About Us
Deg Priest began his consultancy business in June 2010, forming Priest & Associates Consulting, LLC as a partnership company. Shortly thereafter, in January 2011, Javier Trevino joined as his first partner in the business focusing on lab design of equipment and software for customers. Deg and Javier used their years of experience in testing to provide turn-key solutions for fire labs across North America. In January 2012, Howard Stacy joins the partnership and began work on driving business in the code compliance space and engineering judgments for manufacturers looking for solutions to extend their test data. Over the next ten years, the business transitioned to more engineering evaluations and judgments for AHJ submittal and approvals, as well as product and assembly design to meet code requirements. Most recently, the addition of Mike Luna to the team in March 2023 gives the team a holistic approach of helping customers meet the demand for helping on project-specific problems and gaining product approvals utilizing his decades of experience in testing, inspections, and certifications.
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Deg Priest has been involved with fire testing of building materials since 1977. His career spans a wide range of product development, fire test equipment design and construction, attendance on consensus standards setting organizations and P&L management of fire testing laboratories. Most recently, Deg had worked as a Global Senior Director of Operations for the Building Materials department of Intertek. He was President and one of the founders of Omega Point Laboratories from 1985 to 2005, where he was responsible for the overall testing operations, as well as designing and fabricating fire testing equipment for the company, as well as for clients. Before forming Omega Point Laboratories, Mr. Priest designed, constructed and operated the large fire resistance furnaces for SwRI in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to that, he was a part owner of Commercial Testing Company, where he designed, built and operated numerous pieces of equipment for evaluating flammability, fire resistance and other properties. Deg was the Chairman of ISO TC92 Subcommittee 2 on Fire Containment from 1992 to 2016 and has been active in ASTM Committee E05 since 1977.
Mr. Trevino graduated with a B.S. degree in Physics from The University of Texas at Austin in December 1990. Javier worked at Omega Point Laboratories from February 1992 to September 1998 and was involved in furniture and full-scale room fire calorimetry, Special Projects, and ISMA (Intermediate Scale Multi-Story Apparatus) testing. Other responsibilities included roof wind uplift testing, wind force testing on roof shingles, and pressure testing of containment seals for the nuclear industry.
When Javier returned to Omega Point Laboratories in 2003, he headed the Special Projects department and resumed responsibilities in Room Burn Calorimetry and ISMA testing. Other projects included building and installing a full-scale calorimeter for the Fire Protection Engineering Department of Oklahoma State University, and designing/fabricating a fully automated dual PID computer-controlled Guarded Hot Box for testing high-temperature reactor core insulation systems for the nuclear industry.
Following Intertek's acquisition of Omega Point Laboratories, he remained Manager of Special Projects, responsible for designing, fabricating, and calibrating test equipment for special projects including room burns, valve and pipe fire/pressure tests, sprinkler fire tests, and above-ground fuel tanks. He has conducted ASTM E72 structural testing, nuclear industry fire and pressure testing to simulate Loss of Coolant Accidents (LOCA), UL 217 fire room fabrication and testing, UL 711 fire extinguisher testing, and wire/cable fire testing to UL and IEC standards. He has also designed and fabricated electronic controls for fire resistance furnaces and a 15-megawatt jet fire facility for testing steel coatings for offshore applications.
He installed and instrumented full-scale Oxygen Consumption Calorimeters in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Vancouver and trained staff in their operation and calibration. He wrote and installed software and modern instrumentation for ASTM E84 flame spread test rigs at laboratories worldwide, including the U.S., Canada, China, and Dubai. He installed NFPA 285 test rigs in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Dubai, and wrote software to automate ASTM E119 furnaces in Canada, Ohio, and Texas. He also wrote the NFPA 285 Annex describing rules for Engineering Judgments.
Javier is one of the most experienced professionals in façade flame spread and Full Scale Oxygen Consumption Calorimetry, having conducted more than 3,000 full-scale furniture and room fire calorimetry tests and hundreds of NFPA 285 tests. He has four publications/presentations on room fire, hydraulic fluid, and furniture calorimetry testing.
Mr. Trevino chairs the E1529 High Temperature Fire Testing task group and the E1623 ICAL task group within ASTM E5 and is active in IEEE in the development of fire standards for hydrocarbon pool fire testing of wire and cables. He remains active in numerous ASTM task groups and subcommittees.
