Anchor Mission Critical — Founders
Built by operators.
For owners.
We didn't come from the design side. We came from the floor — running systems, building teams, and owning outcomes in the most demanding mission critical environments in the world. Now we've built the firm we always wished existed.
"The idea was born at a dinner in Chicago. Friends deciding how to serve the industry the right way — not the easy way."
— The origin of Anchor Mission Critical
The Origin
A meeting between friends.
A decision to do it right.
Anchor Mission Critical began with a decision made over dinner — and a frustration that had been building for years. We'd watched an industry with $600+ billion in domestic investment struggle to deliver on its fundamental promise. Equipment arriving damaged. B-teams replacing A-teams by the second phase. Corners cut because the culture allowed it. Operators handed keys to systems they'd never seen fail.
Between us, we'd spent 40+ years inside professional services firms — running divisions, scaling teams, commissioning critical infrastructure across the globe. We knew what right looked like. We knew exactly where the gaps were. That night in Chicago, we stopped working around them and decided to build the firm that would close them.
The name came later. One of us was standing in line at La Sagrada Família in Barcelona and noticed a man with an anchor tattooed on his neck. It clicked. Anchor. It's what we do — hold systems, teams, and outcomes steady when everything depends on them staying that way. It roots us to each other, to the industry we've built our careers in, and to the mission that has defined our work.
The Problem We Solve.
The Standard We Hold. And Why the Industry Needs It.
We built Anchor Mission Critical around a single conviction: owners deserve a commissioning partner who owns the outcome as if the systems were their own — because we've spent our careers being that person. An operator-first partner who's been on the floor at 2 a.m., who's stopped a project when something wasn't right, and who treats the last 10% as the part that matters most.
That standard exists for a reason. The industry doesn't lack talent — it has normalized practices that leave owners exposed, operators underprepared, and projects chronically late. Equipment accepted damaged. Top talent at the pitch, thinner coverage when the pressure actually hits. Owners handed keys to systems they've never seen fail.
We've sat on both sides of the table. We know what those gaps cost — in schedule, in risk, in the 2 a.m. call no one wants. Anchor exists to close them, with an operator's lens that design-led partners rarely bring to the table. Not because they lack skill — but because we've lived the consequences of a commissioning miss, and that changes how you work.
The People Behind the Standard
Meet the Founders
Two operators, 7+ years building organizations, scaling teams, and driving operational excellence together.
Josh Hoops
Co-Founder & CEO
Josh spent 27 years in the United States Navy, a career that culminated as Executive Officer during the construction and commissioning of a nuclear submarine — where a missed detail is measured in lives, not schedule slips. He came up as a submarine officer and nuclear engineer, running some of the most demanding systems ever built, in the one environment that offers no second chance and no way out. "Protect what cannot fail" isn't a tagline for Josh; it's the operating principle he lived under and on the ocean for nearly three decades. He carried it onto the data center floor without changing a word.
Transitioning into mission critical infrastructure, Josh led and scaled professional services divisions serving hyperscalers, cololocation providers, and enterprise owners worldwide — building one global delivery organization 5x to more than 130+ people in two and a half years, and overseeing the commissioning of 1,500+ megawatts of critical capacity. An MBA and PMP, he pairs that commercial and program discipline with a transformational leadership style grounded in vulnerability-based trust, disciplined execution, and the courage to stop a project when something isn't right. That courage — and that standard — is the DNA of Anchor's culture.
Jennifer Lauria Clark
Co-Founder & COO
Jennifer built her career in environments where "what cannot fail" is measured in human consequences. She came up through pharmaceutical operations — where contamination isn't inconvenient, it's dangerous — bringing an industrial engineer's discipline to validation and process rigor. Over more than thirteen years at a leading mission critical professional services firm, she built and scaled the accounts and delivery teams behind some of the industry's most complex commissioning programs. Across 23+ years, one standard has never moved: the medication reaches the patient. The hospital system stays online. People stay connected when it matters most. Every time.
Jennifer has led commissioning, QA/QC, and operational readiness programs for data centers and mission critical facilities at global scale. She brings a rare combination of process discipline, technical depth, and the human leadership that keeps teams performing when the pressure is highest — at the end of the line, when the last 10% demands 90% of the effort. She built AMC's operating engine to make that standard repeatable, not accidental.
Work With Us
Ready to work with people
who own it?
Whether you're a data center owner evaluating commissioning partners, a hyperscaler who's tired of B-team delivery, or a mission critical professional ready to join a firm built differently — let's talk.