Leadership

   L. Frank Field, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, AOC Frank Field serves as the Chairman and CEO of American Operations Corporation and managing member of a number of AOC subsidiaries.  Mr. Field founded American Operations Corporation in 1983 as an entrepreneurial team of business development professionals focused on the rapidly expanding opportunities in the government services market specific to DOE. Mr. Field has earned a reputation as an innovator consistently obtaining an edge for his clients. He is an energetic builder of successful coalitions through teaming and joint venturing in new or expanding markets.

Over the firm's 25-year history, Mr. Field has expanded the firms business focus beyond business development services where today American Operations Corporation also provides services to industry and government in the Information Technology, National Security,  Base Operations, Energy and Intelligence communities.

Mr. Field joined the Federal Energy Administration as Associate Assistant Administrator for Operations of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserves and its successor agency, the US Department of Energy where he directed all operations of the 750 million barrel reserve.

Mr. Field began his career as a Naval Officer serving on the nuclear submarine SSBN 620 - John Adams, a Lafayette Class Ballistic Missile Submarine.  The Navy sent Field to the University of Kansas where he received a Master's degree in Petroleum Engineering.  Field went on to serve as Commanding Officer of the Petroleum Supply Bases in Spain and finished his Navy career by establishing and managing the Navy Energy Office.

Mr. Field has a Bachelor's degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master's degree from the University of Kansas.
   Richard Shields, President, AOC Richard (Dick) Shields is President of American Operations Corporation and its Energy Services subsidiaries where he leads all aspects of consulting and services activities for the firm and its clients.  He oversees new opportunity development identification, Capture Management, and brings his 30 years of large project acquisition and development experience to the full range of AOC and client business priorities with leadership in DOE and federal contract and grant acquisition.

Shields received his Bachelor's degree from American University in 1975 and began his career as a contracting professional and later contracting officer for the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and later the US Department of Energy for the construction and operation of Strategic Petroleum Reserve facilities. After the DOE, Shields went to private industry leading contract and marketing for Technidril, (Houston, TX), which provided large diameter drilling services, geothermal development and advanced energy production drilling services, where he oversaw over $100 million in federal research and construction projects. In 1982 Shields joined Frank Field at Kaneb Services where they formed and managed the operations and maintenance of the US Strategic Petroeum Reserves. Dick also directed new business for federal pipeline, petroleum storage and transportation, in the US and overseas.

In 1984 Dick again joined Frank Field, this time in Washington, DC as the first President of American Operations Corp., he was responsible for directing and management of its personnel, operating and maintaining over seven million square feet of government facilities in the U.S. and Far East and in providing technology and marketing services for a wide range of government programs. Shields later formed and led The Quest Group and served as senior officer of its parent ICF Kaiser Engineers, directing management consulting and marketing development in project management, strategic planning, public engineering and environmental programs. He directed the acquisition of the engineering/construction management for the $6 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup Project and led a broad range of Federal marketing and lobbying services.

In 1990, Shields joined Stein & Company and its successor firm - Mesirow Financial, where he led major federal and private real estate development activities in the Midwest and nationally. Major developments included: Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago; Monona Terrace convention center in Madison, Wisconsin; McCormick Place South Hall Expansion; and the McCormick Place Hyatt Hotel. Shields has been an industry leader in the Military Base Closure industry where he has: served as CEO for acquisition and redevelopment of the 132 acres of The Fort Sheridan National Historic Landmark District; led the redevelopment the 1,093-acre Orlando Naval Training Center; and, the 1,121-acre Glenview Naval Air Station. Shields also led the acquisition of the David Taylor Engineering Center in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2000, Shields formed Mesa Development, LLC with two other Stein partners to develop residential and mixed-use developments including: Three Sixty Residences in San Jose, CA, Park Boulevard development in Chicago, IL.  large-scale lake front development in Milwaukee, Wisconsin involving over 1,500 housing units; and Legacy at Millennium Park, a 73-story mixed-use high-rise, and the Heritage at Millennium Park, a 57-story mixed-use high-rise, both in downtown Chicago.

