Marco Serra Email & Phone Number

Winterthur Area, Switzerland

Engineering consultancy offering multidisciplinary engineering and project management services in systems engineering, forensic engineering and product development to the transport, industrial, aerospace and oil & gas industries.Conduct business development, management of customer relationships, proposal writing, project planning, project management, project execution and reporting. Provide and coordinate multidisciplinary consulting services to clients internationally in systems engineering, structural and fluid mechanics, product design and development, failure analysis, and expert witness support.• Conducted design audits and provided technical guidance in the development and verification of mobile power generation and storage systems for Lockheed Martin Advanced Energy Systems.• Led an investigation into the root cause of a failure to install a dual Electronic Submersible Pump system in a North Sea oil well that cost a prominent UK operator in excess of GBP 10 million. Developed a successful solution to the problem, which was deployed in the field and on subsequent wells.• Lead technical expert for a prominent oilfield equipment manufacturer in defending a USD 320 million claim by a European oil and gas operator for damage to the installations in a number of off-shore oil wells.• Development of an industry first, 3-dimensional systemic approach for modelling and simulation of well bore fluid and gun string dynamic response to the detonation of shaped explosive charges during oil well completion. Calibration was conducted through an extensive component and field-testing program. The development, funded by a major oil services company in excess of USD 5 million, led to multiple publications and patents.

Greater Zurich Area

Assist SE-Training in delivering courses covering diverse topics in the field of Systems Engineering.

Zurich, Switzerland

Contracted to Thales Alenia Space Schweiz AG through Engenya GmbH. Responsibilities included the planning and coordination of thermo-mechanical design and analysis activities in the development of the optical terminals that will form part of a constellation of satellites aimed at providing reliable global communications coverage. This specifically required coordination with structural, thermal, electronics, and system architecture teams. Additional activities included technical guidance of junior thermomechanical engineers, conceptual development and verification of thermomechanical design concepts; management of requirements and specifications for system components; production of design justifications, design descriptions, structural and thermal analysis description documents, requirements documents and technical proposals; technical and programmatic management of external contractors and suppliers; feasibility evaluation of novel or alternate technical solutions.

Winterthur, Zurich, Switzerland

Engineering consultancy active primarily in the aerospace and oil & gas industries providing services in fluid and structural mechanics, numerical simulation, technology development and systems engineering.Day to day running of the company as well as management and execution of technical projects for international clients. Provision of consulting services in systems engineering, structural and fluid mechanics, technology development and project management.• Lead Systems Architect in the conceptual development and technology transfer assessment of a Sample Receiving and Analysis Facility for material brought back to Earth on NASA’s Mars Sample return Mission.• Analysis of gun parting failures in completion tool string systems resulting from the dynamic response of the system to the detonation of shaped charges used for formation perforation. This work led to the establishment of Engenya GmbH.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Engineering and life sciences services consultancy focusing primarily on payloads for spaceflight programs.Recruited to lead the company’s structural engineering group in support of their space systems design activities. Subsequently expanded role to include proposal writing, project planning, project management, project execution and reporting on US Government funded technology development projects.• Proponent and Lead Systems Engineer in the feasibility study of a helicopter aircrew active restraint system aimed at enabling safe standing operation during extreme manoeuvres.• Chief Structural Engineer in the development of a NASA Cell Culture Unit for safe transportation on the Space Shuttle Middeck and ultimately for service on the ISS.• Proponent and Principal Investigator in the development of a haemorrhage control device for non-compressible extremity injuries for the US Army.

Medford, Massachusetts

Provides engineering, technology innovation and development services primarily to the US defence industry.Managed technology development projects for the US defence industry’s Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) with budgets up to USD 1 million. Responsibilities included proposal writing, system and project management, and reporting from conceptualization to functional prototype development and testing.• Contributed to company growth by winning in excess of USD 2 million in funding for innovative ideas.

Pretoria Area, South Africa

Engineering consultancy specializing in structural mechanics, simulation and testing.Static and dynamic stress analysis of complex structures, heat transfer analysis, fatigue life assessment, dynamic response and failure analysis for the vehicle manufacturing, bulk transport, petrochemical, electricity generation and armaments industries.• Won the BKS Chairman’s Award for Innovative Engineering for the design and installation of a cable retention system designed to render a 58’000 ton gas liquor tank safe for emergency operation (SASOL).

Pretoria Area, South Africa

University of Pretoria laboratory offering engineering and testing services to South African industry.Worked on numerous projects involving finite element analysis of industrial structures. Analyses performed for clients in the petrochemical, electrical power generation and motor manufacturing industries ranged from static heat transfer and stress analysis to linear elastic dynamic response analysis.

Pretoria Area, South Africa

Motor vehicle manufacturer. Rosslyn plant also manufactured vehicles under license for FIAT.Responsible for the co-ordination, planning and management, from concept through to final commissioning, of facility related projects in Nissan’s Paint Facility. Responsibilities also included setting of specifications to meet user requirements, evaluation of designs and proposals and supervision of projects.

Sm, Engineering And Management, 5.0/5.0

Thesis: “Evolving the product development process.”

M.Eng., Mechanical Engineering

Thesis: Aeroelastic optimization of a horizontal axis wins turbine.

B.Eng(Hons), Mechanical Engineering

B.Eng., Mechanical Engineering