Mr. Holt is currently the Chief, Value Engineering/Value Management (VE/VM) Office, Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and is responsible for VE/VM on all Corps design and construction. He began his Value experience in 1988, when he accepted the Memphis District Value Engineering Officer (VEO) position of the Corps in Memphis, Tennessee. Michael was the first Corps VEO to allow a non-Federal project partner to participate in a Corps VE workshop, which is now standard policy.
He was promoted to Headquarters in 1991 and has been a proponent of the Value Profession from that level since. Under his sole leadership from 1997 thru 2003, the Corps VE/VM Program has documented the stretching of over $1.1 billion in United States Taxpayer resources. He uses the term "stretching", since the savings are generally used to avoid cost overages, to enhance current projects, or to build additional authorized project facilities for which funds were previously unavailable. Under his leadership, the Corps VE/VM Program has moved from technical only to proactively searching for and resolving issues. It has been used to:
In 1997, Mr. Holt participated as a Task Group Member, for Office of Management & Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States. He is currently a member of Department of Defense's Value Engineering Management Advisory Group, and has been continuously active in the National Capital Chapter of SAVE International, holding both Vice President and Secretary positions at various times.
Previous work includes Chief, Project Operations Branch in Construction, as well as Project Manager experience in both Planning and Engineering Divisions while in Memphis District. Prior to that, he worked 6 years in the private sector as a Consultant Engineer and Land Surveyor in Fort Smith Arkansas, and worked summers with the Missouri State Highway Department of Construction during undergraduate studies.
Mr. Holt has a Master of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, graduate studies at Memphis State University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Engineering from Arkansas State University (Honors).
He is registered as a Professional Engineer and a Certified Value Specialist (CVS). He has been a Registered Land Surveyor in Arkansas (now inactive). He has spoken internationally, at multiple conferences, workshops and symposiums, and has received numerous awards, including the Defense Commanders Award for Civilian Service, and a Presidential Citation Award from SAVE International.
He was All Southland Conference in Track and Cross Country, Southland Conference 3000-meter Steeplechase Champion, Harding Invitational 6-mile Champion, and was named an Outstanding College Athlete of America while at Arkansas State University.
Jobs which helped him decide to gain a secondary education include picking cotton by hand until 5th grade, pitching watermelons from fields to trailer to truck, selling newspapers, and a stint as a "sledge-hammer" mechanic at an auto salvage yard.
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