Shields has served as advisor to the Secretary of the Army regarding privatization; to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Hawaii Foundation regarding the intervention and preservation of Ford Island at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and has served on ULI Advisory Services Panels for Ft. Meade Housing, St. Elizabeth Hospital Site Development, and City of Tustin, CA Eastside Redevelopment program.  He also has been published in trade journals and lectured at the Northwestern University Kellogg Business School and DePaul University MBA programs in finance, real estate and government programs.
   Al Horton, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, AOC Connect, LLC Mr. Horton has over fourteen years with program management experience. He has over sixteen years of engineering and operations experience as well as experience leading multiple projects through planning, budgeting, design and implementation phases. Mr. Horton has developed three separate geographic information databases to track telecom infrastructure. Mr. Horton was one of three inventors of an improved package ozone generation system for the non-chemical treatment of process cooling water (awarded US Patents #5236673 and #5332556). Hr. Horton participates on the proposal team in response to several large government telecom RFPs. He also has extensive vendor/contractor management experience.

Mr. Horton designs, develops and manages all aspects of Network Operations and Maintenance, Engineering, and IT Organizations within the company. He manages technical areas of multiple Government contracts totaling over $30M. Mr. Horton built-out an in house Optical Networking Lab to simulate, test and configure LAN, MAN, WAN and long haul optical networking hardware. He stood up the Network Management Center to effectively monitor and track network related issues. Mr. Horton plans, designs, and implements the integrated telecommunications services for various government customers.
   Robert Herndon, President, AOC Support Services, LLC, Chief Operating Officer, AOC Robert Herndon has over 40 years of experience working in the Engineering, Executive Management, Business Development, and Operations Management fields.  Mr. Herndon has extensive, challenging experience and documented success in managing technical services, public works and housing, operations and logistics, construction, environmental regulation and remediation organizations.  He also has comprehensive experience in leading and decision making at the highest levels of both large and small, diverse organizations.  Additionally, Mr. Herndon has extensive executive level management experience in first-hand dealings with contractors, Federal, municipal, state, congressional and foreign leaders.

Mr. Herndon joined AOC in 2006 following a 29-year career in the Army, where he rose to the rank of Brigadier General, and eleven years in executive management of both a large and a small company, focusing on operations and maintenance contracts for U.S. agencies throughout the world. His final assignment on active duty was as the Army's Director of Facilities and Housing with oversight of all facilities and housing in the Army. In this position, he developed integrated and promulgated policies and doctrine pertaining to planning, programming and budgeting for the maintenance and operation of all Army facilities. Previously, he served as the Commanding General of the Corps of Engineers Southwestern Division, Chief of Staff of the Corps of Engineers and Commander of the Corps' Jacksonville District. Subsequently, he joined a small company as its Chief Operating Officer and increased its sales and profit over 600% by focusing on military family housing maintenance contracts. He personally managed the capture and winning proposal efforts and led the start-up of four such contracts. He joined Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) in 2001 as Senior Vice President for Operations, Maintenance & Logistics where he was responsible for twelve multi-million dollar contracts, all of which were profitable. He personally led the start-up of the LOGCAP III contract providing contingency logistical support to US Forces worldwide including the unprecedented support to US Forces in Iraq and which made KBR the largest Army contractor from 2004-2006 . He has managed Federal contracts throughout the United States and overseas in Guam, Russia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Djibouti and the Republic of Georgia.
   John Gorman, General Manager & President, PerformanceNet Management Group, LLC Management Consulting Executive with significant experience in large and mid-sized firms including the Big Five. Expertise in turning around under-performing consulting firms by applying best practices, reducing overhead costs and improving sales performance. Able to grow a firm's profitability while building it to a place where high potential professionals and managers want to work.
   Ernie Christensen, Corporate Advisor, AOC Rear Admiral Ernest (Ernie) E. Christensen, Jr. USN (ret.) serves as a senior member of the AOC team that provide unique technical services to the Department of Energy, Defense and intelligence agencies.

