about Verdi Technology

Dr. Craner has practiced Occupational Medicine since 1993, and began the webOSCAR platform in 2011 after having developed two successful software products, one of which is in the public domain.

He received a bachelor degree (BA) in chemistry from Princeton University and his doctorate of medicine (MD) degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Craner completed an Internal Medicine residency at Rhode Island Hospital (Brown University School of Medicine), followed by an Occupational and Environmental Medicine residency at Rutgers Medical School, where he also completed his Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. His board certifications are in Occupational Medicine (1995-Present) and Internal Medicine (1991-2012).

Dr. Craner served as full-time Corporate Physician for Tesla, Inc. from 2019 to June 2023, and now consults to Tesla, providing strategic occupational health direction, technical program development, and employee-specific guidance and tools to support the organization’s global manufacturing, energy and service divisions. Dr. Craner’s clinical and consultation practice from 1996 to 2019 focused on hazardous industries and occupations, and included medical surveillance examinations, biological monitoring, respiratory protection evaluations and audiograms, as well as health and safety consultation, training, hazard assessment, and other aspects of regulatory compliance (OSHA, MSHA) to a range of companies and public agencies.

Dr. Craner also serves as an assistant clinical professor in Occupational Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. He is the author of the Medical Surveillance chapter and co-author of the Workers’ Compensation chapter in the textbook, Current Occupational & Environmental Medicine (5th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education, 2014).

Ted joined Verdi Technology in 2014, bringing more than 20 years of diverse IT experience in data security, enterprise web development, database architecture, and legacy systems integration with the web.

He received his Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the University of North Florida, specializing in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management.

Ted started his 20-year career at CA Technologies (one of the largest software companies in the world, now a subsidiary of Broadcom, Inc.) as a programmer in mainframe applications. As distributed technology became the standard, he integrated these legacy solutions into enterprise web applications, acquiring skills and expertise in Cobol, VB, ASP and .Net. Rising to the senior position of Principal Engineering Services Architect for Identity and Access Management security applications, Ted was responsible for designing, architecting, training, vetting, testing, and Level 3 (“SWAT Team”) troubleshooting directly with customers. His accomplishments included several awards of excellence and two patents in mobile security technology: Patent US 8,266,681 for computer wireless network security access and authentication; and Patent US 9,203,858 for endpoint and wireless device threat level identification and security.

At Verdi Technology, Ted brought his technical skills, creativity and enthusiasm to architect and engineer the full stack of the webOSCAR platform. He designed and implemented the SQL Server data architecture, built the .Net Framework application, and programmed the entire solution, handling all aspects of hosting, securing, and maintaining the cloud server environment. Collaborating closely with Dr. Craner and Dr. Willits, Ted developed the platform’s unique user interface (UI) and work flow, data analytics, document management, and other proprietary applications.

Neil Willits, PhD

Statistician

Neil Willits, PhD served as Senior Statistician in the Division of Statistics at the University of California, Davis for 33 years. He has worked closely with Dr. Craner and Verdi Technology since 2001.

Dr. Willits graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor of science (BS) degree in mathematics. He received his MS and PhD in Statistics from Stanford University. In addition to being a statistical consultant to academia, private industry, and government, Dr. Willits also taught graduate seminars on statistical analysis.

His expertise is in applied statistics, and in particular, hierarchical and nonlinear statistical models, with extensive participation and publications in a range of medical, environmental, and public health research and commercial applications, including webOSCAR.

David Guy, PhD

Statistician and R Developer

David Guy is a professional statistician with 20+ years of experience in statistical analysis and modeling of financial, marketing, medical and process control data.

Dr. Guy received his undergraduate degree from McGill University; continued graduate training at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario and University of Texas, Austin; and received his PhD in Applied Statistics from University of California, Riverside. He has expertise in a diverse spectrum of quantitative data analysis including econometrics, operations research, mathematics, and statistics. In the financial industry, he specialized in forecasting, volatility analysis, derivatives, optimization and risk control.

Following his career in quantitative finance, Dr. Guy turned to private consulting where he expanded his interest in applied quantitative analysis through work in forecasting and development of medical software in the R language for statistical computing and graphics.

