Mr. Jake Ortego Joins National Association of Construction Auditors’ (NACA) Advisory Board

Published by NACA on August 8, 2011. | Press Release

National Association of Construction Auditors (NACA) is excited to welcome Mr. Jake Ortego CCA, PE, CCE, to its Advisory Board. Jake Ortego is the Vice President of Construction Consulting for Commercial Cost Control, Inc. He is a licensed mechanical engineer with over 16 years of experience in all phases of the design-construction process.

Midlothian, VA

National Association of Construction Auditors (NACA) (http://www.thenaca.org) is excited to welcome Mr. Jake Ortego CCA, PE, CCE, to its Advisory Board. Jake Ortego is the Vice President of Construction Consulting for Commercial Cost Control, Inc. He is a licensed mechanical engineer with over 16 years of experience in all phases of the design-construction process. His projects and consulting engagements have provided him with extensive involvement in the project controls, project management and engineering management of industrial, institutional and commercial projects.

The Advisory Board was formed to seek out experts in the fields of construction management and risk, auditing, real estate development, architecture, and engineering to help serve the association and its members by providing expert counsel and guidance.

“Mr. Ortego is a key addition to our Advisory Board,” said NACA Chairman & Founder, Brian Felix. “His range of experience and expertise provides our developing organization exactly the broad perspective to help us get to where we want to go.”

Mr. Ortego has conducted management and financial controls assessments of significant capital projects with a goal of improving performance and mitigating strategic and operational risks. Additionally, he has developed and implemented financial and project controls, as well as policies and procedures for the design-procurement-construction process. Mr. Ortego has performed construction audits and consulting on projects across many sectors including commercial, financial, healthcare, biomedical, chemical and heavy industry. He has performed project controls and project management for projects between $50MM to $1.2B. Beyond his auditing and consulting work, Mr. Ortego has been requested to provide expert opinions for construction litigation as well as neutral third party opinions as part of settlement between parties.

Prior to joining Commercial Cost Control, Inc., Mr. Ortego was a primary member of Deloitte’s North Central Construction Advisory Group. This was preceded by his career in consulting engineering with Eichleay Engineers and SNC-Lavalin in Pittsburgh, PA. During this time, he spent 2 years managing an engineering office in the Philippines that focused on industrial construction. Mr. Ortego’s time in the industrial design-construction arena has given him experience in project management, project controls, schedule management, cost engineering, progress audits, contract management and contract negotiations.

In addition to being a Certified Construction Auditor, Mr. Ortego is a Licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Cost Engineer. He is a graduate of Boston University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Mechanical Engineering. He is published with the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) as well as “Retail Construction” magazine. Mr. Ortego has also provided conference presentations for construction audits as well as best practices for K-12 school construction.

As stated on their website (http://www.thenaca.org), the NACA mission is to unite those individuals and be recognized as the authority on construction project controls. “Our vision,” explains Brian Felix “is to bring all the project team members together to exchange knowledge and ideas to improve the overall control environment for the Owners, delivering them greater value.”

The NACA grants the designation of Certified Construction Auditor (CCA) and Construction Control Professional (CCP) to the individuals with the expertise in these areas. The National Association of Construction Auditors is committed to providing resources, information, and leadership for NACA members, their clients, and the public to ensure the highest standard of construction controls possible. For a limited period of time, the National Association of Construction Auditors (NACA) is currently accepting applications under the grandfathering provision for the Certified Construction Auditor (CCA) and Construction Control Professional (CCP) designations, setting the standard in these fields (http://www.thenaca.org). The provisions are a point-based system based upon education, training, and experience.

The National Association of Construction Auditors’ (NACA) inaugural Annual Conference will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino Resort in Las Vegas, September 19-21, 2011. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) certified CPE sessions include topics related to the control environment of construction projects, fraud, government contracting, and ethics; led by recognized training leaders such as Rich Townsend, Denise Cicchella, Jim Wilmot (Wilmot/Sanz Architects) John Croy, Joe Kranz (Turner Construction), Roy Block, and John Wisz. Additionally, James D. Ratley, CFE, President of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners will be the keynote speaker.

“All those involved in controlling capital projects, such as Auditors, Architects, Owners, Owners Representatives, Project Managers, Cost Engineers, Risk Professionals, and Project Accountants will benefit from this one of a kind event.” Brian Felix remarked. “The available attendee spaces are filling quickly, so we advise those interested in a one-of-a-kind event to register soon.”