In 2016, Norm Poynter and Steve Sinkoff, colleagues for over 13 years prior, decided to enter into a joint venture to fulfill a long-term discussion they started when they first met, back in 2005. For many years, they both discovered that they were driven by helping organizations thrive by empowering the internal teams to succeed, Norm from the consulting side, and Steve, initially from the consulting side, but then from building robust and interactive communities. For many years, they discussed being a customers’ advocate, and to ensure that customers were able to leverage the knowledge and expertise that was available to them. They agree that expertise sometimes comes from many sources, not just one, and through their vast networks, they would be able to bring the very best and competent skills to every engagement. So, they collaborated and started AMA (Asset Management Advocates).
Norm Poynter – Co-Founder, Asset Management Advocates (USA) and NLAS Possibilities (Canada)
Connect: LinkedIn Twitter: @normpoynter Email: norm@normpoynter.com
Norm Poynter is the founder of NLAS Possibilities and the co-founder of Asset Management Advocates (AMA).
Norm is a very skilled, senior management consultant with deep expertise in asset information management, master data governance, best practices, and standards creation. He has successfully led many projects within oil & gas, chemical, agriculture, utilities, public sector, and others in the areas of turnaround management, re-engineering, process improvements, process safety, data, and governance/management. He has successfully built a comprehensive, world-class EAM team.
Norm focuses on the integration of systems across landscapes to form knowledge execution management systems, asset information management systems, and sustainable groups of core corporate competencies and subject matter (communities of practice). This approach is used to enable standardization, consistency, and productivity through better use of grassroots technologies like SAP.
Norm is a sought-after public speaker and has keynoted many events around the world. He also leads the NLAS/AMA training initiatives.
Steve Sinkoff – Co-Founder, Asset Management Advocates (USA) and Go2Learn, LLC.
Connect: LinkedIn Twitter: @ssinkoff Email: ss@amadvocate.com
Steve is the founder of Go2Learn and the co-founder of Asset Management Advocates (AMA).
For the last 23 years, Steve has been working with asset-intensive businesses dedicated to helping them make sound business decisions. He began as a VP of Marketing for an SAP EAM Consulting firm specializing in asset-intensive industries, and eventually took over sales and operations. The firm was purchased by a Big-4 consulting organization.
Steve then founded a global conference production company and built the world’s largest SAP EAM community, bringing together 1000s of SAP EAM users to share experiences and learn from each other. He also built global SAP communities in specific industries around utilities and oil & gas. This company was acquired by ASUG (Americas SAP User Group).
In 2015, Steve started Go2Learn, a training and conference production company focused on bringing strategic asset management to the forefront. He also co-founded AMA and TransformNA, which are dedicated to giving organizations an alternative to jumping directly into the new technology trap, and to focus on using what they already have, better.
Graham MacLeod – Strategic Executive Advisor
Connect: LinkedIn Email: graham.macleod@amadvocate.com
Graham brings extensive senior-level experience in enterprise financial and operational performance, with a distinguished record of helping organizations transform asset integrity, maintenance operations, and supply chain functions into value-creation engines. His leadership strengthens our ability to support organizations in turning strategy into action across the entire asset lifecycle.
AMA assists clients in realizing the complete value of investments in their EAM and SCM environments. Connecting data, improving master data governance, and operationalizing digital transformation provide these clients with measurable results.
E. J. (Ted) Lister- Subject Matter Expert – Work Management
Connect: LinkedIn Twitter: @STONavigator Email: ejlister@stonavigator.ca
Ted Lister began his career in electrical design before trading electrons and protons for ones and zeros. It was 1992; Ted was red-lining drawings—after commissioning a billion-dollar gas plant—using red-colored pencils on A1 paper. It wasn’t long before he discovered the value of computer programs to accomplish this task. He was hooked.
As the years followed, Ted pursued a career in large-scale, complex industrial projects, which required large amounts of data to plan, schedule, and execute. As he worked with engineering firms to develop software solutions, he realized the process methodology—similar to that of hydrocarbon processes—was plagued with leaks (a.k.a. spreadsheets). To make matters worse, users were often not trained in data integrity, resulting in ones and zeros leaking from the data pipeline (a.k.a. business process methodology).
Do not miss the opportunity to learn from an experienced physical asset management guru and entertaining speaker.
Sarah Ditchburn – Change Management Leader
Sarah is a certified leadership coach and change management professional passionate about building leadership capabilities as well as change teams and communities of practice. Sarah has over 20 years of experience working with clients to plan, design, and implement change initiatives aligned with business objectives including process and organization redesign, merger integration, and performance enhancement programs. Sarah’s clients span multiple industries, including oil and gas, professional services, not-for-profit, government, manufacturing, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and travel, and aviation. Sarah currently focuses on creating organizational capacity to lead and sustain behavioral and cultural change by teaching workshops across North America to all levels of leaders. Sarah utilizes her coaching expertise to work with leaders to enhance how they lead and receive change, building sustainable competency, in turn, improving employee engagement and business results.
