Team

Inder K. Chawla, PE, MBA Inder is the founding CEO and Senior Principal-In-Charge of ELCON Associates, Inc. He is a licensed professional Electrical Engineer and holds a M.B.A. from the University of Portland. Inder has over 46 years of experience in managing multi-disciplinary projects, QA/QC, planning, budget development, scheduling and estimating for various types of transit systems, utility design and construction management. He has in-depth experience in design management and review of various system elements including traction power, signals, communication, fare collection and corrosion control. In addition to his transit experience, Inder has considerable experience in the design of power generation and utility systems for electric utilities and power plants. Inder also has experience in the design and construction management of industrial wastewater treatment plant facilities. Kinh D. Pham, PE email Kinh is a Principal, Vice President and Director of ELCON. He joined the firm in 1980 and was made a principal/partner in 1987. He has over 28 years of project management and project engineering experience in the areas of hydroelectric power generation, high voltage substation design, rail transit traction electrification, SCADA and PLC control system design. His project experience includes a number of rail transit projects in North and South America, numerous high voltage substations and hydro power plants in the Pacific Northwest.

Kinh is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers and a member of Eta Kappa Nu. He has also served on the Mass Transit Compatibilities Advisory Board. He has authored and/or co-authored a textbook and numerous papers in the areas of power system protection and controls, grounding and PLC applications. Kinh received his B.S. degree with honors in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Portland State University (PSU). He earned his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Portland. He did his doctoral studies in electrical and computer engineering from PSU. Kinh is a licensed professional engineer in 10 states including Oregon, California and Washington.

 

Amit Sinha, PE email Amit has over 27 years of experience as a Professional Engineer. He has managed a number of projects and has experience in engineering design, equipment specifications, cost estimating, start-up assistance and construction management for numerous water/wastewater and electric utility projects. Amit received his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. His recent water/wastewater engineering experience includes project management and design for pump station upgrades with the City of Portland, City of Vancouver, City of Eugene, Clean Water Services and the City of Hillsboro. His utility substation design experience includes design of modifications and upgrade to a number of HV substations ranging from 12kV to 500 kV on BPA, PGE and PG&E systems. Dimitrios K. Siaterlis, PE email Dimitrios is in charge of the Seattle office. He is a Senior Electrical Engineer with 22 years experience in the preparation of construction documents for commercial and industrial facilities throughout the Northwest. He is accustomed to managing electrical design projects for power distribution, lighting, communications and control systems in facilities including wastewater treatment plants, airports, university campuses, ferry terminals, transit facilities and roadways. Dimitrios earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Steven A. Schmidt, PE email Steven is a Senior Electrical Engineer with over 30 years of experience. He has experience with a wide variety of construction projects from commercial entertainment and convention centers, to public works projects such as sewage treatment and tunnel lighting. Steven excels at creating contract packages, which are tailored to meet client requirements and budgets.

Gerald Schneider, PE email Gerald is a Professional Engineer with over 26 years of experience. Formerly, he worked for the Port of Seattle and provided them with complex electrical designs. Through his first hand-knowledge of port design and having performed multiple projects at many Sea-Tac terminals for the Port of Seattle, he is very familiar with the electrical infrastructure of port facilities. Gerald earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. Ron Clark email Ron has over 16 years of experience in rail transit projects. His most recent experience includes; the Portland Streetcar Riverplace Extension and the Interstate MAX Light Rail and the Amtrak/Folsom Light Rail Extension projects. Previously, Ron served as Traction Electrification Project Engineer and Resident Engineer at Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon for eight years and was responsible for coordinating the design and construction activities for the Tri-Met Westside and Hillsboro light rail projects. Additional experience includes; the Ho Tung Lau Integrated Railway Depot/Workshop Re-development project for the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation in Hong Kong and the Western Mail Line Electrification Project Brisbane Suburban 25kV Electrification Project for Queensland Railways in Australia. Ron is a member of the IEEE OCS Working Committee to develop standards for OCS design. Bob Jones, PE email Bob is a Senior Electrical Engineer at ELCON Associates, Inc. and a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer. He has 27 years of experience in electrical system design of high-technology facilities. He also has experience in electrical design of wastewater treatment plants. Bob was recently involved with the design of the Umatilla Pump Station for City of Portland, OR. Some of his major projects include; Tri-City Fire Station in Banks, OR, Les Schwab Distribution Center in Prineville, OR, Linfield College in McMinnville, OR and electrical upgrades for the Oregon State Correctional Facility. Bob earned his M.B.A. and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Portland. Mike Unger, PE email Mike is an experienced Electrical Engineer who has focused his career on system planning studies of primary electrical systems. He has over 25 years of experience acting as project manager of system planning studies. Mike received his M.S. degree from Stanford University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Portland.

Dan Bodenstab, PE

Dan is a registered professional Electrical Engineer with 11 years experience in electrical design of new high voltage substations and upgrades to existing installations. Dan is knowledgeable in protection, control and equipment layout. He has assisted in conducting studies including traction electrification system simulation and voltage drop. He also has experience with installation testing and troubleshooting, equipment specification, cost comparison, and review of substation standards and operating manual documents.

Joshua Gerlach, PE

Josh is a registered professional Electrical Engineer with seven years experience in industrial and utility automation. He has also worked on a number of high voltage substation design projects from 12.5kV through 500kV. Most recently, he has been involved with various light rail signaling and pump station design projects. His experience includes PLC programming, substation protection and controls, and rail signaling.