Chris Brahler has been active in the development and growth of the underground construction industry for 30 years. He received a B.S. in Business Administration in 1974 and began his career in the cable installation equipment market that same year. Chris soon developed an interest in trenchless technology.

In 1991, Chris started TT Technologies, Aurora , Illinois , a manufacturer of a wide range of trenchless tools and equipment. As President and CEO of TT Technologies, Chris works with many different underground construction applications including boring systems, pipe ramming, horizontal direction drilling and pipe bursting.

Chris has been very involved in promoting the growth of the trenchless technology market and increasing the trenchless education level. He has spoken about trenchless technology and related applications to engineers, contractors, municipalities and construction related industry groups throughout the United States and the world, including China, Mexico and Europe.

Chris has been a featured presenter at conventions and conferences around the country including, UCT, PCCA, DCA and NUCA. He has served on the NO-DIG Trenchless Committee, DCA Board of Directors and the National Utility Contractors Association Trenchless Committee.

Keith Hanks and his wife Belinda are the parents of six children and live in Azusa, California . Mr. Hanks has been employed by the City of Los Angeles for nearly 21 years in the Bureau of Engineering, and the Bureau of Sanitation. During this time he has been involved in the design and construction of Wastewater Projects including treatment plants, major sewer design and construction, and sewer rehabilitation.

Mr. Hanks is currently a Sr. Sanitary Engineer, and is Assistant Division Engineer for the Wastewater Conveyance Engineering Division.

Current responsibilities include:

Supervising a Major Sewer Design and Rehabilitation section responsible for

• Development of technology to rehabilitate 60+ miles of large dimension non-circular sewers
• Chair of Pipeline Standards and Investigation Committee, acceptance of materials for use in City sewer system
• Hydraulic Research Laboratory
• Design and Construction of new major sewers using open trench, micro tunneling, tunneling methods
• Design for rehabilitation of major circular and non-circular sewers
• Division technical training program

Past responsibilities include:

• Acting as city design supervisor for the North Outfall Sewer-East Central Interceptor Sewer, an 11 mile long and 11 foot diameter tunneled sewer, which was the single largest project ever awarded by the Los Angeles Board of Public Works.
• Wastewater Program outside agency coordination contact
• One year as supervisor of the Valley District Office Public Sewer Counter
• Supervise two groups, Bureau of Sanitation Engineering Support for Tillman, Los Angeles/Glendale, and Terminal Island Treatment Plants. Process improvement group for same plants
• Design associate for Treatment Plant related projects for Tillman, Los Angeles/Glendale, and Terminal Island Treatment Plants.

Mr. Hanks is active professionally and in his community:

• Registered Civil Engineer – State of California
• Assistant Division Engineer – Wastewater Conveyance Engineering Division
• Officer,
• Board Member, North American Society for Trenchless Technology
• Director, Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority
• Louisiana Tech University Trenchless Technology Center Industry Advisory Board
• City Council Member, City of Azusa

Mark Hallett has been in the construction business the majority of his working career specializing in the rehabilitation of underground infrastructures. Since 2000 Mark has been employed by Miller Pipeline Corp., a full service underground utility contractor, at the corporate headquarters in Indianapolis where he currently serves as Vice President of the Utility Division. Mark has been active in a number of trade associations and currently is the president of NASSCO’s International Pipebursting Association (IPBA) and is now serving on the Board of Directors of NASTT.

Dr. Atalah is an Associate Professor working for Bowling Green State University where he teaches construction management. Dr. Atalah earned a Doctor of Engineering, Master of Science in Civil Engineering, and Master of Business Adminsitration degrees from Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana. He graduated with Diploma in Construction Management and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. He has more than 24 years of construction experience in water and wastewater projects; 15 years of which were in trenchless technology construction. He made hundreds of trencheless technology and construction management presentations in many national conferences and educational seminars.

David Bennett is a registered professional engineer and principal of Bennett / Staheli Engineers, a trenchless consulting firm founded with Kimberlie Staheli. David earned BS and MCE degrees in Civil Engineering from Mississippi State University before earning his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Illinois . He has authored or co‑authored over 40 publications in the areas of trenchless technology and geotechnical engineering. He serves on the editorial advisory board for Trenchless Technology Magazine. He is active in the American Society of Civil Engineers, the GeoInstitute, and the North American Society for Trenchless Technology, serving on several technical and conference committees, and the NASTT Board of Directors.

