has expertise in Integrated Logistics Support (ILS)/LSA/LMI/LPD contract deliverables (BOMs, RPSTLs, IETMS Provisioning Data, and TM data).

Dennis has over 20 years of instructional experience, including curriculum and courseware development. Dennis has instructed over 50 classes that span the spectrum of ILS. Dennis Pries is a certified NAVAIR Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Level II Analyst and Certified Master Training Specialist (MTS).

Chris Rooksberry

Chris Rooksberry, ASI

Chris C. Rooksberry is the Senior RCM Instructor at ASI and has over 21 years of experience instructing RCM and has been involved in over 200 RCM Classes. Additionally, he spent 3 years as the senior military RCM instructor at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) NAS Patuxent River, MD. He has provided RCM Analyst training to over 1,200 Fleet Support Team Engineers/Department of Defense contractors in every major fleet concentration area of the United States including remote site visits to provide training to United States Air Force (USAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF), US Army, and personnel. He also has provided RCM Analyst training to foreign governments and commercial personnel. He has been involved in RCM efforts supporting various military aircraft/production equipment, Data Centers, Power Generation, Building Facilities, and Municipal Water Treatment. Chris is NAVAIR RCM Level III certified, as well as NAVSEA RCM Backfit Level II Certified. He is familiar and proficient with all aspects of MSG III and SAE JA-1012 RCM requirements.

Nick Stevenson

Nick Stevenson, ASI

Nick Stevenson is a Principal Engineer at ASI, with over 10 years of experience in Level of Repair Analysis and Reliability Centered Maintenance. Nick started his career in engineering and maintenance planning over 20 years ago as a nuclear mechanic on ballistic missile submarines in the U.S. Navy. There, he excelled in the position of Engine Room Supervisor where his collateral duties included appointment to the positions of Primary Nuclear-Mechanical Maintenance Coordinator and Machinery Division Training Coordinator for all nuclear-mechanical testing and evaluation. Upon departing from the Navy, Nick was employed with Johnson and Johnson as a Production Engineer for Acuvue contacts where he oversaw and implemented numerous production improvement initiatives while simultaneously completing his undergraduate degree in Nuclear Engineering.

Nick is a Level 3 certified RCM analyst with over 6 years of experience instructing. He is a leading expert on all Level of Repair Analysis software applications, including COMPASS, Opus10, and ASI’s own OptiAM® LORA Modeler.

Walter Whitington

Walter W. Whitington, ASI

Walter W. Whitington is a Maintenance Planning Subject Matter Expert at ASI, with over fifty years of experience in all facets of Integrated Logistics Support. As a United States Marine, Walter served as an Avionics technician, a certified Navy Instructor, and an Acquisition Manager for Automatic Test Equipment and their associated Test Program Sets. Walter supports multiple Department of Defense Program Offices with subject matter expertise in Maintenance Planning, Maintenance Task Analysis, and Level of Repair Analysis.

Walter has extensive experience with instructional techniques and curriculum development. His teaching experience includes 100 classes for over 1,500 students.

Rob Willis

Rob Willis, ASI

Rob Willis is the Vice President of Acquisition Support and Program Management at ASI. Rob served as an Aviation Supply and Operations Officer in the United States Marine Corps before joining ASI. During his 26-year career in the Marine Corps, Rob served numerous tours as a Supply Department Lead and Officer in Charge. His tours included operational and staff commands, allowing him to participate in numerous logistics planning events to support forward-deployed units.

Rob’s instructional experience includes the development of several courses, including the Design Interface/Maintenance Planning Course, Product Support Analysis Course, and the Maintenance Task Analysis Course. Rob has over 20 years of instructional experience including certification as a Master Training Specialist from the US Navy.

Vijay Chachra

Vijay Chachra, ASI

Vijay Chachra is the Vice President of International Product Support with ASI. Vijay has over 30 years of experience with US DOD LSA standards, software tools, consulting, and training using MIL-STD-1388 2B, UK DEF STAN 0060, and GEIA-STD-0007B, including over 11 years of S-Series experience. Mr. Chachra has tracked the evolution of PLCS and then the S3000L specification since the 0.1 release in 2009. He is well versed with UML and XML modeling and data exchange methodologies and was a member of the review and planning initiative with Pennant International group from 2009-2011. He also has a deep knowledge of the S5000F Specification having been a member of the committee since 2012. He has contributed to the development of both issue 1.0 and 2.0 releases of this specification. Vijay has developed and delivered over 30 classes in all facets of Integrated Logistics Support.

Jill Burbank

Jill Burbank, ASI

Jill is a Logistician III with 20+ years of aeronautics experience in engineering, training, and logistics support. She is now serving as a primary instructor specializing in Environmental, Safety and Occupational Health; Logistics Product Data; Maintenance Planning and Maintenance Task Analysis.

Jill is a strong believer in positive thinking in the workplace, her years of experience puts her in the position to constantly move forward, keep learning, and teach others along the way.

Peter Stuttard

Peter Stuttard, Aspire Consulting

Peter has been involved in Defence support for all of his working life, initially in the Army and then as a specialist in Supportability Engineering. He has worked in the Maritime, Land and Air Environments, he has significant experience in working with Defence organisations including the UK MoD, overseas Governments, and Prime Contractors in places as diverse as the UK, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa, and Turkey.

He has extensive experience as a lecturer and trainer in Supportability Engineering; he has been actively engaged in the development and training of US and UK Defence Standards, including ASD S-Series specifications. Peter has trained a great number of MOD, Armed Services, and Defence industry personnel around the world, up to the Post Graduate level, having lectured on a range of Post Graduate degree courses.

