GBA promoted 14 staff members in December, including staff in three of the firm’s four regional offices.
- Promoted to Associate Vice President were Karen Long, PE, and Hans Plichta, PE.
- Promoted to Associate were Jessica Cruz, LEED AP, CEM, CPMP; William Edwards, PE; and Paul Noetzel, CCP.
- Promoted to Project Manager were Aaron Eisenmann, PE; Willis Perley, PE; Ann Seidl, PE; and Robert Yuen, PE.
- Promoted to Project Engineer were Natalia Dankanich; Brendan Erskine; Inna Gorelik; Greg Powers; and Jonathan Smith, EIT.
Karen Long joined GBA’s Milwaukee regional office in 2002. She graduated with a BS in Architectural Engineering (Electrical Systems for Buildings Specialty) from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2002, and received an Master of Science in Engineering Management from MSOE in 2019. Karen is a licensed professional engineer in 24 states. She leads GBA-Wisconsin’s electrical engineering group and is also responsible for document QA/QC review, as well as assisting in recruiting, marketing, and client relationship management.
Hans Plichta became a member of the Milwaukee regional office in 1995. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering, both from Marquette University, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois and Wisconsin. His responsibilities include many project phases, including analysis, planning, and design of mechanical systems and equipment for large institutional and pharmaceutical facilities. His project management experience has been primarily for pharmaceutical clients, with a wide range of projects for office, lab, utility and manufacturing facilities.
Jessica Cruz joined GBA’s New York branch in 2013. She is a 2004 graduate of the Stevens Institute of Technology and holds the Bachelor’s of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering degree. Jessica is an experienced mechanical engineer whose work focuses on commissioning new construction and renovation projects. She has deep expertise in project management for healthcare, education, commercial, and multifamily residential facilities.
William Edwards was hired by the Milwaukee branch in 2004. He graduated from Milwaukee School of Engineering with a BS in Architectural Engineering in 1989, and from Marquette University with an MBA in 1996. His clients include various government, commercial, and pharmaceutical organizations. Bill is experienced in project management; development of project scope and budget; mechanical and temperature control design, commissioning and construction administration services for institutional, industrial, and commercial facilities; and investigation and manual/computerized analysis of mechanical systems..
Paul Noetzel, a member of the Milwaukee regional team since 2010, holds the BS in Electrical Engineering (1992) and an MBA (2000), both from Marquette University. Paul’s responsibilities include many project phases, including analysis, planning, design, and commissioning of building automation systems and direct digital controls for large telecommunication companies and government agencies. His project experience has been primarily for telecommunication clients in existing and new facilities.
Aaron Eisenmann joined GBA’s Milwaukee regional office in 2013, shortly after graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering. His responsibilities include many project phases, including analysis, planning, and design of mechanical systems and equipment for large institutional and pharmaceutical facilities.
Willis Perley was hired by GBA’s Chicago regional office shortly after his graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 2016 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He transferred to the Milwaukee regional office in 2020. Will’s prior experience included electrical engineering internships in several departments at UW-Madison. His field engineering work since that time has been wide-ranging, including commercial, governmental, higher education, hospitality, healthcare, multifamily residential, and laboratory projects.
Ann Seidl has been part of the firm’s Chicago regional office since 2003. She is a 1992 graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering, with a BS in Architectural Engineering and Building Construction. Ann is a licensed Professional Engineer in nine states. Her extensive mechanical engineering and plumbing and fire protection design experience includes work for commercial, multifamily residential, hospitality, academic, healthcare, and other building types.
Robert Yuen joined GBA’s Chicago regional office in 2018. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2001, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois. Rob’s work is focused on electrical engineering, including power distribution, low-voltage design, lighting design, general electrical systems design and commissioning, and LEED documentation. He serves clients in diverse facility types.
Natalia Dankanich has been a member of the Chicago office’s plumbing group since 2002. She holds the BMech Eng degree from Ukrains’ka Akademija Drukarstva, Lviv, Ukraine (1990). Natalia has more than 25 years of plumbing, fire protection, and medical/specialty gas system engineering experience, concentrating on facilities in the healthcare, science/technology, higher education, commercial, and hospitality sectors.
Brendan Erskine, an experienced mechanical engineer, joined GBA’s New York regional office in 2020 after spending more than three years in operations at NYU Langone Medical Center, finishing as Operations Manager. He currently concentrates on mechanical systems commissioning for healthcare, educational, cultural, commercial, and multifamily residential projects. Brendan holds a BEng in Facilities Engineering from State University of New York Maritime College (2016).
Inna Gorelik is a 1985 graduate of the Byelorussian Polytechnical Institute, with a BS in Structural Engineering. GBA’s Chicago regional office hired her in 2000. Inna supports GBA’s mechanical engineering group with drawings in AutoCAD and Revit. She holds the Autodesk Revit MEP Professional Mechanical and Electrical credentials.
Greg Powers was hired by GBA’s Chicago regional office in 2019; he graduated from Valparaiso University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2014. Greg’s areas of specialization include mechanical systems for diverse facility types, with an emphasis on complex pharmaceutical and power facilities.
Jonathan Smith interned in GBA’s Chicago regional office in 2016 and 2017, while studying at the University of Iowa. He was hired full-time shortly after he graduated with his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. Jonathan provides electrical engineering services for commercial, governmental, higher education, hospitality, healthcare, and multifamily residential facilities.
GBA congratulates these team members for their valuable ongoing contributions to the firm, which specializes in energy and resource consulting for large, energy-intensive facilities as well as mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and medical/specialty gas design services; commissioning, retro-commissioning, and monitoring-based commissioning; energy and resource benchmarking; energy conservation studies; MEP infrastructure planning and upgrades; LEED and Green Globes consulting; and computerized building modeling. Founded in 1973 in Evanston, IL, the company also has offices in Wisconsin (Madison, Wauwatosa) and the New York metropolitan area (Hoboken, NJ).
