Leading Azuria & the Industry

Rob is an infrastructure executive with 25 years of global experience in water, power, oil & gas, renewable energy, and telecom sectors.

From 2014 to 2019, Rob was President & CEO of USIC, the nation’s largest underground utility locating company with 9,000 field service employees. Under his leadership, USIC doubled in revenue and – through a dividend recap and subsequent sale – doubled the enterprise value of the company for shareholders while delivering safe, high quality services to customers across the U.S. Rob and his teams were directly responsible for rebuilding IT infrastructure with big-data tools and scalable dashboards; building industry leading field operations, training, and safety programs; and overhauling commercial operations. Over the course of six acquisitions, Rob grew and diversified USIC’s service offerings and geographic coverage.

Prior to USIC, Rob was President & CEO of Granite Services (now Field Core, a GE company), servicing heavy rotating equipment for the power generation and oil & gas sectors from 1997-2014. The business grew from a group of 50 field engineers to a global services organization with 9,000 employees who maintained 15% of the world’s electric-generating capacity. Work was performed at 2,000 jobsites in 90 countries on turbines, generators, compressors, and related systems in gas, fossil, nuclear, wind, LNG, and petrochemical applications.

Rob’s team grew the wind energy services business for GE to 900 engineers and technicians globally, in addition to commissioning over 2,000 turbines per year. In the oil & gas midstream, Rob’s team led record performances in plant turnarounds for ExxonMobil in Texas, Russia, Qatar (the largest LNG facility in the world), Fife Ethylene plant in Scotland, and Bonny Island LNG in Nigeria. Work in the nuclear sector included outage support for GE technology nuclear reactors in the U.S. and Romania as well as managing field operations that were ultimately impacted by the tsunami at Fukushima Nuclear station in Japan.

Prior to his GE affiliation, Rob formed his own company, Power & Water Consulting, to resolve the technical difficulties in the startup of the then largest (1000 MW) zero-discharge combined cycle power plant in the world being constructed by Fluor Daniel. After successful completion of the project, he joined forces with three colleagues to form Penpower, a power plant startup services company that was acquired by GE in 1997.

Rob’s experience in water & wastewater began at Nalco Chemical Company in 1988 where he was a top sales performer in specialty chemical sales and worked in potable water, wastewater, and industrial water treatment. He led the first large cogeneration project in the U.S. for Nalco and was the customer lead for industrial applications in corrosion prevention and cooling water efficiency for Dow Chemical.

Rob has a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Duke University. He is a member of U.S. Masters Swimming, an offshore sailor with 40,000 miles at sea, an occasional guest lecturer at the University of South Florida, and a member of the Tampa Bay Area Committees on Foreign Relations.

Ali Sheikh brings more than 20 years of financial and global leadership experience across energy, transportation, and industrial sectors. Prior to Azuria, Ali served as Chief Financial Officer for Wabtec’s Freight Services business where he oversaw a $2.5 billion+ global P&L across multiple countries and led due diligence and acquisition to support inorganic growth. From 2008 to 2014, he was Chief Financial Officer for GE Power Generation Services business in the Middle East and Africa region where he designed the regional P&L structure and finance organization to align with the company’s operating structure to provide operational partnership. Prior to GE Power, Ali held financial roles of increasing responsibility within GE Energy and GE Capital.

He holds MBA from Texas Southern University.

Burt Keating has spent the last 20 years leading global field operations in private equity-backed and publicly traded companies, as well as the military. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Operations at USIC where he led numerous operational excellence initiatives, including a transformation of the company's quality culture and programs. Burt also oversaw the integration of three utility locating company acquisitions.

Prior to USIC, he held multiple operational leadership roles at Granite Services, Inc. As Global Productivity & Quality Director, Burt led continuous improvement initiatives to standardize and optimize gas and steam turbine outage performance across 90 countries and 2,000 jobsites. In his role as Europe Region Director, he had full accountability for safety, quality, and productivity of projects in Italy, East Europe, and Russia. As Americas Region Director, he was responsible for maintaining GE's aeroderivative gas turbine fleet in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America.

He also served 20 years in the U.S. Navy's Submarine Force retiring in 2020 as a Commander. Notable career achievements include two Western Pacific deployments; qualifying Nuclear Engineer Officer; serving as the U.S. Navy's representative to the United Arab Emirates; and finally, as the Commanding Officer of a submarine maintenance reserve unit.

Burt holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; he received his Master of Engineering Management from Old Dominion University.

Robert brings more than 25 years’ experience in sales, marketing, and operational leadership in public and private equity-backed businesses, both domestic and globally.

Most recently, Robert was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing of USIC. During his tenure, Robert’s teams exceeded customer renewal revenue targets by 47%, increased national account revenue (and margins) 10% and grew the company’s regional customer base by 24%. Robert initiated sales operations processes and a cultural shift towards utilizing customer data to improve service and results.

Prior to USIC, Robert held several sales leadership roles at Azuria. As Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing (2008-2018), Robert’s teams focused on developing infrastructure renewal solutions with municipal and utility owners, consulting engineers and contractors. During that time, Azuria realized a 50% increase in customer orders along with improved margins.

Earlier in Robert’s career, he held operations and sales leadership roles in public and private firms with heavy emphasis on utility infrastructure and field services. Robert was a founding team member of the NCCER, a national construction craft, safety and management training organization that standardizes development and delivery of training programs for the construction and maintenance industries.
Robert earned his M.S. from Johns Hopkins University and his B.A. from Colorado State University. Originally from the Washington, DC, area, Robert now resides in Florida with his wife and three boys.

Tammi joined Azuria in 2005 and has led HR teams through a number of transitions, including the acquisition of Azuria in 2021.  She has worked in the HR field for over 20 years, with a background specializing in HR Operations and Employee Relations. She obtained her Masters Degree in Human Resources from Webster University.  Tammi and her husband enjoy boating and spending time at their lake property.

Thys has been with Azuria for 10 years as Chief Information Officer. He has 30 years of IT experience covering the manufacturing, packaged consumer goods, life sciences and construction industries. He obtained his BS in information technology at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. In his spare time, Thys is a keen amateur wildlife photographer.

John started with Aegion in 2013 and has nearly 20 years of experience in the accounting/finance sector in various roles. He majored in accounting at Southeast Missouri State University and has an MBA from Webster University. In his spare time, John can be found competing in extreme sporting events.

Since joining Azuria in 2015, Dan has served in a variety of legal roles supporting Azuria’s portfolio of companies across the globe. Immediately prior to his current role as General Counsel, he had been the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Insituform’s North American operations in which he was responsible for the profit and loss of the business. This operational experience prepared Dan to become a uniquely well-rounded counsel and advisor to Azuria. Prior to joining Azuria, Dan was a Shareholder in the global construction law practice at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. in St. Louis, MO.  He is an Eagle Scout and former U.S. Army infantry officer with one combat deployment as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Dan earned his law degree from St. Louis University and his Executive MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is admitted to practice law in Missouri and Illinois.

Jim brings 25+ years of global experience growing and operating tech-focused, B2B product and service businesses in multiple energy and industrial verticals. He has served in CEO, President and COO roles in the US, UK and UAE leading engineered product and solution businesses, which also included numerous standalone and bolt-on acquisitions. Jim’s Oil & Gas industry expertise with downhole sensing & measurement is particularly well suited to help accelerate our Azuria innovation efforts.

Jim holds a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Illinois and received his MBA from Emory University – Goizueta Business School.