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Steve Pitaniello

Senior Managing Director

Photograph of Steve Pitaniello

140 Sherman Street, 4th Floor
Fairfield, CT 06824

+1.203.319.6900 Main
+1.203.319.6901 Direct
+1.203.722.0813 Mobile

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Steve Pitaniello is a Senior Managing Director at Ankura. Steve is a registered professional engineer with 30 years of diverse construction, engineering, and consulting experience. His experience includes management consulting, construction claims analysis and dispute resolution support services, capital project and program advisory services, and integrity monitoring services. His advisory experience includes organizational and capital program management consulting as well as advisory services through the life cycle of a given capital project.  His construction dispute consulting experience includes the preparation and analysis of various complex delay, acceleration, loss of productivity, disputed extra work, and design E&O claims. Steve has authored expert reports and offered expert testimony in deposition, arbitration and trial, as well as assisting clients in mediation and settlement negotiations.

Experience

Steve’s prior experience as a commissioned officer in the USAF’s Civil Engineering Group, a Superintendent with Turner Construction, and a Project Manager with a Heating & Air Conditioning contractor provided him experience in design, construction management, contract administration, scheduling, construction cost accounting, and operations management.

A sampling of Steve’s project experience includes:

Capital Project Advisory and Management Consulting

  • Reviewed and recommended improvements to a public corporation’s internal policies and procedures guiding its capital projects to mitigate risk and improve overall processes.
  • Evaluated a public agency’s 10-year capital plan to reduce the quantity of non-revenue producing projects, reprioritizing existing projects, and establishing new priorities to maximize the effectiveness of the capital plan.
  • Provides construction advisory services to a diagnostic laboratory for its commercial office and laboratory projects ranging from renovations to new construction.
  • Providing management consulting services to a multi-family and mixed-use developer. The consulting services included organizational structure, the development of policies and procedures and standardized reporting.
  • Assisted a national residential developer with its baseline schedules for three new high-rise projects. The reviews were to determine technical accuracy and reasonableness of each schedule.

Construction Claims and Disputes

  • Provides technical analysis of construction claims for the CT DOT. These services include performing schedule delay analyses, analyzing productivity claims, performing damages analyses, and providing dispute resolution support and expert testimony.
  • Assisted a public utility with the analysis of contractors’ claims for productivity loss and schedule delay associated with an underground transmission line. The expert analyses were captured in two separate expert reports and Steve testified to his findings in trial.
  • Performed a delay, technical issue, and damage analysis in defense of a claim brought by the masonry contractor involving the construction of a new multi-facility prison complex. He offered expert testimony in arbitration.
  • Assisted the construction manager with the analysis impacts to the renovation of a college at an Ivy League university. The impacts related to unforeseen conditions encountered in the renovation of this historic structure caused productivity issues, change orders, and schedule impacts. Steve presented his findings in a series of mediation sessions.
  • Assisted a general contractor with the analysis of the HVAC system that was designed and installed as a component of the renovation of a 30,000 square foot residence. Steve issued an expert report and the matter settled during mediation.
  • Performed a schedule delay and issue analysis on a railroad construction project. The claimed issues ranged from alleged interference from train operations to differing site conditions. The findings were captured in an expert report to which Steve offered testimony in arbitration.
  • Assisted a Canadian Health Authority with a claim by the electrical contractor at its new hospital. Analyzed the claim documents, the project records and the opposing expert’s analysis. Steve issued an expert report rebutting the contractor’s claims and the opposing expert’s conclusions. The matter settled during mediation.
  • Assisted the electrical contractor on construction of an Arts Museum at an Ivy League University. Steve reviewed the contemporaneous records, analyzed labor estimates and actual costs, and developed the analysis of the loss of labor productivity due to the conditions encountered on the project.
  • Assisted a municipality with the analysis of a claim for schedule delay and damages associated with the renovation of an elementary school. Reviewed and analyzed the contractor’s supporting documentation including project schedules, job cost reports, and damage calculations. Steve presented in mediation where the matter was settled.

Integrity Monitorships

  • Managed the construction personnel on multiple construction related monitorships. These include those performed for the NYC MTA on the Fulton Street Transit Center and the 2nd Avenue Subway projects; the NYC DOI during the Hurricane Sandy Rapid Repair program; the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs during the Hurricane Sandy housing repair/rebuild program; and the PANYNJ for its JFK runway expansion and for certain contractors at the WTC site.
Education
  • MS, Systems Management, Golden Gate University
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Clarkson University
Certifications
  • Professional Engineer, Connecticut
  • Professional Engineer, California
Affiliations
  • American Bar Association, Member

Thought Leadership

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