about us

Professional Execution Services.

Our number one goal at Kanopy Group is to ensure our clients safely deliver on their capital projects while maximizing their return on investment. Kanopy Group offers professional services to manage capital investment projects. We specialize in developing, planning and safely delivering complex projects in the most demanding and regulated environments. To be successful, we only hire organically within our own network. We have built a team of highly motivated experts who have the experience to meet our clientsʼcommercial, technical and quality requirements. Kanopy Group brings instant value to any project by deploying a team-first mentality and a performance-based approach. At a high level, the services we offer are:

  • Project Management

  • Schedule Management

  • Cost Control

  • Construction Administration

  • Project Engineering

  • Commissioning & Qualification

  • Automation

The name "Kanopy" derives from our founder’s passion for skydiving. Traditionally, the term canopy refers to the “parachute”, which is the device that safely delivers jumpers back to Earth. It is a rare combination of being able to take the extremely dangerous idea of jumping out of an airplane and being able to balance it with an equally high degree of risk management. It is a unique style of balance that can be mirrored in the professional landscape.

Project solutions that eliminate your toughest challenges

OUR SERVICES

Overview

We specialize as Owner’s Reps, bringing Professional Execution Services to very complex, highly regulated and fast paced capital investment projects in the Commercial GMP landscape.  Leading small and large scale capital construction projects for Biopharma clients requires a great deal of risk management, technical understanding and managing change.  It also requires 100% commitment to regulatory and commercial requirements.  At Kanopy Group, we also have a passion for working with great teams because let’s face it, that is the most important factor to successfully delivering projects.  Our team of professional Project and Construction Administrators understand that building highly performing teams is crucial to success, which is the reason we place such emphasis on superior talent and trustworthy partners.  Whether it is for Procurement, Engineering, Design, Integration, Construction, Qualification or Regulatory filing, the team at Kanopy Group will develop cross-functional teams that work effectively with all stakeholders, including Finance, Sourcing, Operations, Engineering, Automation and Quality. As Owners and Client Reps, our professionals have enough industry experience to know that each new project schedule will be more aggressive than the previous one.  Our clients have the most demanding timelines and we continue to meet their milestones and budgetary requirements.  Our PM’s and CM’s quickly mobilize resources to prioritize immediate challenges while strategizing the mid and long range execution plan.  We also coordinate all vendors and contractors around on-going manufacturing and production, ensuring that the work will be completed with minimal impact to Operations.

Overview

Kanopy Group prides itself as the premier project controls company in the Life Sciences industry, which is one fast paced capital project followed by an ever faster paced capital project – our timelines and milestones never ease up.  We understand that speed-to-market or tight shutdown windows are not the exception, but the rule.  The greatest tool we have as project leaders in this industry is a well-developed and detailed schedule. Kanopy Group was born out of a passion for excellent project management and the ability to deliver on our schedules, hence the reason we place tremendous emphasis on Project Controls and Scheduling.  The partnership between Project Controls professionals and Project Managers needs to be very strong in order to successfully deliver complex capital projects.  Our team of Schedulers and Cost Controllers understand the value and importance of strong relationships within each team as they develop their schedules and build their budgets.

Overview

Our team of Project Engineers and Automation Specialists understand Biopharma core competencies of bulk drug substance upstream and downstream processes, as well as drug product filling and packaging.  Just as important as understanding bioprocesses, our technical team members also appreciate and lead Facility and Utility improvement projects.  Our Project Engineers take the initiative to ensure a robust understanding of product quality attributes, utility and cleaning standards, and critical control parameters when developing user and functional requirements.  These requirements are the bedrock for front end design and planning, and engaging with service providers and equipment vendors.  A strong adherence to technical requirements carries through until qualification, when CQV teams challenge each system.  Our Automation Leads will drive the design, testing and integration of the most intricate configurations and setups for process and building automation projects.  Our team is able to continue to be successful due to their deep understanding of the industry’s controls landscape: every project is a commercial and mission-critical effort.  As with any stakeholder, our technical leads rely on strong partnerships with project leadership, Operators, Maintenance, service providers, vendors, contractors and validation teams.  Through these close collaborations our team is able to bridge the technical needs of the process within the commercial limitations of the project.

Overview

Simply designing and installing impressive equipment and production systems will never be enough to realize the return on your capital investment, which is the reason our team of CQV Leads take projects across the finish line.  As the Life Sciences industry has evolved over the past few decades, so have the regulatory requirements.  With each new requirement or government regulation, the industry has continued to slip in their Commissioning, Qualification and Validation execution.  We know that in order to hit Qualification milestones, the planning starts up front during Engineering.  Our team partners with our Scheduling specialists to build detailed, accurate and realistic execution plans.  We also work very closely with our Quality partners to implement a robust C&Q Plan, and that CQV vendors develop protocols that meet client standards.  We ensure that vendors are properly staffed with qualified resources to meet project milestones.  As with design and construction, C&Q planning is done on a system-by-system basis so the team can stagger execution based on lead times and priorities.

