Results
Outcomes our clients are proud of.
Real organizations, real challenges, real results. See what disciplined execution delivers when the team is committed.
Founder-led results since 1997.
They took us with them.
Robert Simon has engaged Pilot Advisors at five steel companies across three decades: Oregon Steel Mills, Bayou Steel Group, Steel Dynamics, Evraz North America, and JSW Steel USA, where he is Chief Executive Officer.
Steve Manuszak engaged Pilot at three food and beverage companies as a corporate executive: Groupe Danone, Dean Foods, and Food Services of America. He now serves as one of Pilot's senior partners.
A United States government program leader engaged Pilot across four defense installations over nine years, through three different prime contractors: Tooele, Umatilla, Pueblo, and Anniston.
Twelve engagements. Three sponsors. Steel, food, and national defense.
Enduring Capability
What Stayed After We Left
The measure of an engagement is what the client's own leaders can do once we are gone. The financial results below were built by teams that kept performing without us.
Oregon Steel Mills / EVRAZ
Executives from this engagement went on to senior leadership roles across the steel industry.
JSW Steel USA
Operational leadership moved from reactive firefighting to system-driven performance management.
Clinton Nuclear Station
Plant leadership recognized by the NRC as a model for performance recovery.
EG&G Defense (Battelle)
Leadership practices institutionalized, and the team sustained 100% award fee through management transitions.
PacifiCorp
Operations leaders built the capability to sustain improvements independently after Pilot's exit.
Gardenburger
Leadership team built the scalable infrastructure that carried a period of major growth and investment.
TRUSTED BY 92+ ORGANIZATIONS
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Case Studies
Proven results across industries.
Click any case study to explore the challenge, approach, and measurable outcome.
JSW Steel USA
2024 to 2025
Integrated steel producer · Major U.S. operation
Four consecutive months of record shipping and production; on-time delivery improved by nearly 100%.
Operational leadership moved from reactive firefighting to system-driven performance management.
Read the full storySteel Dynamics
2015
Steel producer · Fort Wayne, Indiana
A severe Fort Wayne winter stopped shipping for ten days. The leadership team built a recovery plan in a couple of days that beat the original forecast, published in Iron & Steel Technology.
The only engagement on this site a reader can verify himself.
Read the full storyFood Services of America
2007 to 2008, and 2011
Foodservice distributor · 3,000 employees
A 3,000-person distributor lost the founder it was built around, with no warning. A decade later, after a family succession and a $1.8 billion sale to US Foods, the structure fifty-seven leaders built was still standing.
Chosen twice: once in 2007, and again after the hardest thing that could happen.
Read the full storyA near miss in one industry is a catastrophe in another.
The Failure Pattern Doesn't Change by Industry.
At Trojan Nuclear Plant, an electrician working from a flat drawing of a three dimensional panel landed a lighting lead on a turbine protection circuit, and the reactor tripped. At a steel mill, a crew member isolating a leak at an unmarked bank of valves closed the wrong one, and molten steel broke through the furnace wall. Andrew led the root cause on both. Same pattern: a capable person forced to guess, and a safe option that was slower. The fix crosses industries too. Find every failure mode before it finds you, and make the safe path the easy one.
Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility
2004 to 2008
Military defense contractor · 300 to 500 on site by phase
Went from worst to best within a year. Award fee rose by more than $500,000 per quarter to more than $2MM per quarter, sustained at nearly 100% of maximum.
Leadership practices institutionalized. Team sustained 100% award fee through management transitions.
Read the full storyRocky Mountain Steel Mills
2000 to 2004
Specialty steel · Pueblo, Colorado · 1,100 employees
Everyone blamed the equipment vendor. The root cause was internal. Four years later the mill ran a record 1,000,000 tons of prime steel.
Production up 25%, quality up 30%, over four years.
Read the full story
Oregon Steel Mills
executive 1993 to 1997, advisor 1997 to 2003
Multi-site steel producer · $900MM–$1B+ · 2,500+ employees
A public company CEO kept one outside advisor beside him for years, in board planning and in the boardroom, and recommended him for a board seat.
The relationship every chief executive wants and cannot appoint.
Read the full story
Clinton Nuclear Station
1996 to 1999
Nuclear power plant · $100MM revenue · 1,300 employees
A plant shut down in September 1996, fined by the NRC and placed on its Watch List, back at full power thirty-one months later. The fastest return to service in U.S. nuclear power history.
Plant leadership recognized by the NRC as a model for performance recovery.
Read the full storyTestimonials
What leaders say.
Andrew's founder-led track record established the standard now carried forward by Pilot's senior partners and fractional executives.
"Over more than three decades of engagement, Andrew Bielat consistently delivers stability, accountability, and measurable results. By the end of his engagement, JSW achieved four consecutive months of record shipping and production, while on-time delivery performance improved by nearly 100%."
Rob Simon
CEO, JSW Steel USA
"I've known Andrew for over 30 years. From the start, I witnessed his exceptional talent for simplifying complex operations into profitable strategies. He brings unmatched clarity, team alignment, and results-driven execution to any leadership group poised for growth."
Bryan Timm
President, Columbia Sportswear
"Andrew's core strengths lie in rapid assimilation of business models, relationship-building to cultivate trust, and instilling accountability for transformational outcomes."
Steve Manuszak
Retired SVP/CHRO, Groupe Danone / Dean Foods / Food Services of America
Engaged Pilot at three companies across his career. Now a Pilot senior partner.
"Pilot Advisors did a superior job of analyzing the problems and providing a roadmap. Within a year, our organization went from worst to best. This resulted in an increase in award fee of more than $500,000."
Dr. Matthew Blais
Chief Scientist, Battelle Memorial Institute
"I've engaged dozens of advisory and consulting firms over my 35-year career. None compare to Andrew's Pilot Advisors. We achieved a record 1,000,000 tons of prime steel, a 25% production boost and 30% quality improvement over four years."
David W. Ellis
Manager: Melting and Casting, Rocky Mountain Steel Mills
"Andrew successfully coached, consulted, and advised me, transforming me into a true leader. He helped mold our operation team into a focused and dynamic group, outperforming expectations."
Tim M. Gray
V.P. Finance and Operations, D.R. Horton, Inc.
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