Mr. David A. Walker is a Vice President for ABS Consulting, Risk Consulting Division. He has more than 16 years experience working in the risk management field. Over this time, Mr. Walker has led many types of risk analyses and loss prevention/risk management audits in most major industry segments (marine, chemical processing, hydrocarbon processing, manufacturing, forest products, etc.) and for many government agencies (Coast Guard, DOE, etc.). Mr. Walker specializes in the development and implementation of innovative, but practical, risk-based management strategies for organizations. In addition, Mr. Walker is a highly regarded instructor, teaching professional development courses in most areas of risk management. He is also one of ABS Consulting’s practice leaders in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).

Mr. Walker holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering (with an emphasis in risk/reliability engineering in his course of study and thesis work). He holds an active DoD Secret clearance.

Mr. Walker has been a key leader in ABS Consulting’s risk management work with the Coast Guard, and has managed our risk consulting services with the Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center. Over the past 6 years, Mr. Walker has worked extensively with personnel throughout the Coast Guard (Headquarters, Areas, Districts, and field units) to integrate risk management and vulnerability identification best practices into the Coast Guard culture and business practices. The following are some of the activities Mr. Walker has performed for the Coast Guard:

Mr. Walker facilitated the development of the Coast Guard’s Port Security Risk Assessment Tool and actually designed/coded the electronic implementation of the tool. He has also worked with several Coast Guard field units on security-related applications/issues since the events of 9/11.

In addition to his extensive work with the Coast Guard, Mr. Walker also led or participated in numerous studies, including quantitative risk assessments, process hazard analyses, facility risk reviews, audits of process safety management (PSM) systems, development of PSM programs, and incident investigations. Furthermore, he has developed, or participated in the development of, several software packages for supporting reliability and hazard analysis studies. These projects have served a range of domestic and international clients, including companies in the petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, manufacturing, and other allied industries, as well as government facilities. He has written or coauthored several books, guides, and articles, including: