Charles Thorpe

OBJECTIVE and RELEVANT QUALIFICATIONS

• Objective: Senior to Executive level management position to help meet the prospective Firm’s technical and financial goals.
  • Apply my extensive knowledge gained from more than twenty five years’ experience in engineering, coordination, and management of government, commercial and industrial MEP Building Infrastructure system designs.
  • As an experienced licensed professional engineer, provide a broad range of technical, financial budgeting, staffing, design, and project engineering experience. These include private, government, higher education, utility and telecommunications industry projects, including an extensive background in application of power and grounding systems designs.
• I have served as design engineer, senior project engineer, Engineering Group Manager, Applied R&D Group Manager, Program Coordinator, Electrical Department Head and MEP Division Manager.
• Design experience includes building infrastructure power distribution, lighting and control systems, 400 Hz and DC power distribution, uninterruptible power systems, grounding and lightning protection systems, data centers/communication sites, and commercial medium voltage and utility service systems.
• Management experience includes leading an entire MEP Division with multi-discipline site/civil and structural interaction, leading an electrical department, leading applied R&D and design engineering groups, coordinating integrated power system design teams and cell phone site design teams.
• I have excellent computer and communication skills along with successful client interface and long term relationships that round out my capabilities.

EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE

Pennoni Associates – MEP Division Manager                                                   2012 to 2017

Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineering Division Manager:

• I was responsible for the project and personnel management of the Philadelphia MEP Division. Staff included Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing designers.
• I was responsible for scheduling, planning, mentoring, QA/QC review and resource allocation for all MEP staff in the Philadelphia office. I was also responsible to coordinate staffing of projects with our Haddon Heights, NJ and Arlington, VA offices.
• I developed annual staffing requirements and budgets. This ensured that a wide variety of technical staff was available to meet all present and anticipated project needs.
• I prepared proposals for individual MEP projects including engineering design effort requirements of $10,000 to upwards of $1,000,000+.
• I oversaw the technical development of all MEP projects and signed/sealed construction documents as required by the states having jurisdiction.
• I provided electrical engineering design assistance and senior engineering oversight for junior staff.
• I was responsible to coordinate MEP projects to assist the other Pennoni departments including site/civil, structural, and environmental engineering projects.

Arora Engineers, Inc. – Electrical Department Head                                       2007 to 2012

Electrical Dept. Head:

• I was responsible for managing the Electrical Engineering department. Staff included specialty airfield lighting engineers, special systems communications, data, and security engineers, utility, industrial and commercial power distribution engineers, and lighting designers.
• I was responsible for scheduling, planning, mentoring, and QA/QC review of all Electrical plans and specifications for Code compliance and technical accuracy. Provided staff mentoring, training and personnel reviews.
• I was also responsible to work with other department managers to create cost proposals to manage projects from inception through finished construction.
• Project Management experience includes leading multi-discipline design teams for government, aviation, K thru 12 plus higher education projects, communications and private sector projects.
• Cross coordination with architects, structural, and civil/site utility designers was also managed to meet client criteria.
• I was responsible for customer/client/municipality interface to identify scope and budget, create design plans and specifications, coordinate utilities, and field verify site conditions following NEC, NESC, IBC and local/state codes and ordinances. Estimates of probable construction costs were also determined.

American Competitiveness Institute – Program Coordinator                                     2005 to 2007

Program Coordinator:

• I was responsible for program coordination of power electronics module (PEM) and flexible multi-function antenna manufacturing technology projects for the U.S. Navy ONR.
• I am responsible for leveraging the prime vendor’s experience in electronics and RF design to extract the manufacturing processes and apply those technologies to shipboard power and communication systems.
• I coordinate internal teams and multiple external contractor teams. I’m responsible for project plan and budget development, personnel tasking, work breakdown schedule planning, execution & tracking, reporting, and customer interface to meet technical project and cost milestones.

Applied R&D / Engineering Manager:

• I was responsible for managing the Applied R&D group which planned and executed multi-million dollar military and commercial research and laboratory projects in ruggedization and reliability of electronic assemblies and packages, failure mode determination and analysis, packaging solutions and application of semiconductors, and production planning and new component integration.
• I then transitioned to manage the Design Engineering group which provided engineering processes and support including design for manufacturability, analog and digital designs, power electronics system design, RF systems analysis, mechanical design & thermal analysis of electronics, technology obsolescence issues, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) implementation, circuit redesign due to package technology changes, and reverse engineering.

