The breadth of experience within Mercury’s leadership team and fleet management consultants surpasses all other fleet management consulting companies.
The original owners founded Mercury over 18 years ago with a single principle in mind — dedicating the firm’s mission towards the field of fleet management. That dedication is evident in Mercury’s senior management team who are widely seen as authorities in their particular areas of expertise. Our leadership team consists of highly experienced former professional fleet managers who have worked for a wide range of for-profit and not-for-profit firms and organizations, including governments, transit agencies, corporations, utilities, schools, and universities. Mercury’s senior consultants also include former leasing company executives, fleet information system experts, travel and relocation specialists, and statistical analysts.
As experts in every facet of fleet management, our team of consultants is frequently invited to discuss emerging issues, complex topics, and new solutions. We participate in a variety of industry conferences and trade shows in North America and around the world.
Our Leadership Team
Managing Director
Tony Yankovich, Managing Director
Tony Yankovich is a Managing Director with Mercury with more than 30 years’ experience as a management analyst and consultant in the fleet management and public works professions. He works primarily with state, provincial, and local government agencies and public and private universities on fleet management resources and business process reviews. He also directs Mercury fleet facility space programming and master planning projects, having performed assignments in this area across the continental US, in Hawaii, and in Central America. Prior to joining Mercury, Tony was a senior manager in the Fleet and Facilities Division of Eclipse, a division of Bucher, Willis & Ratliff Corporation, and a senior consultant with Maximus, Inc. Before beginning his consulting career, he worked for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS where he held management positions in the Public Works, Operations Services, and County Clerk departments. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Personnel Administration and Sociology from the University of Kansas.
Senior Manager
Ralph Filicko, Senior Manager
Ralph Filicko is a Senior Manager with Mercury who specializes in the evaluation, development, implementation, and administration of fleet management information technology, including asset management, motor pool management, fuel management, and telematics solutions. He has worked with many of the best-known commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ERP, EAM, and fleet-specific applications on the market today. He also oversees Mercury’s private cloud-based fleet management application hosting services, which have been utilized by such prominent organizations as Cox Enterprises, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, General Motors, Primoris Services Corporation, and State Farm and dozens of other companies, cities, and counties since 2003.
Prior to joining Mercury, Ralph was a senior project manager and implementation specialist for CCG Systems, Inc., providers of the FASTER fleet management information system, where he performed system implementation projects for more than 35 clients. During his 20-year US Army career, Ralph managed service and support operations for military base trade schools and field operations. He holds an associate’s degree in Accounting from Thomas Nelson Community College (Hampton, VA).
Manager
Barry Shpil, Manager
Barry Shpil, CFFM is a Manager with Mercury, assigned to our US federal government services team. He has over 33 years’ experience in the federal sector where he’s held positions as Transportation Specialist/Director with the US Navy Civil Service and Senior Fleet Manager, Fleet Policy Officer, and General Services Management Office Director with the US Department of State. He has been an active member of the Federal Fleet Policy Committee, which he chaired for three years; the Federal Motor Vehicle Executive Steering Committee; the Federal Interagency Committee on Alternative Fuels and Low Emission Vehicles (INTERFUEL), and several interagency working groups.
At Mercury, Barry assists federal agencies in the development of fleet management policy documents and plans, the conduct vehicle allocation methodology (VAM) studies; and with federal fleet statutory and regulatory compliance. He also serves as a training program developer and instructor the Certified Federal Fleet Specialist, Administrator, and Manager certification program, which Mercury developed and manages in partnership the National Property Management Association. Barry holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and is a Certified Federal Fleet Manager.
Manager
Dan Reichman, CFFM, Senior Consultant
Dan Reichmann, CFFM is a Manager with Mercury who works with both public and private-sector clients in the areas of fleet management business process evaluation and reengineering, fleet rightsizing and replacement plan development, and fleet management information systems implementation. Prior to joining Mercury, Dan spent 20 years with the Fleet Management Division of the US General Services Administration (GSA Fleet). GSA Fleet is the US federal government’s in-house fleet leasing and management services company, with a fleet of approximately 225,000 vehicles utilized by 75 military and civilian agencies.