Rear Admiral Christensen graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1964 as a third generation Naval Officer and received his wings in March 1966, becoming the US Navy's first third-generation naval aviator. As a pilot with Attack Squadron 113 (VA-113), Rear Admiral Christensen deployed in October 1966 on the first of four Vietnam combat cruises aboard USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65). In September, 1968, following his first two tours, he was selected for duty with the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Team, The BLUE ANGELS, where he flew the left wing and slot positions. In 1971 he was reassigned to Fighter Squadron 142 (VF-142) for his third and fourth combat cruises through the termination of the Vietnam conflict in early 1973.

He served as Executive and Commanding Officer of VF-114, flying the F14 Tomcat. In December, 1981, he was handpicked to command TOPGUN, the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School. In 1983, he detached from TOPGUN to command Carrier Air Wing TWO (CVW-2) aboard the USS Kitty Hawk. He subsequently served on the staff of the Secretary of the Navy as Acting Director, Office of Program Appraisal, the principal military staff advisor to the Secretary, as Commanding Officer USS Kansas City (AOR 3), Operations Officer, Seventh Fleet and Commanding Officer, USS RANGER (CV 61). On 16 January 1991, while commanding USS RANGER, one of only two Aircraft Carriers operating in the Persian Gulf, Rear Admiral Christensen led that ship into direct combat operations in support of Operation Desert Storm.

Selected for Flag Rank in December, 1991, Rear Admiral Christensen served on the Joint Staff in the Operations Directorate as Director of Special Technical Operations, and as Deputy Director for Operations, National Military Command Center. His final tours in the Navy were as Commander, Fleet Air Caribbean, Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico and as Commander, Training Command and Director of Training U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Following retirement from the Navy, Rear Admiral Christensen served as CEO for Celltec, Inc; and as a Senior Scientist for SAIC working with Training Transformation with the Joint Forces Command; Ernie served as; Executive Director of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Operations Center Directorate. In that capacity, he was responsible for 200 personnel who directed and manned the Command and Control and decision processes for all Transportation Security Operations.
   Jack Kersh, Technical Director, AOC Mr. Kersh joined AOC in 2001, bringing more than 40 years of professional experience including management, technical, and proposal expertise. His business background includes construction, nuclear power plant operations and maintenance, Department of Energy (DOE) Conduct of Operations, waste management, environmental restoration, and underground nuclear weapons testing.
While in the US Navy, Mr. Kersh supervised more than 3,000 personnel in the management of nuclear strategic ballistic missile submarines during maintenance, training and operations. He managed annual budgets up to $165 million during a Navy career that spanned 32 years and culminated in the rank of Rear Admiral. He was closely involved with military construction projects.
Mr. Kersh's business development experience includes strategic planning, market selection, marketing, teaming, and competitive proposal preparation. He has participated in more than 10 winning proposals with a cumulative value of more than $300 million. Roles have included proposal manager, orals proposal manager and coach, capture manager, red team member and leader, writer, and compliance lead.
  • Lifeline Technical Support, NSA and other Intelligence Agencies, Orals Proposal Manager and Coach.
  • Environmental Management Support Subcontract, DOE Rocky Flats.
  • Environmental Technology Site, Technical Writer, Red Team Member.
  • Design/Build Pentagon Renovation, DoD and GSA, Red Team Leader, Red Team Recovery, Technical Writer.
  • Pantex Plant Maintenance and Operations, DOE, Oral Proposal.
  • Editor, Writer, Red Team Recovery Leader.
  • Boneyard/Burnyard Remediation Subcontract, DOE Oak Ridge, Proposal Manager.