WHY SHERPA?
sher·pa
[ she(ə)r-pə ] noun. A member of a people living on the high southern slopes of the Himalayas who are known for providing support for foreign trekkers and mountain climbers.
Inspired by the elite expertise of Sherpas who guide mountaineers seeking to scale the Himalayas, Sherpa Strategies was created to give contractors and owners firsthand insights into navigating a new and changing terrain in infrastructure project management.
Phil DuPuis
Sherpa Strategies’ founder, Phil DuPuis, brings more than 35 years of experience in construction and more than 25 years’ experience in collaborative delivery. He built a 33-year career at Kiewit Corporation and its affiliates in various business development, design-build, and operational capacities.
Throughout his career, he has built a track record of success managing and coordinating multi-location and multi-market projects, including leading wins for, and participating in, over 25 heavy construction contracts totaling more than $5 billion in contract revenue.
To win a project, he brings an uncanny ability to pinpoint clients’ needs and build teams to meet those needs. This ability to identify solutions to complex challenges extends into the legislative process as well. Most recently, he led a coalition in California that facilitated the passage of California Senate Bill 991, allowing any city, county, or special district in the state to use Progressive Design-Build on any project valued at more than $5 million that stores, treats, or transports water. When issues occur, he brings experience managing a range of crises, including local public relations issues. As well as being an effective executer, he also brings an ability to teach, training teams on successful sales methods, proposal development, and project funding techniques.
Phil holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Augustana College (Illinois) and an Associate of Science degree from Southeastern Community College (Iowa).
The Team
We leverage a network of best-in-class experts to give you the edge in winning deals and delivering world-class projects, building the right team with the necessary expertise—pure and simple.
Jamal has over 30 years of experience in water quality, water and wastewater treatment planning and engineering. He is sought after nationally to support the creative implementation of engineering solutions and innovative technologies assessments. He currently serves as Principal of Awad Engineering, which provides creative and innovative engineering solutions to water and wastewater municipal clients. Prior to that, he held executive leadership roles with GHD, HR Green, Inc., MWH Global, and CH2M HILL.
Jamal Awad, PE, Ph.D.Awad Engineering 
Matt brings more than 26 years of experience in project management. He has led several successful alternative delivery projects and is known for his partnership building and cooperative approach. He has served as project director for more than $1 billion in Utah Transit Authority (UTA) projects, including the UTA FrontRunner South, UTA Utah Valley Express Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the UTA Ogden BRT, and UTA Vineyard Station and Double Track FrontRunner projects. He currently serves as the UTA project director for a joint UTA/UDOT FrontRunner double track project that is employing Progressive Design-Build.
Matthew CarterUTA/CocoConsult 
Leofwin brings more than 30 years of experience in infrastructure advisory services, business development, and sales, with a focus on design-build, design-build-operate, and public-private partnership efforts for water, wastewater, and transportation projects. He is considered an industry thought leader on collaborative delivery education, training, research, and the application of collaborative and P3 delivery models for the water and wastewater industries. He currently serves as Principal of All Things Collaborative Delivery. Prior to that, he held executive leadership roles at Brown and Caldwell and CH2M HILL (now Jacobs), and served as board member, president, and education committee chair of the Water Collaborative Delivery Association.
Leofwin ClarkAll Things Collaborative Delivery 
Steve is a civil engineering expert with 40 years of experience in the industry. He most recently led engineering and construction for the Utah Transit Commuter Rail Authority, during which time he oversaw the environmental, planning, design, construction, and commissioning of two major rail lines. Known for his collaborative approach, he worked with municipalities, Union Pacific Railroad, utilities, government agencies, and Utah representatives to make those projects happen. Prior to that, he served as Interim Executive Director and Chief Capital Development Officer for the Utah Transit Authority.
Steve MeyerCocoConsult 
Courtney is a recognized organizational management expert. She founded CocoConsult in 2018 to help others apply collaborative approaches to procuring and delivering projects primarily in the transportation/heavy civil market sector. CocoConsult is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a certified DBE. Her firm has worked with, or is currently working with, Flatiron, Caltrans, Middlesex, Herzog, Valley Metro Rail, Stacy and Witbeck, Sound Transit, and Kiewit on collaborative delivery projects.
Courtney RobertsonCocoConsult 
Kevin brings more than 30 years of experience developing large-scale transportation, water, wastewater, and transit projects in the northwestern United States. During the first 20 years of his career, he worked with heavy civil contractors, serving in various roles including project engineer, project manager, and chief estimator. He currently leads a group of construction professionals providing constructablity reviews, cost estimating, construction scheduling, and value engineering, and provides support for the planning, design, and delivery of large transportation, water, wastewater, and transit projects in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.
Kevin SakaiOtt-Sakai 
Sudi is a former city engineer with more than 30 years of experience in municipal engineering and grant and fund management at the federal, state, and local levels. She founded Engineering Solutions Services in 2012 with the goal of assisting local entities in achieving their goals in funding and compliance, program management, quality assurance/quality control, and project delivery. She leverages her experience transforming the agencies where she worked from losing funding to securing the maximum grant funding possible, meeting the various funding agency requirements, and serving as examples for successful audit processes.
Sudi Shoja, PE, F.ASCEEngineering Solutions Services 
James brings 26 years of experience in civil and environmental engineering, serving as project manager, design manager, design lead, and project engineer. He has completed more than 100 projects in municipal and industrial water and wastewater treatment plants, ocean desalination, bio-solid and biogas systems, pump stations and pipelines, hydraulic modeling, and SCADA systems. He is considered an expert in project planning, designing, cost estimating, construction management, system start-up, water quality testing and modeling, and AutoCAD, and in operating and maintaining water and wastewater treatment plants.
James Wang, PE, N2WN2W Engineering 
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Experience
Our experts have managed water, wastewater, and transportation projects with world-class organizations including Kiewit, Jacobs, Parsons, and Granite Construction. They bring a demonstrated talent for innovation, commitment to clients, and an ability to manage projects on the largest scale.
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Where We Work
Paul Bramson, CEO, The Paul Bramson Companies
“Phil brings decades of construction experience and he understands how an owner thinks. That makes him unique and able to see things from different perspectives to find the optimal solution.”
Bill Cole, President, Foresight Solutions
“Phil knows how to make projects work and how to make people work in them.”