Al Hirsch

"Al Hirsch is the Managing Director at CTARCo International. Al most recently completed an assignment by introducing TinMan Systems' fully autonomous Artificial Intelligence Neural Network application to agencies and research bodies of the U.S. Government. Previously, Al served as Project Manager for California's Aqueduct Control System Upgrade in Sacramento, CA. Prior to the California assignment, Al was retained by the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) as the Program Manager for the 3-year Texas Nodal Energy Implementation and Market Management Systems Upgrade for the State of Texas. ERCOT is the agency that provides electrical energy management, distribution, and market for 95% of the State. Earlier, Al completed a major 4-year assignment directing the North America Contracts Management (PMO), National Procurement, Quality and Operations Group for AREVA, a large multinational nuclear energy company headquartered in Paris, France. In 1966, Al began his career in avionics design of Avionics Flight Control Processors, the Commercial Aircraft Collision Avoidance System, and L-1011 Area Navigation Flight Control System. Al went on to provide the flight readiness evaluations for the Minuteman III Missile test flights and subsequently was assigned Project Manager providing the worldwide Support and Depot for the Defense Systems (Satellite) Communications Systems. Al then was promoted Project Director in 1974 for the NATO Spread Spectrum/Time Division Multiple Access Satellite Communications Systems project, which was installed and integrated into the military communications and management structure of the thirteen NATO signatories. At completion, in the Spring of 1977, Al was asked to take over, recover, restructure and redirect the NAVSTAR GPS Concept Validation and Demonstration User Segment Program taking the program to Full Scale Development. By 1980, Al had taken the GPS Program through two major DSARC decision milestones, which resulted in the initial GPS constellation and functionality being available to the U.S. DoD, Civil, and NATO Orgs. In 1986, Al led a new $10 Million Optical Air Data System development project for the Titan Corp. based on a new application of the Laser Velocimetry technology partially developed at Rolls Royce in the UK. He has managed joint ventures as well as large and small technology programs for international and domestic government agencies and commercial businesses. He has served as COO and CFO to several startup companies. Al holds a B.S.E.E. with Honors and Distinction from Iowa State Univ. and a Master of Science in Executive Management from Pepperdine University’s Presidential & Key Executive Program. Additionally, he has completed graduate studies in management at the Wharton School of the Univ. of Pennsylvania. Al also served as an Instructor for the Graduate School of Business at City University. Al is currently in his 20th year as an instructor for the Univ. of Washington’s Professional & Continuing Education Group. In addition, Al is beginning his 4th year teaching for the UCLA Extension Group. In 2003, Al was awarded City University’s President’s Distinguished Instructor Award for instruction delivered in their Project Management Master of Science Program as well as the University’s Project Management Certificate Program. In 2017, Al received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Legacy Award.