Claus M Prufer, Program Manager

Mr. Prufer has been in the federal and international Contract Management field for over forty years.

Commensurate with high level of management skills he accomplished in the federal government acquisition arena the following:  Bid processes and procedures, Contract Formation, Qualification, Competition, solicitation and negotiation of firm fixed price procurement, Contract Pricing, Small Business, Terms and Conditions and Quality Control procedures. He is familiar with the FAR and Federal Statutes. His staff included specialists in Grants and Small Business at the American Science and Engineering Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts.    Mr. Prufer excelled in Contract Disputes settlements both at the Contracting Officer’s level and the Armed Services Board of Contracts Appeal.

Mr. Prufer has vast experience in International Commerce where risk assessment was often times his assigned task by large corporations and clients. His focus on negotiations of complex multimillion dollar construction, undersea cable system and telecommunication undertakings led to awards of multimillion dollar contracts to GTE International Corp.

Mr. Prufer’s International Industry Experience includes formation of a huge telephone system in the Middle East where as director of contractual relations he negotiated the agreement. And essential to formation was his expertise in international law particularly applicable to contracts. After the revolution in Iran he was chief negotiator in charge of resolving the dispute. Failure to agree was leading to arbitration of a breach of contract matter. This dispute was resolved under Uncitral Rules of the UN in the International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague where settlement of GTE’s claim was memorialized in an award.

Mr. Prufer’s most recent activities - after retirement - were to conduct client counseling at SCORE. His face-to-face counseling included giving advice to clients in federal government contracting. Clients who endeavored to switch from their commercial business in the economic downturn to the government small business environment were often complimentary of Mr. Prufer’s style and knowledge based expertise. Since SCORE offices are collocated with the SBA (in the Federal Building) he regularly interfaced also with SBA experts.

Mr.Prufer gave workshops at SBDC in registering with CCR, Government Contract Administration and currently he prepared PowerPoint presentation on how to do business with the GSA. Clients and members of SBDC and others have been very satisfied with his talks.

In Contract Administration with GTE Hawaiian Telephone he managed federal contracts for several years with Sr. Contract Administrators and lawyers reporting to him.  During his tenure he administered and negotiated contracts with the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps here on Oahu and on overseas bases.

Mr. Prufer resolved a huge dispute on the OTS contract amicably and has the best of references both from Contracting Officers and attendees of negotiations. In many years of work in government contract administration he dealt successfully with NASA, Navy, Air force, Army and many other governmental agencies to the satisfaction of his employers and the Contracting Officers.

Pertinent Training and Skills he acquired in federal government procurement would include:

• Government Contract Law, American Graduate University
• Formation of Government Contracts, by Messrs Cibinic and Nash, The George Washington University
• Administration of Government Contracts,  same as above
• Proposal Preparation, American Graduate University
• Masters Institute in Government Contracting
• Managing Multiple Demands
• Certificate, National Contract Association
• NCMA, National Education Seminar
• And as Director of NCMA, Hawaii Chapter he gave a symposium on Claims

Mr. Prufer is a graduate of the Hamburg University Law School with a Bachelor and Masters degree in law. He attended the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt: Course work in International Economics.