Rob McCafferty, MS, CIH, CSP

Industrial Hygienist, Safety Professional, Environmental Sustainability Leader

Rob McCafferty has led industrial hygiene, safety, and environmental sustainability at Tesla and major biopharmaceutical companies. He now provides IH and safety consulting services to Verdi Technology in connection with Dr. Craner to support the EV and lithium ion battery industry from mining and refining to manufacturing, R&D and battery recycling, as well as other hazardous, highly regulated industries.

Rob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Farleigh Dickinson University, and a Master of Science in Occupational Health and Safety Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Rob holds ABIH and BCSP certification in industrial hygiene and safety, respectively, and is the recipient of numerous professional honors and awards including from the National Safety Council and an industry Environmental Health and Safety Innovation Award that has been recognized by OSHA’s Director in the Harvard Business Review.

In the biopharmaceutical industry between 2002 and 2020, Rob advanced from Industrial Hygiene manager to Associate Director at Barr Pharmaceuticals (now Teva), and then at Allergan (now part of Abbvie) became Director of Environmental Health and Safety. Rob’s initiatives in diverse areas such as process safety, exposure controls, PPE, waste disposal, and worker injury medical care led to improved outcomes for workers’ health, dramatically reduced costs and risk exposure for the company, and demonstrably improved productivity. At Allergan, Rob initiated and implemented a strategy for Global Human Organization Performance that became a centerpiece of the company’s operational excellence and quality control for operations in addition to EHS.

At Tesla, Inc. from 2020 to 2023, Rob rose to the position of Senior Director of Manufacturing for EHS where he managed and directed all facets of health, safety and environmental sustainability for EV and energy storage production; lithium ion battery manufacturing, research, testing and recycling; hazardous waste; and other areas at all United States facilities. Rob’s leadership successes included training, coaching, strategic direction, mentorship, program implementation, professional development, and technical support for a large EHS team, including oversight of industrial hygiene, occupational health, workers’ compensation, and environmental management.

At a technical level at Tesla, Rob spearheaded the highly successful Take Charge program for eliciting and implementing employee suggestions for improving safety and reducing waste in operations. As Dr. Craner’s supervisor for occupational health, Rob transformed Tesla’s in-house, third-party operated occupational medical clinic into a more highly focused, customer-centric Emergency Medical Services facility providing on-site, 24/7 EMT and emergency nursing services, which significantly improved medical outcomes for employees for both work-related and personal medical emergencies while lowering operating costs across Tesla’s facilities in California, Nevada and Texas. He was directly involved in leading prevention programs to reduce ergonomic risks, streamline PPE needs through exposure controls in cathode manufacturing, air permitting for casting operations, hearing conservation, non-animal toxicity testing, biological monitoring, and myriad other EHS requirements and initiatives.

Rich Meier

OSHA Compliance

Rich Meier served for 33 years with Nevada OSHA as a safety compliance officer, senior safety officer, safety supervisor, industrial hygienist (IH), and IH supervisor.

He obtained a bachelor of science degree in Environmental Studies from University of Nevada, Reno. He began his career with Nevada OSHA just after OSHA came into existence in the 1970s. Over the course of his OSHA tenure, Rich conducted over 1,300 inspections at a variety of industries ranging from major casino-hotel construction sites to small- to medium-sized chemical manufacturing plants. Prior to the creation of OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard in 1992, he had already become Nevada OSHA’s ‘go-to’ expert for major chemical accident and occupational disease investigations, which included major explosions, chemical releases, and fires.

After his retirement from OSHA, Rich opened his own chemical safety consultancy, which has included working with companies in highly regulated industries, and advising Verdi Technology, Inc. on health and safety compliance and Best Practices methods and requirements. He was also appointed to serve on the Advisory Board for the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH).

The webOSCAR technology platform was developed by an Occupational Medicine physician with over 25 years’ experience providing medical and compliance consultation services to highly regulated, hazardous industries.

His insight into the challenges and complexities these industries face in achieving effective compliance, and the importance of this process to protecting their employees’ health, was his impetus for starting Verdi Technology and creating webOSCAR.

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