Gina Schipani – Project Manager
A solution-focused Project Manager, continuous improvement professional with 27 years of experience in ERP implementations and Business Process Improvement in the Oil and Gas, Agricultural, and Mining Industries. Over 20 years developing, implementing, supporting, and managing an SAP business suite. Accomplished at managing Business Process Improvement programs/projects, locally and internationally in the areas of Asset Management, Capital Management, Procurement, and Inventory. Identified as an achiever with stamina and strengths in delivering value by understanding business needs and focusing on strategic goals.
Sherry Willetts – Intellectual Capital Hierarchy SME
Sherry has extensive experience advising asset-intensive organizations in oil & gas, utilities, chemicals, and logistics across North America. She is the creator of a proprietary governance framework whose sole purpose is strategy deployment – cascading leadership expectations with clarity, embedding accountability, and translating strategy into disciplined day-to-day maintenance and capital decisions across the full asset lifecycle. Grounded in systems thinking, this operating model rapidly aligns leadership around a shared direction, eliminates siloed decision-making, enforces operational discipline, and drives organizations up the maturity curve by insisting on effectiveness first (doing the right things) before efficiency (doing things right).
With a deep technical background, Sherry serves as the trusted bridge between operations, maintenance, and IT. She excels at modelling cross-functional processes, authoring regulator-ready standards, and transferring knowledge to reduce clients’ dependence on external consultants. Known for direct, no-nonsense advice, she holds leadership accountable for endorsing and enforcing the behaviours that sustain performance and deliver maximum value, safety, and reliability from physical assets.
Kunle Ajani – Senior Consultant
Olukunke (Kunle) Ajani is a senior consultant with over 17 years in the Oil & Gas, Utilities, and Natural Resources industries. He has “hands-on” SAP R/3 experience on more than 6 SAP full life-cycle implementations.
Kunle’s skills include:
– Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
– Project leadership
– Asset Information Management
– Maintenance integrity and execution processes
– Work management
– SAP design, configuration, prototyping, implementation, data migration, system integration, and development/enhancements
– Business Warehouse
– Post Implementation Support
Ron Torrance – Senior Consultant
Ron Torrance has over 18 years of experience working as a professional services consultant in a variety of industries including Manufacturing, Mining, Oil & Gas, and Chemical throughout North America. His EAM project experience includes all aspects of maintenance business process development, configuration, integration, testing, validation, training, documentation, and support. Ron also has extensive experience managing and coordinating all aspects of master data conversion/migration and has held numerous positions both as a Project and Functional Lead on numerous EAM implementations. Ron specializes in Maintenance “Best Practices” with a concentration in Maintenance Planning and Scheduling.
Rahim Kanji – Senior Consultant
Rahim offers a comprehensive blend of Project/Program Management, Consulting, Training, Integration, Risk & Change Management as required – all aimed at maximizing business case realization.
Rahim possesses deep expertise in transformations, continuous improvement, and best-in-class sustainment across Enterprise Asset & Maintenance Work Management, Supply Chain, and Plan-to-Pay (P2P/S2P) processes.
Naved Qureshi – Senior Reliability Analyst
Naved is a Senior Reliability Analyst with 18+ years of experience across upstream, midstream, and downstream oil & gas. Naved drives asset performance, safety, and operational excellence through data-driven strategies, SAP S/4HANA (PM) and IBM Maximo implementations, and cross-functional leadership.
Naved is skilled in work management, master data governance, and KPI development, with a knack for standardizing processes, improving data quality, and leading change across complex organizations.
Ashley Grant – Senior Asset Management Engineer
Ashley is an accomplished Senior Asset Management Engineer with nearly 20 years of expertise in asset management, maintenance management, and project controls, with recent experience in leading the development of standards and processes for a maintenance management system.
Ashley combines her background in Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics from the University of Calgary with an SAP certification to bring strong technical expertise and a passion for optimizing operational efficiency and corporate decision making for all her projects.
Leo Brooks – SAP EAM/APM Consultant
Leo is an experienced SAP EAM/APM consultant with a background in the Oil & Gas, Utilities, Telecom, and Manufacturing sectors. He led the first SAP APM implementation in North America. He utilizes his expertise and fresh perspective to ask critical questions, understand & visualize data, and derive actionable insights. In addition to this, Leo is actively involved in several Data Governance initiatives, integrating foundational data standards with cutting-edge governance and management tools.
Leo is an avid skier and adventurer at heart.