The Institute's founder and President, Mr. Robert Knauer, is a former federal contracting officer (CO) who holds certified as a Certified Public Purchasing Officer (CPPO), and Certified Professional Contract Manager (CPCM).  He is also DAWIA and FAC-C Level III senior level certified in contracting.  He is a nationally recognized speaker on subjects that include government contracting, performance based acquisition, ethics and procurement integrity in contracting, public-private competitions and public-private partnerships (P3).  The firm he founded, The Acquisition Institute Incorporated, began in January 2007, after his retirement from the federal government.  Though small, the firm is well-respected in its dealing with federal, state and local government procurement training and consulting.  Additionally, the Acquisition Institute Inc., has taken on specialized consulting in IT Performance Based Contracting along with integration and consolidation of IT support functions for the FAA, and in support of vendors proposing on IT support RFP's.  Recently, Mr. Knauer completed a one-year consulting assignment with the FAA Air Traffic Organization to to help them consolidate 8 regional IT service support contracts (centers) into one large national IT support contract now split into three regional service centers (Eastern Service Area), (Centeral Service Area) and (Western Service Area).  He completed that assignment with a successful award of a $40 million dollar contract, and today that FAA IT national contract covers 75,000 IT users.  Mr. Knauer will be happy to explain the ins-and-outs of the PWS development, Service Level Agreement proposal and negotiation process, along with the source selection process to any agencies wanting to consolidate their IT stove piped operations, and point them in the right direction in developing an IT PWS that can lean their expenses.  During his career Mr. Knauer has been involved with federal competitive sourcing, public-private-partnerships (P3), federal contracting and nearly all aspects of procurement ethics and standards of conduct one can imagine when dealing with multi-million dollar contracts.  The Acquisition Institute provides 90% of its classes at customer sites and from time-to-time at the University of Virginia (northern commuter campus) for those agencies that do have sufficient training space, or which prefer to hold training off-site and not at their agency location the Acquisition Institute Inc., (www.acquisitioninstitute.com) can help.  The Acquisition Institute Inc., better known as TAI Inc., and represented by the logo "TAI" provides acquisition and ethics  courses throughout the United States, as well as, overseas upon request.  Mr. Knauer and his firm teach both in the continental United States and overseas.  From time-to-time Mr. Knauer accepts speaking engagements on a Pro-bono basis, except for travel and per diem reimbursement, when talking on Ethics and Ethics reform.  He feels passionately about teaching procurement ethics and the laws that government ethics and behavior in government contracting.  From his experiences working with others he has encountered and assisted many souls who have thru willful blindness ruined their lives all by simply not following proper ethics rules.

As a leading subject matter expert in workplace and procurement ethics, performance based acquisition improvement, performance based payments, development of performance work statements and service level agreements (SLA) for service contracts (not just Information Technology), he will point you in the right direction, with the right understanding about the project your agency or firm intends to pursue.  As a former contracting officer (CO), he was one of the few to successfully use the 2-step sealed bidding process successfully in the federal government where he was able to complete contract awards in half the amount of time it took other CO's to make an awards in 14-18 months.  He can teach just about any contracting-procurement ethics-standards of conduct-procurement integrity/OCI class to any industry or agency firm upon request.  Many have already taken his hard hitting ethics training over the typical "ho-hum- put-you-to-sleep" workshops typical federal ethics officials provide their employees.  In 35 years, Robert has developed hundreds of performance work statement (PWS) over the years and can demonstrate how you can be successful in developing your PWS and Statement of Objective (SOO) documents for any function.  As a professional speaker, he has trained over 6,000 people since 1984 on a variety of entertaining government topics that revolve around procurement integrity, and contracting best practices.  A subject matter expert in RFP development,  public-private competitions (A-76), post-award contracting, and performance based acquisition. Because of his expetise in a broad range of areas, Mr. Knauer is a sought after contracts lecturer and trainer.  He is a recognized leader in all aspects of public-private competitions with over 25 years experience in A-76, and has 35 years of experience overall in program management, government contracting, and business process reengineering, finance, and is able to integrate his skills with complex business studies involving competitive sourcing and service support activities to meld with the nations newest and form of contracting known as (P3) or Public-Private-Partnerships.  

Mr. Knauer is also a certified "Train-the-Trainer" and has taught thousands of government and industry personnel in courses ranging from competitive sourcing to contracting best practices. He teaches the COTR basic and refresher courses, business process reengineering, competitive sourcing, Understanding the FAR, RFP development, PWS and development of performance based statements of work.  Since 1985, he has personally led numerous studies as a project manager and been a primary contracting officer on more than 20 major base operation support contracts.  TAI's most recent clients include HUD, USDA FSA, USDA ARS, USDA, FEMA, and DOT.

Prior to his retirement in 2007 from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary, he created Government-wide guidance that is now a standard for the industry and used by many in government and private industry to perform Post Competition Accountability and Independent Verification & Validation (PCA and IV&V) assessments of OMB A-76 competitions.  Mr. Knauer has taught for ESI-International, National Contract Management Association, Navy Commercial Activities Management Team, Defense Acquisition University (DAU), Optimum Training Systems, GSA, and University of Central Florida's-Institute of Government, Golden Gate University, Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Labor, The Performance Institute, PARSONS Corporation, U.S. Small Business Administration and the City of Titusville, Florida.  He has been a featured speaker on two OMB videos released by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy dealing with competitive sourcing and post competition accountability and webinars by the NCMA. He has also been instrumental in the success of public-private competitions nationwide using approaches that are not commonly used by other contracting officers.  He teaches the use of creative government contracting, two-step sealed bidding, best value and two-phased RFP methods.  He issued a Contracting Officer's Guide to Competitive Sourcing which is on the web for download. He is certified by the NCMA and the National Institute of Government Purchasing.  

MILITARY SERVICE: He served in the U.S. Navy, Naval Supply Corps from 1975 to 1986 serving aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), as both disbursing officer and sales officer; aboard the combat cargo ship, USS San Jose (AFS-7), as cargo officer.   Other military positions included: Officer-in-Charge at the Navy PX located at NAS Willow Grove, PA; Command Supply Management Officer and Comptroller for the Combat Systems Technical Training Command, Mare Island, California, and COMNAVSPECWAR GROUP II at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia, serving with Seal Teams and the Special Boat Units as logistics reserve officer.  The motto for the Navy Supply Corps, Ready to Serve, is the motto of his firm.