IPA Taps Astor E. Luft to Lead Its Latin America Region

Ashburn, Virginia (December 21, 2016) – Independent Project Analysis (IPA), Inc., the premiere global consultancy for capital project benchmarking, evaluations, and research, today announces that Astor Ernesto Luft will lead IPA’s Latin America regional activities beginning in 2017.

Luft will lead a team of analysts, researchers, and support staff based in Curitiba, Brazil and will be responsible for maintaining IPA’s strong relationships with its existing global and local clients in the region and forging new partnerships with owner companies in the mining, oil and gas, chemicals, consumer goods, power, and infrastructure industries. Luft succeeds Carlos Flesch, who has led IPA operations in the region for the past 3.5 years.

Luft has conducted capital project evaluations for IPA clients in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East since 2008. His area of expertise is petroleum exploration and production (E&P) project system evaluations. For the past 2 years, Luft has worked out of IPA’s office in the Reading, UK, managing the day-to-day activities with one of IPA’s major E&P clients in Europe, including the implementation of an IPA-designed capital effectiveness improvement plan for the client. Prior to moving to Europe, Luft coordinated the activities for a major Brazilian E&P client.

Luft has also conducted many megaproject evaluations for IPA clients in the oil and mining industries, guiding efforts to manage the risk on those projects. In addition to his concentration in project risk evaluation, he is an expert in capital project portfolio management improvement and the implementation of gated work processes. Luft has conducted research for clients and participated in several project system benchmarkings. He has also taught courses for the IPA Institute.

Prior to joining IPA in 2008, Luft worked for ExxonMobil as a procurement quality assurance analyst. Before working for ExxonMobil, he, as an intern, developed computational methods for structural engineering modeling for the Civil Engineering Research Center at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil.

Luft has a BS in Civil Engineering from the Civil Engineering Research Center at the Federal University of Paraná and is a post-graduate in Project Management at the FAE Business School in Curitiba, Brazil.