As an Army veteran, Peter served in the UK, Canada (BATUS), and Germany maintaining Army and Commando aircraft, he has operated on land and at sea, having deployed on Royal Navy [RN] and Royal Fleet Auxiliary [RFA] vessels.

Lee Fitzsimons

Lee Fitzsimons, Aspire Consulting

Lee is a Director and support engineer with Aspire Consulting. He is the product lead for Aspire’s reliability-centered maintenance and training development services and acts as the focal point for Aspire’s involvement in the Pierian Academy.

A former aircraft mechanical technician with the Royal Air Force, after his service career was cut short by a sporting injury, Lee joined Aspire to become a support engineer. Lee has contributed to and led reliability-centered maintenance analyses, and wider logistic support analysis projects in the Air and Maritime environments on behalf of the user/operator community and industry.

Lee is a UK industry representative within the S-Series community, contributing to the steering committees responsible for SX000i, S4000P, and S6000T.

Lee was the product owner of Aspire’s supporting engineering software tool, A*, leading a multidisciplinary team consisting of analysts, software engineers, and customers, to develop and sell a homegrown tool. Lee has developed and delivered several training courses in topics including reliability-centered maintenance, Defense Systems Approach to Training, the S-Series, and others.

Allen Goody

Allan Goody, TFD Global

Allan Goody is the President of TFD Global and a Retired Royal Air Force (RAF) Air Commodore, with over 40 years’ experience of Strategic and Technical Management in Engineering, Logistics and Training. He has a vast knowledge of Land, Sea and Air Acquisition Projects and is an expert is Supportability Analysis and Reliability Centred Maintenance.

Allans notable roles include Deputy Team Leader and Chief Engineer of the UK MODs Nimrod Project Team, he Commanded the Engineering and Supply Wing at RAF Leuchars for Tornado and was the Technical Director of Aspire Consulting Ltd providing Supportability Engineering and Training consultancy services to a wide customer base, including analysis of the RAF Chinook and Merlin Support Helicopters to identify significant benefits and waste reduction to the Programme.

Amongst the many professional qualifications held by Allan, he is an accredited UK Cabinet Office Gateway Review Team Leader for High Risk projects, an Ancien of the NATO Defence College Senior Course, a graduate of the Defence Strategic Leadership Programme at the Defence Academy & Cranfield University, the RAF Staff College, and holds both a Master’s Degree from Kings College, London and an aeronautical engineering degree from Imperial College, London

Bill Blatch

Bill Blatch, TFD Global

Bill Blatch is the TFD Global Technical Director, with 40 years’ experience in Management, Programme Development, Research and Project Planning. He is a former Royal Airforce Avionics Technician who specialised in database management for logistics analysis. He was the Database Administrator and data manager of the central DLO Logistics Analysis & Research Organisation (LARO) responsible for the collation, storage, maintenance, and quality of all data used for logistics modelling across all Air platforms and the transition towards the Land domain.

Of note, Bill has conducted Modelling and Analysis of Supportability within UK Military Flying System (UKMFTS) and has been instrumental in the support of a European Partner Company to configure their comprehensive military ERP system and customer data to support Lockheed-Martin F16, F-35 and C-130 fleets across several international customers.

Bill is highly proficient in the use and methodology behind SQL Server, Oracle 9i, Cisco Networking, UML 2.0 and is currently researching emerging Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Large Data, Decision Support Optimization and Simulation processes and autonomic support/supply intervention. He is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Fergus Hawkins

Fergus Hawkins, TFD Global

Fergus Hawkins is the Vice President of TFD (Europe), with over 30 years’ experience in Asset Management and Product Support gained whilst serving within the Royal Air Force (RAF) and as a Civilian Contractor within UK Defence Project Teams and Industry Partnerships. He is responsible for Business Development, Software Sales, and Consultancy Services in the Asset Management & Product Supportability domain.

Fergus has considerable experience in Defence Acquisition Projects, including first-hand knowledge of Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade activity, as well as LSAR and Support Publications expertise. He has managed teams employed on a multitude of high-profile UK Defence Platforms such as C17, Buccaneer, Jaguar, Sea King, Tornado, A400M and Poseidon.

Fergus holds an Honours Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, an MSc in Quality, Reliability & Maintainability from the Warwick Manufacturing Group and an MSc in Information, Management & Technology from Cranfield University. He is Prince 2 (Foundation & Practitioner), APMP and Agile PM Qualified and is also an Interviewer/Assessor of Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Incorporated Engineer (IEng) candidates for the Institute of Engineering & Technology, (IET)

Simon Pethick

Simon Pethick, TFD Global

Simon Pethick is a Senior Supportability Modeller, Analyst and Consultant at TFG (Europe), with over 25 years of Supply Chain experience gathered within the UK Defence Sector. He is a former UK Armed Forces Logistician, specialising in Inventory Management, Provisioning, Facilities and Physical Logistics, with an in-depth knowledge of the UK Defence Logistic Framework, Defence Standards and MOD Inventory Management Systems.

Simon has Consulted on the MODs Hawk Integrated Service Support Contract in partnership with BAE Systems and is well versed in Contract Deliverables, Performance Indicators and Commercial Negotiations as well as being a seasoned Logistic Data Analyst and Provisioner.

Simon holds Qualifications in Leadership & Management, Logistics, Project Management and Health and Safety. He is a Chartered Manager and a Member of the Chartered Institute for Logistics (CILT) UK.