Ana E. Diaz, PE, MBA, LSS, MBB
Areas of Expertise: Failure Analysis
Ana E. Diaz is a registered Professional Engineer with a diverse background in technology and operations.
She spent a 32-year career at E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. providing technical support for high-hazard chemical operations. She brings a “root cause” or “holistic” perspective to address difficult technical questions. Ms. Diaz is fluent in Spanish, certified as a Lean Six-Sigma Master Black Belt, and holds two patents. She is licensed as a Professional Engineer in Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Ms. Diaz served a unique role during litigation of a $6 million property-damage subrogation suit. When prior defense counsel was abruptly terminated, new counsel needed to come up to speed quickly. Ms. Diaz reviewed all plaintiffs' experts' reports, summarized key technical points, synthesized plaintiff's arguments and identified “fatal flaws” in the plaintiff's experts' work. She collaborated with defense counsel to review all exhibits and found key documents buried in discovery exhibits which were used to rebut plaintiff's arguments. She wrote questions for cross-examination and provided exhibits used to rebut plaintiff's experts' testimony during cross-examination.
Ms. Diaz has held positions in the research and manufacturing units of Titanium Technologies, Fluorochemicals, Specialty Chemicals and Corporate Engineering. She was the principal investigator of an oxygen pre-heater failure that sent 11 people to the hospital. In a personal injury lawsuit arising from the failure, her testimony was instrumental in dismissing claims of negligence against DuPont. Ms. Diaz performed the failure analysis of a Dowtherm® vaporizer tube that resulted in a major fire at a nylon plant.
Ms. Diaz has provided competitive intelligence and benchmarking of competitors' products. She has done fitness-to-operate inspections of highly hazardous process equipment. She was a lead engineer in pre-startup inspections for the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site L-Reactor. She was holder of the DOE Q-Clearance.
Ms. Diaz is a member Delaware Association of Professional Engineers (DAPE). She received the DAPE 2010 Distinguished Service Award. She received DuPont's Engineering Excellence Award, the Specialty Chemicals Technology Award and the Electronic & Communications Technology Quality Excellence Award. Currently Ms. Diaz is Adjunct Faculty at Widener University's Engineering School.