Lead Electrical Engineer:

• I served as the responsible lead engineer on a Navy integrated power systems (IPS) project which addresses design application and cost reduction issues for shipboard power systems. The IPS project addresses three core areas – fiber optics and advanced RF sensors for condition based maintenance (CBM), advanced heat exchanger technologies for power electronics, and wide band gap semiconductor device analysis.
• My knowledge of shipboard IPS systems is instrumental to understanding and applying advanced technologies for power electronics and electrical system CBM.
• I was also the lead engineer for an industry based utility connected 3-level converter used for power conditioning. This project included thermal analysis, power electronics packaging analysis and utility interface analysis.

Henkels & McCoy – Project Engineer                                                             2000 to 2005 

PCS Project Engineer:

• Responsible for PCS carrier/client/township interface to identify scope, create design plans, coordinate utilities, and field verify site conditions following National Electric Code and all local/state codes and ordinances.
• Responsible for the design of backup generator systems, grounding & lightning protection systems, and coordination of PCS projects to be located on Pennsylvania Power and Light transmission structures.

Electrical Engineer:

• Responsibilities included identifying and cataloging MCC electrical com-ponents and motor loads for an arc-flash study of the entire Rohm & Haas Spring House, PA facility.

Electrical Engineer:

• To as-built Johnson & Johnson bandage winding and packaging machinery assembly lines to field verify existing wiring and equipment conditions.
• I also created drawings to facilitate disassembly, relocation, reassembly and reinstallation at a new facility.

Project Engineer:

• For the construction of electrical systems feeding a remote metering facility for a Transco Pipeline natural gas distribution facility in Camden, NJ.
• Responsibilities included design of power distribution, data collection and lightning protection/grounding system drawings, specifications and facility electrical classification.

Project Engineer:

• Specified electrical equipment and provided electrical drawings to support a new HVAC system for the Fire House Museum located in downtown Philadelphia, PA.

Clark, Richardson & Biskup Consulting Engineers, Inc. – Power, Lighting, and Fire/Special Systems Design                                                                              1999 to 2000

Lead Electrical Engineer:

• Designed Special Systems for a Wyeth-Ayerst pharmaceutical facility in Providence, RI.
• Electrical and Special Systems design included power and lighting, fire alarm, security card reader access, fiber-optic communication and data transfer.
• Other responsibilities included electrical drawing preparation for CADD creation, power equipment layout, electrical specifications and fire alarm systems for the Central Utilities Building.

Edwards & Kelsey, LLC – Cell Phone Site, Power & Telephone Design                  1998 to 1999

Senior Electrical Engineer:

• Responsible for PCS cell phone site design.
• I wrote specifications for electrical equipment, including utility power metering and switch gear, distribution panels, load protection, cabling and conduit, and primary and secondary transformers.
• Electrical and grounding site plans, elevations, and schematic drawings were prepared for CADD creation. Responsibilities also included coordinating soil resistivity tests to assist the design of lightning protection and grounding systems.

Naval Surface Warfare Center - Carderock Division - Philadelphia Electrical Engineer - Machinery & Electrical  Systems Department, Power  Systems Branch, 400  Hz & DC Section                                                                                                                    1991 to 1998

Electrical Engineer/Project Manager:

• Responsible for interface with Navy sponsors to identify electrical scope, provide detailed estimates and obtain funding.
• Responsibilities included supervision of on-going electrical installation, training and debriefing of Navy personnel, and providing a detailed final report to the project sponsor.

Technical skills:

• Included single- and three-phase power design; power monitoring and analysis; motor-generator theory; solid state power electronics; 60-400 Hz frequency converters; UPS system design; cabling and circuit breakers specification; automatic/manual power transfer switch and contact applications; programmable logic controllers and electrical technical manuals.
• Other skills required were proposal preparation, inventory management, condition assessment and review of Military and General DON Specifications.
• All projects were related to supporting and maintaining the United States Navy Fleet focusing on essential and sensitive fire-control power and communications equipment, with emphasis on the safety of Navy and civilian personnel.

EDUCATION:  B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Widener University, Chester, PA, 1991

REGISTRATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS & CERTIFICATIONS

New Jersey State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, 2005

PA State Registration Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists, 2005

Delaware Association of Professional Engineers, 2005 (Inactive)

CLEARANCES:  Top Secret, 2004