Rich Vicars is the Vice President and General Manager of Kodiak Enterprises and his been with Kodiak since 2004. Prior to his role with Kodiak, Rich spent the majority of his career developing world class failure analysis capabilities for Fortune 100 companies such as ITT Defense (Aerospace/Optical Division) and United Technologies (Carrier Division), as well as being instrumental in the successful start-up and growth of a tier-one medical device manufacturer, Paragon Medical, Inc. While at United Technologies, he was recognized by Yuzuru Ito, UTC’s corporate Vice President of quality, for developing the “most effective failure analysis and root cause capability” within the corporation. He was also recognized by the U.S. Army (CECOM) for outstanding contribution to the development, manufacturing, and deployment of the SINCGARS battlefield communication system while with ITT. He continues to serve as a chair and charter member of IEEE’s PSES Failure and Forensic Analysis Technical Committee since 2009. Richard holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA, as well as a Six Sigma Black Belt and ISO 13485 Lead Auditor certification.

Rich's areas of expertise transcend far beyond those of the typical forensic engineer in this industry. Kodiak's customers routinely make this observation of Rich and consequently retain Rich for a variety of traditional and non-traditional projects. This is due to Rich's extensive, and somewhat unique experience in consumer, commercial, aerospace, and medical device/product design and support. Rich's comprehensive private industry experience in actually designing and fielding products ranging from HVAC controls, to audiophile grade home theater equipment, to high reliability aerospace products, through life critical medical devices means that he not only understands the failures that occur in such products, but he also knows the engineering and manufacturing processes that broke down to create these problems in the first place.

Consequently, Rich works with many of Kodiak's clients to go well beyond the investigation role for which he is initially retained. Rich is routinely asked to deploy his world class manufacturing experience in working with his customers to mistake-proof the processes that created the identified defects that led to the fire development. So on any given day, you may see Rich on a fire scene, in a laboratory inspection, or half way across the world in a customer or supplier's factory mapping the process that is in need of improvement to eliminate the production of defective products. That is the depth and versatility Rich provides to his customers.

As General Manager of Kodiak, Rich is pleased to report to, and have been mentored by, Dan Churchward, arguably one of the pre-eminent driving forces in the reform of the fire investigation industry that now strives to adhere to a scientific approach in the determination of fire cause (NFPA 921). Rich is also especially proud of his associates at Kodiak; Denny, Ryan, Lisa, and Jim, who are all leaders in their fields and whom he relies on implicitly for support. Rich also knows that with them, the sum of the parts is truly greater than the whole. A one person show in this industry simply cannot be deep enough, or flexible enough, to serve the diverse needs of an exacting and rightfully demanding client base. A core group of talented professionals must exist. Rich also knows what a joy it is to come to work every day to engage with such truly gifted people who are specifically motivated to give their best for our valued clients.

Rich is available to identify and solve your most complex product failures, provide training in failure analysis and quality improvement, and to perform cradle-to-grave operational, engineering, and manufacturing improvement for your organization.