GBA Going Through Leadership Transition

Michael Smith

GBA has announced a transition in leadership. The leadership transition plan has been in place for some time, but it will officially take effect July 1, 2015. Michael Smith, P.E., GBA’s current President/CEO announced his retirement in April 2016. The Board recently elected Tim Ross, P.E. as the new President and Dan Abitz, P.E. will serve as the Executive Vice President.

Smith, who has been President/CEO since 2001, will remain the CEO and Chairman of the Board until February 2016. Over the next few months the three will work together to make sure it is a smooth transition.
 
“The leadership of GBA across the board is in great hands going forward. I have the utmost confidence GBA’s future is very bright,” said Smith.

Tim Ross

Dan Abitz

Beck and Cantrell to Co-Lead GBA’s Water Environment Group

Gary Beck

Gary Beck and Dennis Cantrell have taken over the leadership duties of GBA’s Water Environment Group, and together will be responsible for the strategic direction of the team. The leadership transition occurred because of the recent retirement of Bill Carter.

Using his more than 30 years of professional experience,

Dennis Cantrell

Beck will have direct oversight of the management of projects and department operations; which includes developing field training, design standards and process improvement programs to strengthen the team’s project management capabilities. Beck joined GBA in 1986 and has completed project management services for large scale sewer improvement programs in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. He sits on the Water Environment Federation’s Collection Systems Committee.

In addition to directing marketing, client development and investment growth opportunities in the group’s four locations, Cantrell will also identify new hires and manage individual staff development. Cantrell joined GBA in 2011 and has 39 years of consulting engineering experience. He has worked on large infrastructure projects throughout the U.S. and several countries around the world.

GBA’s Water Environment Group has offices in Lenexa, Kansas, Omaha, Nebraska and O’Fallon and Chesterfield, Missouri. The staff of nearly 40 consists of 16 licensed engineers, technicians, scientists and GIS specialists.

Sue Marino Joins GBA

Sue Marino has joined GBA as a senior engineer in the Omaha, NE office with the Water Environment Group. In this position Sue’s role includes engineering studies, design, and management of projects involving sanitary & stormwater collection systems, sewer separation, sewer/manhole renovation and rehabilitation, field investigation, Inflow/Infiltration analysis, sewer backup solutions, stormwater management, and marketing.

Marino previously worked with the City of Omaha as the Sewer Separation Program Manager before joining GBA. She is a member of Engineers Club, American Public Works Association (APWA) and National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).  She earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil/Environmental Engineering from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Handley Achieves Two Important Credentials

Katie Handley successfully passed her professional engineering exam and can now add the letters “PE” after her name. She is a member of the Water Environment Group and has worked with stream stability and Best Management Practices as related to stream surveys, data collection, site monitoring and design. Other experience includes preparing designs based on ecological engineering principles to alleviate flooding issues.

Along with the PE, Katie has also achieved the designation as Envision™ Sustainability Professional Credential (ENV SP).  Attaining the PE was the natural progression in furthering her engineering career, but she is the first individual at GBA to have accomplished the ENV SP designation.  The ENV SP credential is offered by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) and trains the practitioner to use the Envision™ rating system as a way to apply principles of sustainability to infrastructure projects.

When asked why receiving this designation was so important Handley stated, “I was introduced to Envision^TM through work while we pursued projects with the cities of Omaha and Kansas City, Missouri.  I was extremely excited to see a system that strives to pair sustainability with a broad range of infrastructure projects (airports, dams, roads, bridges, and more).  I think it is highly important that as we work to improve our aging infrastructure system, we make every effort to conserve our natural resources.  Envision™ encourages this way of thinking in order to foster a dramatic change to improve not only the technical performance of a project but also evaluate and improve the social, environmental, and economic aspects.  I’ve always been interested in sustainability from rain gardens to phytoremediation; and I feel like Envision™ takes a new approach to working sustainable practices into projects that would be considered traditional.  I believe that we need to work to develop remarkable solutions in order to enhance our infrastructure and environment for the generations to come.”

Congratulations, Katie!