Robert G. Bea, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Bea is a civil engineering professor at the University of California at Berkley. He has studied over 630 disaster of all types - - he played a major role in the Katrina investigation. Bea is also an expert on offshore drilling and is currently consulting with the presidential commission on the gulf disaster. He was interviewed on 60 Minutes (but not on Oprah) several months ago regarding his initial thoughts on what might have gone wrong - - he comes across as very smart, very experienced, very problems-are-caused-by-people, and very blunt.

Bea categories disasters into four groups. One involves an organization simply ignoring warning signs through over-confidence and incompetence. He thinks the BP spill falls into that category. Bea has pointed to congressional testimony that BP ignored problems with a dead battery, leaky cement job and loose hydraulic fittings. Bea also has stated that disasters don't happen because of an "evil empire" - - it's hubris, arrogance, and indolence (and like I wrote in a previous post - - two will get you three).

Bea is head of the Engineering & Project Management Program at Berkley were he teaches several classes. One is Human & Organizational Factors - - Quality and Reliability of Engineering. Supposedly he utilizes his own book and materials - - would love to get a copy of his material for this class and the others.

He also has the following on his school website - - The world needs engineers . . . .

whose truth cannot be bought,

whose word is their bond,

who put character and honesty above wealth,

who do not hesitate to take chances,

who will not lose their identity in a crowd,

who will be honest in small things as in great things,

who will make no compromise with wrong,

whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires,

who will not say they do it "because everybody else does it,"

who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity,

who do no believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for winning success,

who are not ashamed to stand for truth when it is unpopular, and

who have integrity and wisdom in addition to knowledge.