Bob Cunningham
Independent Principal Consultant
Bob has over 59 years of water chemistry and treatment experience across a broad range of applications and industries. He holds BS and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, is a California Registered Professional Corrosion Engineer, is HACCP Certified by USDA, is a Certified Corrosion Specialist by The National Association of Corrosion Engineers and is an ASSE/IAPMO/ANSI 12080 Certified Legionella Water Safety & Management Specialist.
Bob has held a variety of technical, management and marketing positions in the water treatment industry. Bob’s specialties include industrial cooling and boiler water, process water, water preparation and wastewater treatment and recovery. Bob has a special talent for solving difficult problems, and for working together with vendors and facility personnel to optimize water system operations.
Bob was awarded the Cooling Technology Institute – Prestigious Service Award in 2019 and the Distinguished Award 2020. Bob also received the Association of Water Technologies – Ray Baum Memorial Award in 2021.
Walt Tyler
Independent Principal Consultant
Walt brings over 37 years of experience in service and troubleshooting over a wide variety of water treatment issues. In addition to troubleshooting boilers, cooling towers, waste water treatment, Legionella issues, and domestic water, Walt was instrumental in developing new products for water treatment. Combining Walt’s MBA with a major emphasis in Finance with his educational background in Biology and Microbiology brings valuable insights for both ROI and other financial considerations along with practical solutions and tools for solving tough water treatment issues, including for the control and mitigation of microorganisms such as Legionella in HVAC and domestic water systems.
Do you have a complex water treatment problem, or are you looking for an experienced water treatment consultant to provide independent advice? Feel free to contact AFA for a free initial consultation. If you would like a PDF version of one our consultant’s resumes, please contact us via email or phone.
Bill Pearson
Independent Principal Consultant
Bill is a Certified Water Technologist (CWT) with over 40 years of experience in the water treatment industry. Bill specializes in Legionella risk management. Bill is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE International). He currently serves as Liaison for the Association of Water Technologies (AWT) to the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and the Cooling Technology Institute (CTI). He is chair of the Legionella Task Force at AWT, and serves as the organizational representative voting member for AWT on the NSF Standard 444 (Legionella) joint committee.
In addition, Bill has served on AWT task forces to the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). He is a past chair of the ASHRAE Water Treatment Technical Committee, and is an Executive Committee member on the ASHRAE (188) Legionellosis SSPC and voting member on the CTI (159) Legionellosis committee.
Bill is a past chair of the AWT Technical Committee, served on the AWT Board of Directors, and was President of AWT in 2003. He received the prestigious Ray Baum Memorial Water Technologist of the Year Award in 2005. In January 2018, Bill joined the AWT “Faculty” that teaches the AWT Technical Training Seminars given annually at Eastern and Western US locations. The subject matter of the course Bill is teaching is on Legionella as a technical knowledge discipline for the Water Treatment Professional.
Keith Johnson
Independent Principal Consultant
Keith has been involved in the water treatment industry since 1978, after completing a Bachelors’ degree in Environmental Science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Subsequently he worked in a wide range of industrial, commercial and educational facilities throughout the United States and in several foreign countries over the years to help solve water related problems. Keith has sold water treatment programs directly to end users, managed product lines, and was the Vice president of Product Technology for a regional water treatment company. Since becoming a consultant in 2011, Keith has audited the performance of water treatment suppliers; developed and helped manage specifications and proposal reviews for HVAC systems; performed risk analyses; wrote Water Management Plans; performed sampling for Legionella and other bacterial organisms in cooling water systems; performed failure analyses of piping, molds and other metallic components which contact cooling water; and written bid specifications and reviewed bids for major higher education campuses.
Ted Beardwood
Independent Principal Consultant
Ted has over 46 years of experience in the industrial water treatment industry that has ranged from sales management, new construction and commissioning of thermal systems, laboratory management, governmental & environmental regulatory compliance, product management, full-service water treatment, marketing, and consulting globally. He is the past chair of NACE STG-11 Water, ASME Research and Technology Committee on Water and Steam in Thermal Systems as well as their Water Technologies Subcommittee. Ted was awarded the International Water Conference Merit Award in 2015 and a Life Achievement Award in 2017 from Solenis LLC.
Ted has developed product and problem-solving methods for the prevention of scale, corrosion, fouling, and microbiological growth applied to steam / condensate, cooling water and process systems, as well as corrosion failure analysis, pretreatment evaluations and consulting to the industry. Ted has produced 280 internal and external papers and holds 14 patents and 10 outstanding records of invention. Presentations have been provided to technical societies such as NACE International (now AMPP), ASME, IWC, EPRI, IDEA, CTI, TAPPI and the International Fouling Conference (now HTRI).
Paul Labine Ph.D.
Independent Principal Consultant
Paul’s background includes over 50 years of water treatment experience from a variety of private and public settings including academia, research and development, and management. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Michigan State University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts.
His specialties include water treatment research and development, boilers, and cooling water systems. Prior to 2008, he also worked extensively in corrosion. Currently, Paul teaches over a dozen classes at Miami Dade College on a variety of topics in Chemistry in Miami, Florida.
Paul has co-authored three books and over one dozen technical papers. Growing up as both a French and English native speaker, his language skills allow him to work internationally and domestically.
