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Timothy L. Nieman
TIM NIEMAN is President of Decision Applications, Inc., a San Francisco area based decision analysis consulting firm. His firm performs decision and risk analysis for various organizations facing complex decision problems. His recent oil and gas consulting work includes risk analysis of deepwater pipeline routing; portfolio analysis for budgeting E&P R&D portfolios; and development of methods for assessing new basin entry opportunities. Other recent work includes development of remediation and reuse strategies for impaired properties, including former refineries, manufacturing facilities and pipelines; numerous projects for the Yucca Mountain proposed nuclear waste repository; work for the US Geological Survey on mountain top coal mining; and cancer causation modeling for national health organizations. He teaches various courses on decision analysis and quantitative modeling.
Mr. Nieman was formerly Senior Decision Analyst for Geomatrix Consultants, an Oakland based geotechnical and environmental engineering consulting firm. He performed decision and risk analysis for various organizations facing complex decision problems.
Previously, he was Director of Operations for Lumina Decision Systems, a decision analysis consulting and software firm. Prior to that, he spent 14 years with Amoco as a geophysicist, economist, and risk and portfolio analyst. He has a B.S. in geology and an M.S. in geophysics from Michigan State University, and an MBA from Rice University.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Geomatrix Consultants, Oakland, CA, 2001 to 2007, Senior Decision Analyst
- Lead on numerous projects involving site strategic remediation and redevelopment planning of impaired properties for various private sector clients. Responsible for project lead, client management, coordination and facilitation of all technical meetings, and development of conceptual and decision analytical modeling. Technically complex problems typically required extensive simulation based modeling.
- Lead or co-lead on three large portfolio analysis projects to develop major work plans and R&D programs for the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. Projects utilized a multi-attribute utility analysis approach to develop defensible cost-effective portfolios for $billion level work programs. Projects required successful management of significant organizational complexity.
- Lead on large project for the USGS, examining the impact on downstream water supplies of mountain top coal mining. Project and model development requires management and integration of expertise across multiple disciplines inside and outside the USGS.
- Lead analyst on projects to evaluate risks of deepwater pipeline routing for major oil company clients. Analyses included quantification of likelihood and consequences of pipeline failure, and development of mitigation and contingency plans.
- Designed and launched internet-based health risk analysis applications, including tools for assessing public health risks due to nuclear fallout from above-ground nuclear tests and for assessing radiation causation of cancers for workers in nuclear weapons facilities. Developed large simulation models and web front-end to allow user friendly public access for potentially affected individuals to run complicated risk models via the web.
- Retained as the lead instructor for decision analysis and quantitative modeling for Lumina Decision Systems’ Analytica software. Also conduct focused DA training workshops for clients requiring parallel real time problem-solving of client problems and DA training of critical staff.
Lumina Decision Systems, Los Gatos, CA, 1999 – 2001 Director of Operations
- As Director of Operations for a decision analysis software and consulting company, responsible for both operations and consulting. Managed a team of internal and external consultants providing decision analytical solutions to corporations and government organizations. Successfully managed the launch of new software products, developing product content, marketing and distribution strategies, and customer support processes.
- Direct consulting work included decision analysis applications for:
- Manufacturing: capital investment and production floor simulation models
- Telecommunications: large-scale satellite configuration decisions
- Financial: asset backed securities and portfolio risk models
- E-commerce: financial forecasting and new business analyses
- Legal: web-enabled decision advisor application for structured settlements
- Customer relationship management: regression, K-means clustering, and CART (classification and regression tree) data mining applications
- Designed and conducted all decision analysis and business modeling courses
Amoco Corporation, Houston, TX, 1985-1999
Project General Manager, Portfolio Growth, 1998-1999
- Designed and developed decision analysis methods to assess new basin-entry opportunities for oil exploration ventures. Incorporated environmental, technical, political, and market factors to model and assess the potential risks and benefits for major strategic and financial commitments. Methods, based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process, produced country/basin rankings and insights into key drivers for long-term success.
Planning and Budget Coordinator, Strategic Exploration, 1995-1998
- Designed and developed a suite of decision tools for evaluating short-term and long-term R&D investments for E&P. Methods of analysis included portfolio analyses of the entire R&D program, detailed financial valuations of individual projects using value of information approaches, and qualitative ranking methods for simple comparison of competing projects. Tools were used to prioritize and allocate annual R&D budgets and to guide development of R&D programs.
Financial Analyst, Worldwide Exploration, 1992-1993
- Senior economist on numerous projects for Asia region; including development of regional economic evaluations for Northwest Shelf Australia exploration plays, detailed project economic analyses for Asia project teams (Pakistan, China), evaluation of Asia fiscal regimes, and the lead role in converting economic modeling from Lotus to Excel.
Lead Geophysicist, W Texas, Burma, and Egypt Teams, 1985-1992, and 1993-1995
- Led seismic mapping efforts and lead generation in all three projects. Identified new prospects in the Gulf of Suez and developed ranking models to prioritize. Designed and executed $35-million seismic exploration program in Burma; also spent four months in the Burma jungle as Chief Geophysicist in charge of seismic operations.
EDUCATION
Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Management, Houston, Texas. MBA – Finance, 1998. • GPA: 4.1/4.0, Rank: 1 of 125 • Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. M.S. - Geophysics, 1985. • Master’s Thesis of the Year – Geological Sciences
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. B.S. - Geological Sciences, 1983.
PUBLICATIONS
Articles
Technical Papers Nieman, T., Fujita, K., and Rogers, W. 1986. "Teleseismic Mislocation of Earthquakes in Island Arcs— Theoretical Results.” Journal of Physics of the Earth.
Schnietz, K., and Nieman, T. 2000. “Case Study: The 1997 Derailment of Fast Track Trade Authority.” Case Research Journal.
Schnietz, K., and Nieman, T. 1999. “Politics Matter: Business, Labor and the 1997 Derailment of Fast Track Trade Authority.” Business and Politics.
Recent Presentations
Nieman, T. 2005. “Developing a Site-wide Remediation Strategy for a Contaminated Perchlorate Site.” Presented at the 2005 annual INFORMS meeting in San Francisco, California.
Nieman, T. 2005. “Case Study: Understanding and Managing Uncertainty in Remediation.” Presented at 2005 EPA Triad Conference in Arlington, Virginia.
Nieman, T., Warner, S. 2005. “Strategic Decision Tools: Development of a Site Strategy Using Hydrogeologic and Engineering Tools.” Presented at 2005 Theis Conference in Sedona, Arizona.
Nieman, T., Jenni, K., Beesley, J., Blink, J., Duguid, J., Goldstein, B., Monib, A. 2004. “Decision Analysis Process Used to Develop a Performance Confirmation Plan.” Presented at the 2004 annual INFORMS meeting in Denver, Colorado.
Nieman, T. 2003. “Tools for Analysis of Remediation / Redevelopment Options.” Presented at the 2003 Brownfields conference in Portland, Oregon.
Nieman, T., and Brooks, D. 2002. “Facility Safety and Terrorism Risks for Above-ground Storage Tanks.” Presented at the Above-ground Storage Tank conference in Orlando, Florida.
PROFESSIONAL
Decision Analysis Society (INFORMS, Institute for Operations Management and the Management Sciences)
Decision Analysis Affinity Group, Society of Petroleum Engineers
Special Software and Language Skills: Analytica, Analytica Decision Engine, Expert Choice, Crystal Ball, HTML, Active Server Pages, SQL, VBScript, JavaScript.