Kanopy Group $3 Billion in Capital Projects
Our team has supported over $3 Billion in capital projects
Kanopy Group Global Business
Our team has supported projects and clients all over the United States and Europe
Kanopy Group Repeat Client Rate
100% Repeat Client Success Rate.
Industry Experience - Kanopy Group
Our team has nearly a century of professional industry experience combined
clients we've worked with:
Amgen Logo
Boehringer Ingelheim
Shire brand
Bristol Myers Squibb
Moderna Logo
Takeda Logo
Kite Company Logo

Our client list includes the world’s most successful and demanding Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers. It is not enough for us to simply provide our clients with staffing resources. To meet their expectations, we ensure that our team members provide a high degree of professional service. Our existing clients request most team members directly by name, which is a sign of mutual respect and great value. Kanopy Group’s repeat business is remarkable due to our continued track record of success in safely delivering projects on time and within budget.

WHAT THEY SAY

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

“Kurt and Owen came to the site during a pivotal transition in project structure and when projects were not meeting milestones. By working with them, we were able to our C&Q process, especially as it related to mapping and tracking activities. I was able to work with them on several projects, all of which we were able to increase project execution performance and efficiency. We began hitting our C&Q milestones with more ease and frequency.”
Nga Lawson
Shire | Head of Quality System and Quality Validation
“Kurt was able to successfully lead and manage several projects in my area, including lab space renovations and implementation of new GMP lab equipment.  He was able to bring together a multi-function team from various departments including lab personal and engineering, design firms, GC’s and validation vendors in order to successfully deliver each project on time.  Our leadership group continued to engage with Kanopy Group to lead some of the site’s most critical projects.”
Jennifer Downey
Takeda | Head of Manufacturing Sciences Drug Substance
“We had an incredibly fast paced project and Owen played a crucial role by building, maintaining, and helping our team drive the schedule.  He was able to keep our team focused on the critical activities and with his help we met all of our client’s deadlines and continue to be their contractor of choice.”
Kaysen Brennan
Dome Construction | Senior Project Manager
“Working with Kanopy Group has been a positive experience. They understand our business objectives and work hard to deliver detailed project schedules & construction administration expertise while staying agile with the ever changing site prioritizations. Owen Searls & Shawna Wilkinson provide a wonderful customer service experience while being sure to keep all parties accountable to deliver their tasks on time. Their schedules are thorough and they are always willing to adjust planning based on the specific project needs. Matt Bahadur is extremely verse in construction administration and brings safety to the forefront which is an important value to our business. His ability to communicate with cross-functions to deliver construction projects on schedule is needed for this site. I would highly recommend using Kanopy Group to support CapEx PMO teams.”
Samantha Sinno
Boehringer Ingelheim | Associate Director
our work

Project gallery

A team like no other. results to match.

JOIN OUR TEAM

Motivation

Kanopy Group was created as a result of our passion to successfully manage large and complex projects, while enjoying the dynamic and fun team environment. Our team developed organically through this shared passion as we recognize our individual strengths through close collaboration on all of our projects. We strive to find these strengths in all team members regardless of the client or project type. Kanopy Group is always looking for highly motivated professionals who are seeking their next big opportunity. Our project executions services include: Project Administration, Project Controls, Scheduling, Project Engineering, Automation and Validation.

Vision

Our founders started Kanopy Group with the intent of capturing an entrepreneurial spirit borne out of a desire to be free and do better. Too often top tier talent finds themselves hindered by frustration due to corporate bureaucracy and poor compensation models. A core tenant at Kanopy Group is to reward exceptional talent with equal compensation and respect. That translates directly to incentive-based compensation opportunities such as partnership, profit-sharing and commission. We set a high bar when it comes to hiring because we aim to employ staff for their entire career: a professional marriage. If our staff are not worried about compensation or management, then we enable them to focus on their work with their clients.

People

We want our team to be proud of Kanopy Group, so we treat everyone as equal partners and constantly seek feedback from the team. We check our egos at the “virtual door.” We will stick to our core principles and values as we continue to grow. Employing a team of highly respected professionals means that we can keep our overhead low by not micro-managing and adding unnecessary costs, and we are able to return that in the form of compensation and benefits.

Benefits

We offer full benefit packages, including healthcare and retirement plan options. We know that everyone’s personal and financial situation is different, so we allow everyone to choose their benefit options while pocketing the difference. The founders started Kanopy Group to give exceptional talent the best outlet for their professional efforts, and ultimately treat staff in the same way the founders wish to be treated.

kanopy group leaders

Meet our founders

Kurt Voelker

Founder

Kurt is a resolute business leader, project manager and engineer responsible for leading teams from feasibility through regulatory approval. For 20 years he has dedicated his career exclusively to GMP projects and has a proven success record of delivering results based on technical and commercial requirements. Kurt couples this with his passion for developing talent on high performing teams. He is currently leading critical projects and implementing best practices to increase execution performance.

Owen Searls

Founder

Owen Searls is a Senior Project Controls Specialist with an extensive background in scheduling & planning of large scale Commercial Construction and Bio-pharma Capital Projects. With over $503 Million worth of Bio-pharma work put in place and $2.1 Billion worth of commercial construction planning and scheduling. Owen has worked on a wide variety of projects from Fill Lines and Lyophilizes to Upstream Bulk production creating detailed resource loaded schedules from conceptual design to commissioning/qualification and regulator submission. He has developed several scheduling best practices site standards for clients and offers training in schedule structure creation and execution success.

WHERE TO FIND US

OUR LOCATions

Headquarters

Los Angeles, CA

Regional Offices

San Francisco, CA
San Diego, CA
Seattle, WA
Denver, CO
Bethlehem, PA
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info@kanopygroup.com
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+1-844-4-Kanopy