People | LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon

lei-engineering-and-surveying-excellence LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon believes that its most valuable asset is its staff. We hire the best and brightest in the industry and give them the tools they need to effectively meet client and project objects. Key to the LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon's professionalism is that its staff combine a valuable mix of skills and expertise that include decades of seasoned experience and technological innovation. LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon's senior professionals and key staff possess a wealth of operational, technical and management experience that forms a framework which enables them to take advantage of the technological innovations initiated by the younger staff.

At LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon, we make it a top priority to always stay well versed in the latest technologies available. Not to be overlooked is that this technology is successful because it is integrated with experience and traditional methods. We also clearly understands that technology is used, not to substitute for, but to enhance the diligence and professionalism that characterize its exceptional work.

LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon is an equal opportunity employer who believe every employee has the right to work in surroundings that are free from all forms of arbitrary discrimination. We enforce the policy that employees are treated fairly at all times without regard to race, color, creed, sex, age, national origin, or marital status. It is also their policy that employees shall not be discriminated against because of political ideology, sexual orientation, physical, mental or sensory handicap, or veteran status.

Jamie Van Agtmael, President

Mr. Van Agtmael has more than 13 years of civil site design, construction management, and land surveying experience throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He started his career as a survey crew chief and drafter for a land surveying, civil site design and civil roadway company in Albany, Oregon, further advancing to oversee civil designer, construction management and Inspection. In this capacity, Mr. Van Agtmael directed teams of drafters in civil design on project work then continuing to oversee construction staking and quality control inspection thought-out construction.

Mr. Van Agtmael also has extensive experience in municipal survey projects ranging widely in scope from collecting limited control to assist city to draft easements required to large City street / utility upgrade projects to topographic collection for local drainage issues to multiple bock downtown streetscape overhaul (City of Albany). He is proficient in the use of Autodesk Land Development platform, AutoDesk Civil 3D, ESRI ArcGIS, and a wide array of engineering, survey and office software packages.

Greg J. Zartman, P.E., Principal Engineer

As a nationally recognized consultant civil and forest engineer with more than 23 years of experience, Greg Zartman manages many of the projects at LEI as principal engineer. He has a bachelor’s degree in Forest Engineering from Oregon State University, and has been honored for his contributions and exemplary work as an engineer by Oregon State University and recognized for his expertise by national publications that include the Western Journal of Forestry. In 2006, Mr. Zartman was awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award by the Oregon State University college of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering. Mr. Zartman has also lectured on topics including transportation planning, low volume road design, and complex drainage structure design at the Oregon State University Forest Engineering Department and for a variety of professional organizations.

Mr. Zartman is licensed to practice as a professional engineer in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. He has worked as project manager and engineer-of-record on a wide range of federal government design and professional services projects throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska with teams of professionals ranging from five design engineers and technicians to large inter-disciplinary teams of more than 40 professional and technical staff. Mr. Zartman's civil engineering experience includes a wide range of civil site design and infrastructure improvement projects for private and public agency clients. He is especially experienced in roadway planning, design, and construction projects. Mr. Zartman is equally experienced in Forest Engineering, having spent the majority of his early career working on federal timber sale and timber sale NEPA projects throughout the Northwest and Alaska. Mr. Zartman has worked as a engineer, engineer-of-record, and project manager for dozens of low volume roadway projects number in the hundreds of miles. In the early 2000s, Mr. Zartman developed low volume road design curriculum using the Softree RoadEng platform that he presented in classroom settings and also professional seminars.

Mr. Zartman is member of the Council on Forest Engineering, Professional Engineers of Oregon, Association of Consulting Foresters (2011-2012 Chairman), and the Society of American Foresters. He is also a past member of the Oregon State University Forest Engineering Advisory Committee and the Oregon State Engineering Board Forest Engineering Examination Committee.

Larry Allen, Land Surveyor

Mr. Allen has more than 34 years of land surveying experience throughout the Pacific Northwest, including 25 years with the City of Seattle, Washington, Parks and Recreation Department. He has extensive experience in all aspects of traditional land surveying; including the public land survey, local boundary surveys, topographic surveys, deeds and recorded survey research, platting, and construction surveying. Mr. Allen is an integral part of the day-to-day operations at LEI and is proficient in the use of most mainstream survey instruments and data collection platforms. He is also a proficient operator of the Autodesk Land Development platform for survey data processing and final product preparation. Mr. Allen has worked in or on projects in most of the small cities located in the Willamette Valley.

