Face to Face
Wyche Ford
Manager of Projects

Wyche Ford is a native Virginian who moved north to Alaska to find work and adventure during the 1970s oil boom. He has since worked a variety of construction jobs on the North Slope, across the state, and overseas. After a 20 year career with ARCO he joined Alyeska in 1999 as the Valdez Maintenance and Reliability Manager and is currently the company’s Manager of Projects.

Wyche has a civil engineering degree from the University of Virginia. He enjoys exploring the Alaska wilderness and spends his summer free time cruising Prince William Sound in his sea kayak and powerboat. During the winter he switches to cross-country and downhill skis. He is also a woodworker who enjoys building furniture and remodeling projects.

Q: What do you do for Alyeska?

My team and I are responsible for the planning and execution of all major maintenance and project work along the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. The team consists of the project managers who manage each individual project, the construction supervisors who are in the field with our implementation contractors and our Project Control staff who provide cost and schedule support. The majority of our company’s project work supports the pipeline, pump stations and Valdez terminal facilities maintenance through timely repairs and life cycle replacement helping keep the system reliability well above 99%.

I also chair the Alyeska Project Review Board that reviews all project work requests and allocates the budget and resources needed to get them done in a timely and efficient manner.

Q: What is your biggest challenge?

My toughest challenge is to develop the best business cases possible for all of the pipeline’s different maintenance and capital project proposals. It is important for me to be fair and objective because I have to evaluate costs and benefits of every department’s projects so that the Project Review Board and TAPS Owner Companies have the information that they need to determine each project’s relative value and to make funding decisions.

Q: What are your goals at Alyeska?

I’m trying to refine and improve Alyeska’s project management practices. I review our performance against defined metrics, especially with regard to the front end loading phase of the project cycle. With our TAPS workforce I am always looking for new ways to support achieving our mutual goal of “Nobody Gets Hurt.”