During his tenure at GSA, Dan worked extensively in the areas of fleet management policy and procedure development and fleet management information systems requirements definition, development, implementation, and support of GSA Fleet’s
custom enterprise FMIS. As a Supervisory Management and Program Analyst, Dan helped to nationalize the fleet vehicle remarketing program, created GSA Fleet’s Short Term Rental program, and worked in various capacities for the Business Management division with a primary focus on break-even vehicle rate setting analysis and fuel forecasting. In the Operations Division, Dan established a centralized vehicle recall tracking and notification process. He also oversaw GSA Fleet’s Maintenance Control Center (three locations generating ~220,000 annual maintenance and repair service
authorizations per year) and GSA Fleet’s Accident Management Center (two locations), before becoming a Product Manager for two teams in GSA Fleet’s system modernization efforts.
Dan holds a BA in Economics from Georgetown University, an MBA from the University of Maryland, and is a Certified Federal Fleet Manager.
Manager
Bannu Hurtig, PE, Senior Consultant
Bannu Hurtig, PE is a Manager with Mercury, who provides expertise in key aspects of fleet management, fleet-related information technology, and outsourced fleet management services to both public and private-sector organizations. Immediately prior to joining Mercury, she served as the Director of Fleet Asset Management for the City of Toronto Fleet Services Division where she was responsible for vehicle acquisition, maintenance and repair and special projects such as Green Fleet, telematics, and outsourcing maintenance and repair for light-duty vehicles for a 5,000-unit fleet. Prior to that, Bannu spent 28 years with BCE, Inc., the preeminent information and communications technology company in Canada. While at Bell, she served as Managing Director in the company’s Vehicle Fleet Solutions (VFS) organization which managed a nationwide fleet of 13,000 vehicles used by approximately 15 different business units. The Bell fleet operation included almost 60 company garages in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, an in-house fleet M&R call center, and contracts with third-party service providers in other regions of the country. At VFS, Bannu was a key leader in the design, development, deployment, and support of enterprise fleet asset management and telematic solutions. Bannu holds a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto and is a licensed Professional Engineer.
Manager
Dale Mottram, Manager
Dale Mottram is a Manager with Mercury Associates where he works on our corporate fleet management services team, advising clients in such areas as customizing fleet optimization strategies, leveraging cost savings opportunities, and assisting with vendor performance evaluations. Dale also works closely with Mercury’s data analytics team where he brings expertise in developing complex toolsets to reduce manual data aggregation and with standardized and ad hoc fleet data analysis services.
Prior to joining Mercury in 2021, Dale spent 9 years working at a fleet management company in various Customer Support and Strategic Consulting roles. Most recently, he was a Senior Consultant with Merchants Fleet where he developed and executed multi-year, data driven fleet optimization strategies focused on controlling and reducing fleet expense. Other key areas of focus were improving driver behavior through customized telematics reporting and alerts, aligning annual fleet budget with vehicle replacement strategies, and providing industry benchmark comparisons. In addition to providing strategic support for large customers, Dale also developed and maintained internal toolsets and cost models, and worked closely with IT to design, build, test and launch new fleet technology and reporting capabilities. Dale holds a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in quantitative analysis from Southern New Hampshire University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of New Hampshire.
Manager
Scott Rood, CAFM, Senior Consultant
Scott Rood, CAFM is a local government Manager with recently joined Mercury Associates as a Senior Consultant assigned to our state fleet services team. He spent 22 years in the US Air Force, starting as a mechanic and retiring as the fleet maintenance manager for Holman AFB where he managed a work force of civilian and military personnel, including 90 maintenance technicians, and a $35 million annual operating budget. He subsequently held fleet management positions with the State of Washington State Motor Pool, overseeing the maintenance of approximately 1,500 vehicles statewide; Clark County, WA Utilities; and Clark County, WA Public Works Department. Scott has served as the President of the Public Fleet Manager’s Association, and as Chairman of the Fleet Committee and member of the Board of Directors of the Washington State Chapter of the American Public Works Association. He holds several ASE maintenance technician certifications and an MBA from Saint Martin’s University (Lacey, WA). He is a Certified Automotive Fleet Manager.
Senior Consultant/Lead Analyst
Sara Hollis, Senior Consultant/Lead Analyst
Sarah Hollis is a Senior Consultant with Mercury and serves as the Lead Analyst on the Data Team. Sarah has primary responsibility for the development and maintenance of several of Mercury’s analysis and decision support tools, including our fleet replacement planning and cost modelling program, CARCAP (Capital Asset Replacement Cost Analysis Program™); our optimal vehicle replacement cycle analysis tool, ORCA; and the company’s eVAM solution suite for conducting fleet rightsizing studies. She also has played a leadership role in developing Mercury’s Web-based driver survey tools that are integral to our conduct of fleet rightsizing studies. She has managed surveys of as many as 36,000 vehicle operators for a single fleet rightsizing study. Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Houston.
