I have been involved in hundreds of construction and infrastructure projects utilizing geosynthetics. My contributions include material evaluation and recommendations, chemical exposure decision making, design support and usage guidance and complaint/failure management, remediation and correction actions and forensic investigations. I have been involved in dozens of site investigations and expert witness report and testimony preparations. Major projects and successes include the New York city Fresh Kills facility, in the NENT facility and others in Hong Kong, Polk County, Florida, the Palo Verde Nuclear power station in Phoenix Arizona, and hundreds of other municipal waste and industrial disposal sites in the United States and around the world. Additionally, I have been involved in Superfund and hazardous waste disposal at sites in the USA such as the Savannah River Superfund site with the US Department of Energy and disposal facilities at the Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and other locations. I am past chair of the International Geosynthetics Society Technical Committee on Barriers.
As the chairman of GMA I was the principle leader for my industries lobbying presence in Washington D.C. Our accomplishments included geosynthetic language in various bills and laws; water and other infrastructure funding, transportation legislation, updated and expanded environmental regulations and coal ash storage regulation. These regulations resulted in a >20% market expansion for my industries products. This required detailed long term planning on a highly strategic level, coordination among multiple industry businesses and interests and the selection and engagement of third party resources.
I greatly advanced and executed the IGS “Educate the Educators” program, executing programs in July 2015 in Austin, Texas, August 2016 in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China and April 2017 in Manila, Philippines for over 110 university professors and other international participants, training them in how to teach engineering with geosynthetics. This included fund raising of corporate support, development of educational media and logistics management.
I served as GSE’s ISO management representative from 2010 to 2013 and have completed certified training as an external ISO 9001 quality auditor. I have authored the vast majority of GSE’s documentation on geosynthetics including both Manufacturing and Installation Quality Assurance Manuals, Product Design Manuals and Usage guides, marketing literature and over one hundred technical notes and application guides. I was a member of the committee that created GRI GM-13, GM-17 , and GM-42, the global standards for polyethylene geomembranes.
