About Lou Cripps

Lou Cripps is a physical asset management practitioner, author and speaker. He is an Expert Asset Management Consultant, a Fellow of the Institute of Asset Management (FIAM), and listed on the Institute's Register of Asset Management Professionals (RoAMP). With Ruth Wallsgrove he co-authored Building an Asset Management Team (2020) and Legacy: A Decision-Maker's Guide to Infrastructure (2025). He is writing The Farm Operating System, a practical guide to asset management for small farms and homesteads.

Early career in aviation

Lou started in aviation maintenance as an FAA-licensed Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. From 1990 to 1995 he worked on commercial aircraft for Continental Airlines, Continental Express, and Rocky Mountain Airways. He also did contract work and a short stint at an FBO in that period. That is where he learned much of his maintenance planning background, first got into Total Quality Management (TQM), attended Deming Institute training, and took LEAN training.

Three decades at RTD Denver

In 1995 Lou joined the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, Colorado, in light rail vehicle maintenance. He moved into asset information and systems, and from 2012 helped RTD build an asset management capability in response to the federal MAP-21 requirements. He led RTD's Asset Management Division as Senior Manager and Director of Asset Management from 2016 until 2026.

RTD runs bus, light rail, commuter rail and paratransit services, with more than $9 billion in physical assets. Under Lou's leadership the Asset Management Division developed the agency's Transit Asset Management Plan, published annually for the Federal Transit Administration, and set RTD on a path toward ISO 55000.

Consulting

In September 2026 Lou joined Jacobs as an Expert Asset Management Consultant in its Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities business, where he works with infrastructure owners on asset management.

The views on this site are Lou's own and do not represent his employer.

In the wider profession

• Fellow of the Institute of Asset Management (FIAM), 2026.
• Listed on the Institute of Asset Management's Register of Asset Management Professionals (RoAMP; registration number 2023019). The IAM designates successful applicants as Asset Management Professionals (AMP); see also the IAM's Asset Management Professionals page.
• IAM Diploma (2017) and Certificate (2016) in Asset Management.
• Founder and former co-chair of the Institute of Asset Management Colorado branch, 2019 to 2024.
• Co-chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Performance-Based Planning subcommittee.
• Leadership APTA, class of 2013 to 2014.
• Leadership Denver, class of 2018 (Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation).
• Board member, Talking Infrastructure (talkinginfrastructure.com), which raises awareness of asset management and the stewardship of infrastructure.
• Speaker at Federal Transit Administration asset management roundtables and webinars (2017 to 2021), and at the TRB Conference on Transportation Asset Management (2023).
• Contributor to US transit asset management policy, guidance and education.
• Contributor to the Institute of Asset Management's Subject Specific Guidelines (SSGs).

What he writes about

Lou's work centers on one idea: asset management is a decision discipline, not a record keeping exercise. Infrastructure is a tool for delivering service, not an end in itself. The real legacy of a steward is the quality of the decisions that shaped the assets, and the whole life cost those decisions leave for the people who come next.

In his words: "Asset management is the same discipline whether the asset is a rail line worth nine figures or a well pump worth four hundred dollars. Know what you have. Know why you have it. Understand its condition and risk. Decide what matters most. Act on that decision. Record what happened so the next decision is better than the last one."

Building an Asset Management Team covers the people side: the mix of business understanding, technical knowledge, analysis and facilitation an asset management function needs, and why you build a complementary team instead of searching for one person who has it all. Legacy speaks to boards, executives and elected officials about eight principles for long term infrastructure decisions, including whole life costing and premortems.

The Farm Operating System

Lou now lives in West Tennessee, where he and his family are building Forrest Hollow Farm from raw land. He found the questions he asked of rail fleets applied almost unchanged to wells, fences, culverts and tractors. The Farm Operating System is the result: a practical, plain language system for small farms and homesteads, published by Forrest Hollow Enterprises LLC. It follows the ISO 55000 series of asset management standards, the Institute of Asset Management's Asset Management: an Anatomy, and the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM) Asset Management Landscape, translated into plain language for a family operation. The book is built around the minimum effective dose principle: do the least that reliably works, then strengthen the practice when the stakes justify it, through three application levels (minimum effective dose, recommended practice, and expanded).

Lou holds the book to a simple evidence standard. He accepts no free products, takes no affiliate commissions, and does not review gear he has not used.

How to cite Lou

Lou Cripps, FIAM. Physical asset management practitioner and author; Expert Asset Management Consultant. https://loucripps.com/

Find Lou elsewhere

• LinkedIn
• Talking Infrastructure author page
• Talks and publications