As CEO, Ryan is focused on the long-term development and growth of Alta Environmental.
Prior to Alta, Ryan was Managing Director at Serent Capital, a $250mm private equity fund focused exclusively on growing service sector companies, specializing in management transitions and preparing middle-market companies for aggressive revenue growth. From 2002 to 2007, he served as President of TL Fabrications, a steel fabrication company purchased and operated by Kerrigan Industries.
Leading up to Kerrigan Industries, Ryan spent four years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on growth strategies, organizational issues, pricing and business valuation. His clients included leading companies in the insurance, financial services, chemicals and telecommunications industries.
Ryan has an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and an MSFS degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a BBA in Finance.
LISA KAY President
As President of Alta, Lisa oversees client relationships and operations to ensure exceptional client service and effective project solutions developed by the best and brightest technical experts in the industry.
Over her career Lisa has supported numerous municipal government, federal government, port district, and industrial clients across the West Coast with their compliance and environmental quality issues. For more than 25 years, Lisa has provided strategic advice, led diverse stakeholder interest groups, represented clients in front of regulatory agencies, interpreted regulatory requirements, designed programs and implemented monitoring, study and planning efforts for a variety of complex projects and environmental regulatory programs.
Prior to Alta, Lisa spent 10 years at Weston Solutions, a $500mm environmental consulting, engineering, remediation, and redevelopment company where she was Vice President and most recently led operations of the Pacific Coast Region encompassing 120 people and 7 offices. She also served as chair of Weston’s 6 member Strategy Council providing strategic support to Weston’s CEO and Board of Directors. From 1998 to 2004, Lisa was a Principal and responsible for the operations of MEC Analytical Systems, Inc. a firm she helped sell to Weston Solutions in 2004. Prior to MEC, Lisa was President/CEO of Pacific Treatment Analytical Services, Inc. an environmental laboratory. She has held increasing responsible positions managing strategic growth for both small and large businesses in the environmental space.
PRACTICE LEADERS
MIKE CASSIDY Vice President, Site Assessment and Remediation
Mike Cassidy leads Alta’s Site Assessment and Remediation team. He is a California Professional Geologist and Certified Hydrogeologist, and also holds professional registrations in Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington. Mike has over 25 years of professional experience performing site assessment and remediation and installing/managing soil and groundwater treatment systems. He has managed site assessment and remediation projects throughout Southern California, and has supervised technical staff conducting Phase I investigations, site assessments, and remediation activities.
These projects have demanded a broad range of the expertise, including project forecasting and cost estimating, groundwater flow and water quality evaluation, contaminant fate and transport studies, feasibility analysis, and health risk evaluation. Mike’s clients have included aerospace manufacturing firms, public agencies, major oil companies, private developers, consulting firms, and private individuals. He specializes in litigation support and has provided expert witness testimony in numerous cases involving environmentally impacted properties.
DAVID RENFREW Vice President, Water Resources
David Renfrew is Director of Water Resources at Alta. Dave has more than 18 years of environmental assessment experience with a focus on water and sediment quality. He is responsible for the design and development of permit required monitoring and inspection programs, watershed assessments, methodologies, and source identification studies for a variety of municipal and private clients.
Dave is a thought leader in jurisdictional and watershed regulatory compliance programs. He is a member of the CASQA Science and Monitoring, and Pesticide Subcommittees, has coauthored the Stormwater Monitoring Coalition laboratory guidance document, and is a participant in the Stormwater Management Coalition (SMC) bioassessment, monitoring, laboratory work-group, and round-robin studies. Dave provides training to industrial facility operators for compliance with storm water regulations, BMPs, and monitoring techniques. He has a strong understanding of OSHA, RCRA, CA Title 22, 40 CFR, and SWRCB regulations pertaining to environmental assessment, and laboratory and field operations.
DAVID SCHACK Vice President, Building Sciences
David Schack is Vice President of Alta’s Building Sciences group, focused on providing professional asbestos, lead, mold, and industrial hygiene services. Dave’s expertise within the industry is based on experience dating back to 1989 in private sector environmental consulting. He specializes in managing hard-to-handle, difficult projects with demanding scopes and timeframes. He is committed to responsive, professional, and quality client service.
GHINA YAMOUT, PhD Director of Business Development and Senior Consultant
Ghina has over 13 years of interdisciplinary technical and policy experience in private consulting and public agencies, with an emphasis on environmental and water resources management.
Her project experience includes large scale drainage infrastructure and environmental improvement programs, watershed management projects, and municipal services management. She worked on watershed management planning projects involving complex multi-objective planning activity, including evaluation of best management practices, water conservation, capture, and reuse alternatives, while taking into account groundwater opportunities and limitations, multi-benefit potentials, jurisdictional, and land-use implications. Most recently she developed an Enhanced Watershed Management Plan and Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Program in Los Angeles County to comply with the MS4 NPDES permit.
Ghina is experienced in long-range water resources supply management and conservation planning including water demand assessment, water portfolio analysis, policies evaluation, consumers’ behavior and rate elasticity analysis, state and federal compliance and water rights. She has a Doctoral degree in Water Resources Management from the University of Florida, as well as, Masters of Science in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelor in Chemistry from the American University of Beirut. Ghina is fluent in English, Arabic and French.
CHRIS WALLER Director of Environmental Health Safety and Air
Chris Waller has 10 years of experience in the environmental field as the lead technical expert and/or project manager on many successful projects ranging from air quality permitting and compliance to hazardous waste management, treatment, and disposal and hazardous materials management. Specific projects include on-site management of facility environmental programs, environmental compliance auditing, permitting support and application development for new or modified equipment, and more.
His project work at Alta includes on-site environmental management support for an international airport in southern California. As an airport authority, Mr. Waller was appointed by the Santa Monica City Council to the Santa Monica Airport Commission. He is experienced in emissions quantification and reporting, air dispersion modeling, and health risk assessment for various facilities within the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and other Air Districts. Chris serves as a Program Manager for numerous client-specific Proposition 65 support for businesses of various sizes and complexities throughout the state.
A project manager and team leader, Mr. Waller is experienced in disseminating information and instructions whether through one-on-one meetings or through trainings for large groups. Mr. Waller specializes in client-focused work presenting complex technical information to clients, regulators, and the public. His clients include airports, industrial manufacturing facilities, public agencies, private developers, law firms, biotechnology and healthcare companies.
