Patrick Leach, Author of Why Can't You Just Give Me The Number?

An Executive's Guide to Using Probabilistic Thinking to Manage Risk and to Make Better Decisions

Biography

Patrick Leach was Senior Consultant and then CEO with Decision Strategies Incorporated (DSI).

Previously, he worked for Texaco as a geophysicist, partner and government coordinator, and portfolio manager. He won Best Paper awards at the Indonesian Petroleum Society conference in Jakarta in 1990 and at the Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe conference in London in 1997.

Mr. Leach has a BS degree in Geomechanics from the University of Rochester and an MBA from the University of Houston. He currently resides in Missouri City, Texas.

One of the more interesting periods of his career was spent as “in-house evangelist” for probabilistic methods at Texaco. He traveled around the world, visited upstream business offices, taught workshops in stochastic methods, helped project teams apply probabilistic analysis, and trained local experts. He observed the need to educate the company’s senior management in how to interpret analysis results and how to incorporate this type of logic into decision-making and everyday thought processes. Patrick also taught courses on using Crystal Ball software for simulation and modeling and still lectures on this topic.

From DSI's Web Site*

Pat is a recognized expert in risk management and decision-making in the face of uncertainty, and has published and presented numerous papers on these subjects. He has extensive international experience in the development and implementation of creative strategic initiatives, probabilistic methodologies, and upstream energy projects. An excellent communicator and teacher, he has added millions of dollars in value to clients' projects through employee training, process facilitation, VOI analysis, and stochastic modeling. He has added millions of dollars in value to clients’ projects through employee training, process facilitation, VOI analysis, and stochastic modeling. He has worked for years with a broad variety of teams around the world to achieve business objectives.

Personal

Pat and I had a blast working on his book - there's no other word for it! We had fabulous (a casual observer might have used the word "passionate") lunch-time discussions over some of Pat's points and opinions, and both of us gained insight from those discussions.

The comment from DSI's web site about his speaking ability is not an exaggeration - he is one of the best speakers that I've ever had the privilege to hear. If he's speaking at a conference, go if you can - it will be worth it!

I'm hoping that Pat will keep track of his new ideas and eventally we can come out with a 2nd Edition of Number? with additional interesting concepts, stories, and just plain fun!

*Reference: DSI's Web Site.