Ben Coté has been with Sanexen Environmental Services since 1995. In 1998 he was involved in the development and marketing of the Aqua-Pipe technology for water main rehabilitation. For the past ten years he has managed the development and growth of the water main rehab branch at Sanexen.

Since 2001, Ben has held the director of Aqua-Pipe position at Sanexen working to market and license the technology in North America. He has comprehensive expertise in water main rehab and NSF certification protocols. He is also active with the AWWA. Ben is a master of science graduate from the University of Sherbrooke

George Cowan graduated Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1973, earning his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, and Registered Professional Engineer in the State of New York since 1977. Cowan is also a member of ASCE, Member of BAMI, Industry Advisory Board Louisiana Tech TTC.

Cowan has worked at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection from 1973 through 1996 involved in the design and construction of sewers. Upon New York City ’s formation of the Department of Design and Construction in 1996 was appointed the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Infrastructure/Design, where he is responsible for overseeing the Design of the City’s Infrastructure including sewers, water mains and roadways.

Mr. Chua obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering specializing in hydrodynamics from the University of Washington in 1973 and 1975 respectively. He is a Professional Engineer. He is one of the founding members of the Northwest Chapter of the North American Society for the Trenchless Technology and served as the Chair of the Chapter for the period of 2000/2001. Mr. Chua is employed by the City of Edmonton , Asset Management and Public Works, Drainage Services, Design and Construction in the capacity of Program Manager responsible for the upgrading of the existing sewer network.

Mr. Chua’s interest spans from the strategic planning and computer network simulation of sewer and water systems to the project management of the design and construction of the large diameter sewer tunnels. He prepared six engineering manuals and is a frequent contributor of papers to various engineering societies, journals and conferences. As a Program Manager, he directs a variety of infrastructure programs and participated in the preparation of sewer specifications and rehabilitation guidelines at municipal, provincial and national levels.

Director of Engineering Services for Halton Region (located west of Toronto), responsible for overseeing the delivery of an annual water and wastewater and transportation capital program of over $250 million.

Over 20 years involvement in the evaluation, application and promotion of trenchless and emerging technologies for the evaluation, rehabilitation and construction of linear infrastructure.

Central Canadian Regional Director on NASTT Board 1995 to 1998. (Treasurer, 1998.) A founding member of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Chapter of NASTT and past member, editorial board for Trenchless Technology magazine.

Vice Chair of the Potable Water Committee, National Guide for Sustainable Infrastructure (2001 to 2007) Through this committee National Best Practice documents were prepared for the evaluation, rehabilitation and construction of linear water infrastructure including best practices for the selection of appropriate technologies.

Tom is the Vice President of North American Rehabilitation for Insituform Technologies, Inc., a worldwide company specializing in the use of trenchless technologies to rehabilitate, replace and maintain underground pipes. Tom has been with Insituform for 24 years and within that time has held several positions of increasing responsibility. He is currently responsible for sales and field operations of Insituform's rehabilitation division in North America, which includes more than 900 people involved in the process of installing more than 5,000,000 linear feet of Insituform cured-in-place pipe each year.

Tom has over 30 years experience in underground pipeline infrastructure. Before joining Insituform he was a partner at Utility Surveys, Inc., a utility construction firm. Prior to that he worked for McCullough Environmental, a firm specializing in sewer system evaluation surveys (SSES) for municipal and federal utility systems.

An Atlanta, Georgia resident, Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Business Administration degree from Jacksonville University. Tom is a member of the American Public Works Association and the American Water Works Association.

Jim Hoggatt is currently the Engineering Department Manager for the South Tahoe Public Utility District in South Lake Tahoe , CA . Mr. Hoggatt has over thirty years of experience in planning, permitting, design, and construction management in the field of municipal engineering. He has been the project manager on the design and construction of many trenchless projects including Slip Lining, CIPP, Pipe Bursting, HDD, and Auger Boring. Jim earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University and has been active in NASTT for the past fifteen years.