Senior Systems Engineer
Deborah Whitehead, Senior Systems Engineer
Deborah Whitehead is a Systems Engineer at Mercury Associates with 25 years of experience in the information technology and fleet management profession. She is a lead technologist with Mercury’s Cloud services and has assisted several prominent organizations with information technology projects including the implementations of commercial fleet systems, fuel management solutions and motor pool products; architecture and deployment of Cloud infrastructure; API and web service interface design; project management; and solution design and solution acceptance testing. Prior to joining Mercury, Ms. Whitehead served in executive technology positions with Southway Systems, Inc. and Wedge Services.
Senior Advisor
Paul Lauria, Senior Advisor
Paul Lauria currently serves as a senior advisor to Mercury Associates and provides subject matter expertise on client engagements. Paul was a co-founder of Mercury and served as the company’s President for 20 years.
During his 37-year consulting career, Paul worked with a wide array of organizations in the public and private sectors touching on virtually every facet of fleet management and operation. He conducted presentations and workshops on fleet management best practices for more than 50 organizations in 20 countries around the world; directed research studies for entities such as the RAND Corporation and the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies; and served as an expert witness on vehicle costs and vehicle safety management in more than 20 class-action lawsuits and arbitrations. He also authored articles for a large number of transportation and fleet industry journals.
Prior to co-founding Mercury in 2002, Paul held positions as the Vice President and Director of Fleet Management Consulting Services for Maximus, Inc.; Senior Manager in the National Transportation Consulting Group of EY; and transportation analyst with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Durham (NC) Transit. He holds a Master of Regional Planning degree in Transportation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Senior Client Advisor
Janis Christensen, Senior Client Advisor
Janis Christensen currently serves as a Senior Client Advisor and subject matter expert on client engagements. Janis formerly served as Managing Director of Mercury’s corporate consulting practice.
Janis has more than 35 years’ experience as a corporate fleet manager and fleet management consultant and directed most of Mercury’s projects related to the optimization of fleet leasing and management services, and also is well known for her expertise in fleet safety and risk management, DOT compliance, asset acquisition and remarketing, and fleet fuel management. Janis has conducted presentations and workshops for thousands of industry professionals for a variety of prominent industry and professional associations, has authored dozens of articles, and has written several published policies and procedures manuals. Her driver’s agreement template, designed in 1984, has helped hundreds of fleet managers implement comprehensive change in the management of employee use of company-owned vehicles.
Before joining Mercury in 2006, Janis spent eight years running her own fleet consulting firm and 15 years as a fleet manager at TRW (later acquired by Northrop Grumman), where she managed a fleet of 1,700 vehicles. She received the NAFA Fleet Management Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award for leadership, innovation, education and advocacy of professional fleet management, in 1999. Janis is a Certified Automotive Fleet Manager.
Senior Client Advisor
Marc Canton, Senior Client Advisor
Marc Canton serves as a subject matter expert and advisor on client engagements. With Mercury, he formerly held the position of Senior Manager and director of the Data Analytics Team.
Marc has over 22 years of experience in transportation and fleet management. As the director of data analytics he managed support of Mercury’s market-specific and functional consulting teams with an array of standardized and ad hoc fleet data analysis services. He also directed consulting projects focused on fleet rightsizing and right typing, fleet replacement planning and alternative capital financing analysis, and fleet cost of service analysis and charge-back rate development. Prior to joining Mercury in 2017, he was transportation director for Fordham University, a position he held for 12 years. His experience includes technology and software implementation, the development of driver training programs, supply chain management, strategic planning, and fleet management policy development and process reengineering.
Marc is a National Safety Council certified defensive driving instructor, and holds an MBA in Market Management and post-MBA certificates in Advanced Analytics and Executive Leadership from Fordham University.
Federal Contracts and Business Advisor
Diane Thomas, Federal Contracts and Business Advisor
Diane Thomas currently serves as an advisor to Mercury on federal contract administration and business practices. Diane formerly served as the firm’s business manager for over 17 years where she handled the day-to-day financial and administrative operations of the firm. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Business, Accounting, and Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
What Makes Our Team Unique
We understand that technical expertise in fleet management is not always sufficient to compel organizations to implement needed improvements to their business practices. Mercury’s professionals have many years of experience educating senior decision makers and elected officials as to how effective fleet management and operating practices contribute to overall organizational success.
