About Us

The concept for Applied Asset Management was initially sparked during the founder’s decade-long tenure as City Engineer of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mark De Clercq, the founding principal of Applied Asset Management, found a growing commitment to apply Asset Management best practices to infrastructure-intensive organizations. He came to believe that organizations can do Asset Management, if taught using the right tools and in real-life applications, within their corporate environment.

Lean Thinking enhanced this process. The Great Recession precipitated the City of Grand Rapids to embark upon Lean Thinking, with an outcome of being more efficient and realizing better value. Mark led an ambitious staff that re-tooled how the City delivers its capital projects. He envisioned people, value, and continuous improvement, as a greater common denominator for enterprise efficiency and financial resiliency, but Mark knew something was still missing.

The Institute of Asset Management provided the turning point. Through a series of conferences, and interacting with the international community, Mark saw great alignment between his professional values and the breadth and depth of a well-defined body of asset management. He seized an opportunity to empower organizations that were struggling to adopt an Asset Management style and align the very people who actively work on infrastructure with organizational value and outcomes.

Before acting upon a burning desire to concentrate on asset management full-time, Mark took a year off and completed a 2,200 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, reflecting on an entrepreneurial vision for Applied Asset Management Consultants. He also became a certified Asset Manager followed by a registered Asset Manager Professional with the IAM.

Mark quickly teamed up with David Medema, of Medema Consulting Associates, and later with business owner/entrepreneur Monica Vergara, of Business Impact. Dave and Monica were brought on to expand the firm’s focus not only on infrastructure, but on the very people whose customers experience the assets they service. This synergy has led to a much-needed focus on both infrastructure (“pipes”) and human element (“people”) aspects of asset management.

In 2021, Meagan Maguire joined the Applied Asset Management team, bringing fresh ideas on data and sustainability. Meagan has a keen mind with linkages on asset data, sustainability, and organizational objectives. Her organization skills enable asset-intensive clients to use data in making better decisions while delivering on societal, environmental, and good governance principles.

Mark De Clercq, PE, AMP, MIAM
Founder and Principal, Mark De Clercq has over 30 years of civil engineering and project management experience, of which over half of that journey has been an aggressive maturation and application of Asset Management.

Throughout his career, clients and senior leaders relied on Mark for his big-picture strategic thinking, teamwork approach, and business-oriented ability to bring transformative solutions to complex problems. As Top Manager and City Engineer for the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was responsible for a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure network, which like many, was aged, historically underinvested, and contained a lot of uncertain risk. Additionally, Mark began sharing his knowledge in the form of presentations at various conferences and co-authoring papers with the IAM. He was also adjunct professor teaching Asset Management at Western Michigan University's College of Engineering and has recently been appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Practice at Michigan Technological University. Mark retired from public life to start Applied Asset Management Consultants, inspiring and educating organizations to grow and apply Asset Management for themselves.

Meagan Maguire, M.S.
Meagan joined Applied Asset Management in 2021, bringing a specialty in sustainability and geospatial data analytics. Meagan contributes significantly to areas of data collection and unification, gap analysis, data management, workflow development, creation of informational analytical dashboards and asset risk assessments. Meagan earned her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Analysis and Resource Management and GIS, followed by a Master of Science in Geography. Her academic credential provides a foundation for data interpretation and translation into analytics for societal, environmental, and efficient governance decision-making.

Key Skills:

• Entrepreneur and small business leader.
• Expert on organizational management system integration, efficiency, opportunity.
• Developer and implementer of enterprise-wide Asset Management Systems within the context of organizational strategic objectives, value, and outcomes.
• Organizationally focused on Environmental, Societal, and Governance (ESGs) principles.
• Coach and team effectiveness for Asset Leadership and Asset Management Systems.
• Ability to create a clear vertical 'line of sight' between senior leadership and front-line managers closest to assets and customers.

Our Affiliates

Monica Vergara, M.A.
Monica Vergara is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist based in Grand Rapids, MI. She began Business Impact, LLC in 2005 with a focus on selecting and developing teachers and school leaders within the emergent charter school movement in Houston, TX. Since then, Monica has provided coaching and expertise to business, nonprofit and multi-national organizations in the areas of talent selection, performance management, and leadership development. Monica believes in personality and self-awareness as critical steps in leadership and team development. She approaches all her interventions from the standpoint of improvement and works diligently to deliver results and drive positive personal and organizational change. She's proud to be an integral member of the "Pipes & People" Team at AAM.

Dave Medema, MSW, CEG
Medema Consulting, LLC, led by entrepreneur and president Dave Medema, has a mission in developing people, strengthening organizations, and building success. Dave applies and coach's maturation of Human Capital through personality and emotional intelligence. He has consulted with more than 800 municipal, nonprofit, business, and educational organizations since 1993.He has trained extensively with Patrick Lencioni and with Ford Motor Company former CEO Alan Mulally.