Roanoke, Virginia, native Randy Rivinus received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1968. He worked part time with Appalachian Power Company in Roanoke during the last two years of his undergraduate studies and joined the utility in its Transmission and Distribution Department upon graduation.



Mr. Rivinus first entered the consulting engineering field in 1971 as a design engineer in water and wastewater treatment with Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern (HSM&M) in Roanoke. At HSM&M he was involved in the design of numerous municipal plants throughout Virginia and became the process design leader for upgrades of three major treatment works in the Hampton Roads area. He also became active in the Roanoke Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, serving as the chapter's president in 1974.



Randy moved to Atlanta in 1977 to join a regional consulting architectural/engineering firm as manager of its environmental engineering department. His duties included management and design of water and wastewater facilities and system improvements, as well as construction oversight and start-up services, for projects in Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia.



In 1982, he was offered the position of chief engineer of Lowe Engineers, an Atlanta-based firm that was reorganizing with the retirement if its owner and founding principals. Mr. Rivinus and the new management team expanded the firm to nearly 150 employees and $10 million in annual billings during the next several years. During this time, he became president and chief operating officer. Lowe Engineers performed work in major land development projects, transportation engineering and solid waste management; photogrammetric mapping and land surveying; and utility location and analysis. Clients included the Corps of Engineers throughout the U.S and Europe, the U.S. Navy, departments of transportation in five states, and numerous municipalities and private entities.



After Lowe Engineers was acquired by a regional architecture/engineering firm in the early 1990's, Mr. Rivinus held management positions at two other consulting engineering firms in the Atlanta area. One notable project he was involved in was a land exchange between the U.S. Army at Fort Benning and the City of Columbus, Georgia. This eight-year effort required extensive natural and cultural resources studies, land surveys, master planning of a proposed 1500-acre industrial park and a municipal solid waste landfill, and environmental impact statement preparation.



In 2000 Randy moved to Columbus, Georgia, and formed a professional consultancy, Midland Engineering, to complete the land exchange. He also contracted with the National Infantry Foundation in the development of a new facility for the National Infantry Museum, currently at Fort Benning. He currently serves as program manager of this $75 million project, expected to be completed in 2006. He recently accepted a similar assignment with the Army's Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., where he is project coordinator for the development of a National Museum for the U.S. Army to be located at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia. This project, budgeted at more than $150 million, is scheduled to be completed in 2009.



Throughout his career, Randy has been active in the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) at the state and national levels and he is a former diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering and a registered professional engineer in seven southeastern states. He received special recognition from the Georgia Department of Transportation for his efforts as co-chair of the Consultant Relations Task Force and received the ACEC/Georgia President's Award in 1997. He also served as director and chair of the transportation committee of the Gwinnett County (Georgia) Council for Quality Growth, an advocacy group that helped support and implement a local option sales tax for infrastructure development.



An active Virginia Tech alumnus, Randy has served three terms on CEE's Alumni Board and is a member of the College of Engineering's Committee of 100. Randy and his wife, Susan, live in Midland, Georgia, an eastern suburb of Columbus. He remains active in the community as an appointee of the city council to a citizen advisory committee involved in zoning and development issues in the Midland area.