Kelly L. Pettersen

Kelly Pettersen is a Senior Director in FTI Consulting’s Forensic & Litigation Consulting segment based in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Pettersen is a member of the Construction, Projects & Assets practice, assisting clients with claims and dispute resolution. Ms. Pettersen has more than 10 years of experience in construction, project controls, claims and litigation consulting.

Ms. Pettersen’s experience includes assisting clients with construction claims related to schedule delay and productivity loss. She has managed schedules in both proactive and forensic situations. She has helped clients across multiple industries prepare change orders, evaluate risk and assess damages. Ms. Pettersen has issued expert reports representing general contractors, subcontractors, and engineers. She has also represented clients and presented findings during mediations proceedings.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Ms. Pettersen aided clients on projects across many sectors of the construction industry, including industrial, residential and commercial. She has analyzed construction claims related to schedule delay, productivity loss, change management and standard of care. Ms. Pettersen was involved in large-scale industrial construction with an emphasis on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (“MEP”) and commissioning scopes. In the role of schedule manager, Ms. Pettersen assisted a large general contractor in the development and management of the integrated project schedule. She worked with the team to navigate the change order process and successfully communicated progress reports to the owner.

Before becoming a consultant, Ms. Pettersen worked for the largest utility in the United States on their Power Generation Operations team. In a civil engineering support role, she assisted coal and natural gas power plant project teams with ad hoc projects. This work included reviewing drawings and plans for ad hoc facilities maintenance projects, inspecting and providing remediation plans for coal ash ponds, preparing for planned outages, and developing design standards for regional plants to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) requirements.

Ms. Pettersen holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, a M.S. in engineering systems management from Texas A&M University and a M.B.A from the University of Georgia. She is certified by the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (“AACE”) International as a Planning and Scheduling Professional. Ms. Pettersen has served as a board member on the Construction Leadership Council for the Associated General Contractors (“AGC”) in both Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee. She currently serves as a member of the Industry Outreach Committee for the American Bar Association Forum on Construction Law.