NEW YORK — Larissa James has been selected to lead the Asset Management and Business Advisory (AMBA) group at WSP USA, a leading engineering and professional services consultancy, further enhancing the firm’s essential Advisory services offered across all market sectors.
James, who has been managing the Northeast and Southeast regions for AMBA since 2016, will lead the national AMBA team responsible for advancing business and asset performance of cross-sector infrastructure clients.
“With more than 30 years of national and international experience, Larissa has held both operational and consulting roles across multiple sectors, making her the perfect choice to lead our talented AMBA team,” said Denise Turner Roth, Advisory national business line executive. “Her background spans the full range of asset management services, including gap assessments and improvement plan development and implementation within operations, maintenance, capital planning and delivery.”
James, who is based in New York City, currently leads enterprise asset management programs for several of the largest, most complex infrastructure owners and operators in the U.S., including New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She has authored and contributed to industry standards and guidance on asset management within the transportation and water sectors.
Prior to joining WSP, she was a member of the senior leadership team at Aurizon, Australia’s largest freight railway, where she managed a team responsible for improving operational performance through better asset management.
Joining James on the AMBA leadership team are regional directors Nilmino Roberts (New York) in the Northeast, Douglas Stevenson (Washington, D.C.) in the Southeast and Doris Lee (San Francisco) in the West.
James has noticed significant priority shifts over the past year for many public agencies that recognize a need for drastic improvements in the way their infrastructure is managed, which will warrant significant investments in business transformation activities. Many of these changes involve organization structure and function, workforce strategy, technology implementations and upgrades, data analytics and decision support.
“We pull from WSP’s various capabilities and relationships to deliver holistic services and provide clients with more integrated solutions and better value for their investment, improving their organizational decision making and asset performance,” James said. “WSP collaborates with clients to develop and implement a strategic roadmap for improving infrastructure management and making informed decisions that are based on data and information.”
A recent example of this was the maintenance optimization guidance and support WSP provided to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, reviewing its maintenance activities across all asset classes to identify where improvements in efficiency can be made to the agency’s preventive maintenance plans.
There has also been an increased need to leverage geo-spatial asset planning to address equity and climate change impacts, to manage risk, to better package renewals projects to limit impacts on communities, and to improve use of capital. Since WSP is taking a more Future Ready® focus with clients, James said the AMBA team is increasing its collaboration with its global counterparts to bring experience from other markets to U.S. clients.
AMBA is collaborating with WSP’s Energy team to explore energy transition opportunities for industrial clients, as well as working with the firm’s Climate, Resilience and Sustainability business to assess the impact of climate change on infrastructure assets. Through the firm’s Property and Buildings business, AMBA is working with financial services clients to obtain certification for the international standard for Asset Management, ISO 55001 and is teaming with the firm’s Program Management and Construction Management business, to support delivery of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
For more information, visit https://www.wsp.com/en-GL/hubs/asset-management
About WSP USA
WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of WSP, one of the world's leading engineering and professional services firms. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment markets. With more than 12,000 employees in 200 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper. wsp.com
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