Chris Fogerson, EIT, Lead Designer

Mr. Fogerson is a graduate Civil Engineer from Oregon State University who is registered with the State of Oregon as an Engineer-in-Training(EIT) and a Land-Surveyor-in-Training (LSIT). Since 2011, he has worked extensively as a Project Designer and Design Drafter on a wide range of Civil Site Design and Transportation Design projects for public and private sector clients. He also acted a survey crew chief on numerous boundary, topographic, and construction surveys in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Mr. Fogerson has also worked in LEI's forestry operations as an engineer technician and forest technician. He is a proficient operator of AutoDesk Civil 3D, AutoDesk AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and a wide range of Civil Engineering design and support software.

Ryan Murray, Project Manager, Designer

Mr. Murray is a graduate Forest Engineer from Oregon State University. Since 2017, he has worked exclusively as a Land Surveying and Civil Engineering Drafter/Designer with experience working on civil, transportation, land surveying, and GIS projects for public and private sector clients. Mr. Murray has extensive experience in CAD Drafting and Design, with experience in multiple CAD platforms and associated design software, including Autodesk Civil 3D, HydroCAD and ArcGIS. He began his career as a field technician, completing forestry field work and land surveying field work, including boundary surveying, topographic surveying, and construction staking. After receiving his degree, he moved into drafting and designing, advancing to project manager for an Oregon based company with a focus in stormwater, subdivisions, and road widening and rehabilitation. He is highly experienced in multiphase subdivisions, partitions and records of survey, transportation, and public improvements. Mr. Murray is also a certified erosion control inspector and is a registered CESCL in Oregon and Washington. He also has skills in lidar data processing, programming, and 3D modeling.

Melissa Fessler, Business Manager, Technical Editor

Ms. Fessler is a graduate of Western Oregon University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She is LEI's Business Manager, responsible for a wide range of administrative functions and tasks for the firm. Since 2014, she has worked extensively as a technical writer and editor on wide range of civil site design and transportation design projects for public and private sector clients. She has worked extensively throughout all of LEI’s operations, including writing proposals and technical writing and editing for its project.

Stephen P. Palmer, Ph.D., CEG, Engineering Geologist, Associate

Dr. Palmer has nearly 30 years of experience in the earth sciences, including geophysical applications in geotechnical and environmental projects, engineering geology, oil and gas exploration, and nuclear waste disposal. During his tenure at the Washington State Geologic Survey, Dr. Palmer provided engineering geology consulting services to a number of state and local agencies, as well as managing several federal grant projects. Dr. Palmer has both managed and been the technical lead for projects involving landslide mitigation, underground utilities, stream bank erosion stabilization, surface mine reclamation, and aggregate resource evaluation. He is also a technical lead on the use of geophysical applications for engineering projects, including the investigation of soil and rock conditions for evaluating underground utility alignments and building foundations.

Christoper Huggett, Survey Crew Chief, Forester, Certified Arborist

Mr. Huggett has a BS in Forestry from Michigan State University. He began his career at LEI as a forester, successfully completing multiple stand exam and timber sale layout projects. Shortly after he began work for LEI, Mr. Huggett developed an interest in Land Surveying and joined LEI’s survey crew as a survey technician. Mr. Huggett’s attention to detail and technical competence allowed him to quickly become well versed in the operation of the Trimble Robotic Total Station. As Mr. Huggett’s career continued, he advanced to performing as Survey Crew Chief for select survey projects. These projects included forestry cadastral surveys, private property monument searches, topographic surveys, and tree surveys. In late 2018, Mr. Huggett successfully obtained his Certified Arborist credential. Since mid to late 2018, Mr. Huggett has functioned as LEI’s primary survey crew chief for all land survey operations. He has successfully completed the field component of dozens of survey projects for LEI, including the survey of a 147-lot subdivision, site survey for two large apartment complex projects, and multiple hydraulic site surveys. Mr. Huggett is skilled in the use of Autodesk AutoCAD, ESRI ArcGIS, and Trimble GPS data management software.

James Van Agtmael, Survey Technician, Forester, Drafter

Mr. Van Agtmael started with LEI as a Forest Technician and has completed three field seasons of unit layout, skyline profile data collection, boundary painting, common stand exams, and GPS data collection. In 2019, he became of a full time employee for LEI, working on LEI's survey crew as a survey technician. During the summer months, Mr. Van Agtmael works as one of LEI's field crew leaders for forestry projects, especially those including unit layout. He is fluent in the use of Trimble map grade GPS and recreation GPS such as Avenza Maps. Mr. Van Agtmael has also taken Autodesk AutoCAD training at Chemeketa Community College and performs as one of LEI’s drafters for land survey and civil engineering projects.