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 more than 45 years of experience in the planning, management, design, Value Engineering and construction of public and private capital projects across North America. For 30 years, he has been managing and leading Value Management, Value Analysis and Value Engineering studies, conducting more than 400 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 professional engineer in seven states, a Life-Certified, Certified Value Specialist® and a member of the SAVE International® College of Fellows. 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., Canada and Mexico.

Mr. Stafford, a member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), 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®, in many roles, formerly serving as the Vice President of Education, a member of the Board of Directors and as a member of the Certification Board. He has authored several papers on both engineering topics and Value Management.

Tabi Deas, CVS®
Senior Consultant

Tabi Deas currently is an experienced VE team leader, and serves as project manager and VE/VM Team Leader. She has been involved in a variety of major water/wastewater conveyance infrastructure construction projects for municipalities across North America.

Over the past 7 years, Tabi’s VE experience includes water and wastewater treatment; pipelines and tunnels; pump and lift stations, storage and treatment facilities; stormwater treatment and drainage facilities; transportation and aviation projects; military projects, land development and master planned communities; constructability and design/build reviews, automation strategies as well as quality assurance and value engineering studies on both new construction and rehabilitation projects.

Prior to working in value engineering, Tabi worked with land developers as a management consultant specializing in the strategic planning of new master planned communities. Ms. Deas also served as a Regional Project Installation Coordinator for the Southeast Division of Home Depot. Throughout her career, she has proven VE leadership skills, as well as effective communication and organizational skills, with an extraordinary level of integrity.

Ms. Deas is an active member in SAVE International® and currently serves as secretary of the Central Florida chapter of SAVE International®.