Howard Stacy has more than thirty five years of experience encompassing a broad range of fire testing, product development, construction litigation support and 3rd party certification for the building products and construction industries. Most recently Howard served as Vice President and Director of Testing Operations for Western Fire Center (WFCi) from 2003 to 2011, where his responsibilities included the overall direction of commercial fire testing activities involving numerous fire test performance evaluations of a wide variety of walls, floor/ceiling assemblies, doors and windows, room linings, exterior wall and soffit claddings, decking materials, roof coverings, solar panels and furnishings. During his tenure at WFCi, his knowledge of the California wildland urban interface (WUI) code and testing provisions resulted in a preponderance of the product listings published in the in the State Fire Marshal’s WUI Handbook. Prior to joining WFCi, he was General Manager of USA Building Materials Testing Operations for Intertek Testing from 1995 to 2003, with a significant focus on the testing and certification of fire door and window assemblies, wall and floor-ceiling constructions and roof covering assemblies. Prior to that, he was Manager of Fire Testing Services for Southwest Research Institute’s Department of Fire Technology from 1988 to 1995, where he directed hundreds of flamespread and flammability tests, and was responsible for the modernization and operation of the department’s flammability testing facilities, which included the construction of SwRI’s ASTM E84 ‘Steiner Tunnel’. He is also experienced in setting up quality control programs. Howard is well known in the fire test community and is active in the development of fire test methods. He is Chairman of the ASTM E05.14 Task Group, and received the E05 Award of Recognition for the development of standard E2707 Test Method for Determining Fire Penetration of Exterior Wall Assemblies. Howard has been a member of the California State Fire Marshal Wildland Urban Interface Technical Advisory Group since 2004, and led the CSFM Test Standard Working Team responsible for updating the fire test standards referenced in the 2010 California Building Code. He also has been an active participant in standards development and fire testing of solar photovoltaic modules.
Mike has been involved in product evaluation and testing for over 27 years. With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, he began his career as a Design Engineer for automated test equipment. Three years later he joined the fire science industry as a Research Engineer in product safety testing at Southwest Research Institute’s Fire Technology Department. During his 10-year tenure, he managed projects, managed departments, designed fire test equipment, and was heavily involved in fire resistance and intermediate-scale multistory testing. His experience with the U.S. Navy and the International Maritime Industry (IMO) developed him as an expert in fire resistance for those shipboard applications. After completing a Master’s in Business Management, he continued to pursue new opportunities with a large global TIC company, Intertek, where he worked for 11 years in various roles ranging from Sr. Project Engineer, Operations Manager of a Fire Lab, General Manager in North America, Director of Business Development in North America, to Regional General Manager for the Middle East, North Africa, & Pakistan where he was responsible testing, inspection, and certification. In 2017, Mike joined NTA to lead the Building Products Department where he built a Fire Testing Laboratory in Texas and reorganized the business (Testing, Inspections, and Certifications) to a more scalable operation. His efforts would help gain interest from the International Code Council (ICC) and in 2019, NTA was acquired by ICC and became ICC-NTA. His knowledge in fire testing was instrumental to further business for ICC-ES in Fire Design Listings and expansion of capabilities at the fire lab. He operated, trained, and taught new personnel in fire science and engineering evaluations for extension of data to tested systems. Mike now assumes the role of President of Priest & Associates Consulting (PAC) where he uses his experience to provide consulting services. He has been a 20+ year active member in Standard Development Organizations such as ASTM E05 (Fire Standards) and NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Tests and aided in development of the codes where fire standards were introduced into the United Arab Emirates’ building codes.
William Utsey, P.E. has over 19 years of experience in civil and structural engineering, building product evaluation, and code compliance. He joins Priest & Associates Consulting as Vice President of Technical Services, bringing extensive leadership experience in evaluation report development and building code acceptance. Will spent the majority of his career with ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES), where he most recently served as Director of Global Acceptance Criteria. In this role, he led the development and advancement of technical criteria supporting product acceptance across the United States and international markets. Over his 15-year tenure at ICC-ES, he held progressively senior roles in engineering, program development, and organizational strategy, overseeing multidisciplinary technical teams and expanding evaluation programs to support evolving construction technologies. His expertise includes structural design, development of evaluation reports (code reports), and the interpretation and application of building codes and referenced standards. He has worked with a wide range of building products, helping manufacturers, regulators, and design professionals navigate code compliance through practical and technically sound solutions. Will is known for his ability to connect technical analysis with real-world application, strengthening engineering processes and supporting product acceptance across multiple markets. His experience enhances PAC’s ability to support clients not only in fire performance, but also in broader building code compliance and product evaluation. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple U.S. states and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama.