Our Staff

Full-time staff at GPI includes geotechnical and civil engineers, field and laboratory technicians, and support staff. The full-time staff is complemented by experienced consulting geologists and geophysicists. All projects are managed by a Principal or Associate of the firm, offering a combined experience of over 120 years of in geotechnical engineering consulting practice. As such, we commit principal-level involvement in every project from the design phase through construction. An overview of the key staff experience is presented below:

Paul Schade, G.E.
Principal

Mr. Schade has over 25 years of geotechnical engineering experience focused in Southern California. He has served as Principal Engineer and Project Manager for low-to-high rise buildings (several over 20 stories), parking structures, hospitals, courthouses, sports arenas and stadiums, educational facilities, airports, pipelines, entertainment facilities, cathedrals and churches, landfills, bridges, roadways, and forensic studies. He has published papers related to pile load testing in Civil Engineering Magazine and the proceedings of the ASCE Structures Congress. Mr. Schade is a Registered Civil and Geotechnical Engineer in California and holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and California State University, Long Beach, respectively.

Donald Cords, G.E.
Principal

Mr. Cords has over 25 years of professional experience in geotechnical engineering and construction.  His experience includes the design and construction of retail centers, parking structures, commercial buildings, light rail transit lines, highways, bridges, airport pavements, tunnel instrumentation, and waterfront improvements.  Mr. Cords has managed several large contracts with the U.S. Navy, Army Corps of Engineers, City of Los Angeles, and transit agencies.  Mr. Cords is a Registered Civil and Geotechnical Engineer in California and holds Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A&M University, respectively.

Justin Kempton, G.E.
Principal

Mr. Kempton has been in the construction and geotechnical engineering profession since 1985. He has over 25 years of geotechnical engineering experience in Southern and Northern California. His geotechnical engineering experience consists of a wide range of commercial, power, and infrastructure projects that include retail and residential developments, large industrial complexes, schools, hospitals, high-rise buildings, prisons, bridges, pipelines, power plants, substations, water and wastewater treatment facilities, tie-back walls, and parking structures. Mr. Kempton previously managed on-call geotechnical service programs for the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Urban Levee Evaluation projects for the California Department of Water Resources. Mr. Kempton is a Registered Civil and Geotechnical Engineer in California and holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from California State University, Fresno and University of California, Los Angeles, respectively.

Detailed resumes for each of the above can be provided upon request.