School of Engineering

I began my academic career at HSU in 1993, and graduated from the ERE program in 1998. Looking back now, attending HSU turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I have many great memories about my time there: creating lifelong friendships, fun nights partying on the plaza, endless outdoor fun, and the majestic redwood forest, just to name a few. My education at HSU not only prepared me for a very successful career in engineering, but also offered me many opportunities to grow as a person.

After leaving HSU, I got a job as an “energy” engineer (kind of a new thing at the time) at an energy consulting firm in Southern California. In the years that followed, I also pursued my love of travel throughout the U.S., Europe, and Mexico. One of my fondest memories while traveling through Paris is of standing on the Eiffel Tower and being in awe of this massive engineering feat…and then oddly having a flashback to Professor Al Burrows’ statics lesson on truss forces.

I enjoyed several years of single life, and then decided to settle down, sort of, and I purchased my first home in 2003. And then, several months later, I met the person who made me want to really settle down, my future wife, Jen. We met on a blind date and hit it off right away, and we were pretty much inseparable from that point on. Jen and I were married in September 2005, and looking back now, I can say without a doubt that this was THE best decision of my life. We now live in Carlsbad, California with our two beautiful children – Chloe, 8, and Donovan, 6. Our weekends are filled with the kids’ sports events, which I truly enjoy watching more than anything else. And, my wife and I go out for “date night” whenever we can.

After spending almost 14 years working for someone else, I finally fulfilled a dream that I had imagined many years earlier while I was a student at HSU – being my own boss. In 2011, I started my own energy consulting firm, GSE Solutions, where we help commercial, industrial and institutional utility customers improve their bottom line by reducing energy and maintenance costs at their facilities. Aside from the technical work, what I enjoy most is helping our clients uncover their challenges and then working together to resolve them. In addition to being owner and principal engineer at GSE Solutions, I’m also the managing director of GreenPSF, a software company that has developed an online platform to assist utility customers with making procurement of energy projects faster, easier, and cheaper. Through software, we hope to eliminate the major hurdles preventing customers from implementing more energy projects. I assume, as with any major decision in life, it boils down to minimizing the risk and fear for the decision maker.

At this stage in my life, I’m looking forward to watching my kids grow into caring and productive adults… and going on more dates with my wife. I hope to instill in my children, as my parents did with me, a “growth mindset,” which basically means “with effort and perseverance, you can succeed.” I often relied on this valuable life lesson during my time in the HSU ERE program. Believe me, I had lots of practice, given the many hours of frustration I spent in the FORTRAN lab cursing at my computer after being stuck in an “infinite do loop.” Eventually though, I did succeed. And finally, I want to pass on the love of travel to my kids. It has opened my eyes to many different cultures and experiences that give greater context to what I learned in the classroom.