Mark is an Associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo and the Executive Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Trenchless Technologies also located at the University of Waterloo . Other trenchless activities include; being a member of the Buried Asset Management Institute International, No-Dig conference organizing committee for the past three years, and a founding member of the Trenchless International Engineering Research Committee. Mark’s has conducted trenchless research in the areas of horizontal directional drilling, flexible and rigid liners and more recently buried infrastructure asset management. He has also been active in trenchless education in Canada and Internationally.

Dan Liotti is President of Midwest Mole, Inc., Indianapolis , IN , a trenchless construction company, which performs boring, jacking, tunneling, relining, directional drilling and grouting work throughout the Midwest. Dan grew up in the trenchless construction business working with his father, Len Liotti at Affholder Boring and Tunneling and then with Midwest Mole, Inc., which his father started in 1982. Liotti is a graduate of Purdue University in Civil Engineering and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana.

George Ragula is responsible for evaluating cutting edge technologies that increase efficiency and effectiveness of operations. Responsibilities include planning, coordinating, managing and implementing procedural and equipment technology transfer with particular emphasis on increased use of various trenchless technologies. He has spent the last 18 years committed to the ever-growing technologies in trenchless construction.

George has a very diverse background in gas distribution engineering and operations. Prior to joining PSE&G in 1988, he held various positions at Brooklyn Union Gas responsible for project estimating, field engineering/construction, system planning and network analysis, design, codes and standards, contract administration, gas leak detection including emergency response; as well as drafting.

He is a member of the American Gas Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, North American Society for Trenchless Technology, Society of Gas Operators, and the New Jersey Society of Asphalt Technologists. He serves as Treasurer of the Northeast Gas Distribution Council and is actively involved as a Project Advisor for the Gas Technology Institute Operations Technology

Development Program and Sustaining Membership Program. In addition, he serves as Chairman of the NYSEARCH – Northeast Gas Association R&D Committee.

He received his BS Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in New York .

Kaleel was born in Mississippi and attended Mississippi State University , where he graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering. Rahaim has experience in Process and Project Engineering, Sales and Marketing, and Management. He has been involved in the Thermoset Resin Industry for almost 30 years. Currently, he is Industry Manager – CIPP Resins for Interplastic Corporation, Thermoset Resins Division. Kaleel resides in Houston , Texas . He is married with two children and five grandchildren, and is involved in various trade organizations including NASTT and UST.

Isabel Tardif holds a Bachelor in Civil Engineering from McGill University and a Law Degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She also earned a Master in Project Management from the Université du Québec en Outaouais.

Mrs. Tardif is a Technologies Director pertaining to underground infrastructures for the Centre for Expertise and Research on Infrastructure in Urban Areas (CERIU). Prior to CERIU, she has held the position of Operations Manager - Potable Water and Sewer Networks for the City of Aylmer and as well as Coordinator - Potable Water and Sewer Rehabilitation for the Engineering Department for the City of Gatineau.

She has been involved in several INFRAGuide Committees, the North American Society for Trenchless Technologies (NASTT) and with the CERIU for many years in regards potable water and sewer underground infrastructures. Mrs. Tardif had moderated and has given conferences in Africa and in North America on different topics pertaining to potable water, sewer, and trenchless technologies. She currently gives courses and lectures on trenchless technologies to engineers, technicians, as well as university and college students.

Since 1965, Robert H. Westphal worked in multiple divisions of Michels Corporation and held a variety of positions ranging from laborer to Vice President. In 2000, Mr. Westphal was promoted to his current position of Senior Vice President.

Mr. Westphal’s focus and expertise is in the management of domestic and international pipeline construction and horizontal directional drilling operations. Mr. Westphal’s responsibilities include business development, contract procurement and negotiation, project oversight and management, and client communication. Most often, Mr. Westphal discharges these responsibilities on multiple simultaneous projects conducted in different locations around the United States as well as the world.

Under Mr. Westphal’s leadership, Michels has gained worldwide recognition as one of the leading horizontal directional drilling contractors in the industry.

Mr. Westphal is an active member of the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA) and served as its President in 2005. Mr. Westphal also serves on the PLCA’s Labor Committee and Board of Directors. In 2001, Mr. Westphal was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Laborer’s National Pension Fund based in Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Westphal and his wife, Jone, are members of Faith Lutheran Church in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where they reside and are both involved with several civic and charitable causes.

The Westphals have four sons and nine grandchildren.