Past Advisory Board Members
Ray Anderson
Founder and Chairman, Interface, Inc.
An honor graduate of Georgia Tech, Anderson founded Interface Floor in 1973. Since then, the company has become the world's largest producer of commercial floor coverings. Under Anderson's guidance, Interface is moving toward a goal of completely eliminating negative environmental impacts from its production by 2020. In 1996, Anderson received the inaugural Millennium Award from Global Green, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev. In January 2001, Anderson was selected by the National Academy of Sciences to receive the George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development, the first corporate CEO to be so honored.
J. BARNIE BEASLEY, JR., P.E.
Director, American Electric Power
Beasley currently serves on the Board of Directors of American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5.3 million customers in 11 states. He also currently serves as an independent advisor to Energy Solutions, an international nuclear services company. Beasley retired in 2008 as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Nuclear Operating Company.
Clifton A. Baile, Ph.D.
D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Agricultural Biotechnology, University of Georgia
With more than 40 years experience at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Georgia, SmithKline Beecham and the Monsanto Company, Baile brings a wealth of experience translating university research to private sector use. He has participated in the founding of eight companies while at UGA. In 2002 he was awarded the Lamar Dodd Award for recognition of “an outstanding body of scholarly and creative activities in the sciences.” He was recognized in 2008 with the D. W. Brooks Distinguished Professorship by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for sustained exemplary achievements in research.
James H. Dooley, Ph.D., P.E.
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Forest Concepts, LLC
A licensed professional engineer, Dooley served as president of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. His company, Forest Concepts, specializes in woody biomass feed stocks and developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative wood products for environmental restoration and habitat enhancement. Dooley has been a leader on the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, where he helped strategically modernize the accreditation criteria for biological engineering. He holds three engineering degrees and has been awarded five United States patents.
Dustin Dyer
Mission Assurance Engineer, NASA
A 2006 UGA Engineering alumnus, Dyer earned his M.S from Georgia Tech in electrical and computer engineering, where he was awarded the Honeywell Innovator Scholarship. In 2008, he accepted a position with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, supporting the Space Shuttle Program as a mission assurance engineer.
Timothy D. Farley
Vice President, Engineering, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation
Gulfstream is a world-wide technology leader in the business-aviation field with over 11,500 employees. Farley, an aeronautical engineering graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, provides engineering leadership for Gulfstream’s operations. His past responsibilities with Gulfstream have included leadership positions in Structures, Service Engineering and Project Engineering. Prior to joining Gulfstream in 1992 as a project engineer, Farley was employed with McDonnell-Douglas.
Esin Gulari, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Engineering and Science, Clemson University
A former director at the National Science Foundation, Dr. Gulari was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by Congress to serve on the National Science Board. A fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Dean Gulari oversees 15 academic departments at Clemson which have an enrollment of approximately 5,000 students in 23 undergraduate and 45 graduate degree programs.
Pramod P. Khargonekar, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Engineering, University of Florida
A UF alumnus, Khargonekar is an internationally recognized scholar who has edited and authored hundreds of publications in the fields of electrical and computer engineering. As the leader of UF Engineering, he is an influential voice in American academia and many professional organizations.
David Radcliffe, Ph.D., CPEng (Australia)
Epistemology Professor of Engineering Education, Purdue University
A past President of the Australian Association of Engineering Education, Radcliffe is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. His research interests include design thinking, systems engineering, learning spaces and professional formation. In 2007, he joined the School of Engineering Education at Purdue. Immediately prior to that he was the Thiess Professor of Engineering Education and Professional Development at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Shashi Mariputtana
Director, Market Development, Network Business Incubation Group, Data Center Group, Intel
In her role at Intel, Mariputtana helps accelerate the adoption of 5G and Edge partnering with Telcos, Enterprises and Cloud Service Providers. She has been with Intel since the end of 2015 and has been driving the 5G network strategy, with a focus on the virtualization of network workloads.
Ward Simonton, Ph.D.
Founder and President, Adaptive Equipment, Inc.
A UGA Engineering alumnus, Simonton began his career in the Kellogg Innovation Center. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Oklahoma State University in 1986, Simonton joined the UGA engineering faculty and for eight years led an advanced robotics program focused on agricultural applications. He left UGA in 1994 to start Adaptive Equipment, Inc., a company that designs, builds and supports robotic automation for manufacturing firms worldwide.
Michael Szomjassy
President, Environmental Services, CH2M Hill
A Notre Dame civil engineering alumnus, Szomjassy is President of the Environmental Services Business Group and former member of the Board of Directors of CH2M Hill, a U.S. Fortune 500 company with 30,000 employees worldwide. Szomjassy recently served as the Deputy Program Direc-tor for the CLM Delivery Partner, a joint venture providing program management to the Olympic Delivery Authority for the London 2012 Olympics. He previously filled leadership roles with Williams Environmental Services, Insituform Technologies, Aqua Alliance and OHM Corporation.
Rogers Wade
President and Chief Executive Officer, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Before joining the foundation, Wade was a senior partner in the public affairs firm of Edington, Wade and Associates. An active member of the Georgia business and political community for nearly 40 years, he served as the chief of staff to Senator Herman E. Talmadge in Washington from 1973 to 1980.
Gregory Washington, Ph.D.
Dean, Henry Samueli School of Engineering - University of California, Irvine
Washington has led The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine since 2011. Prior to joining UC Irvine, Washington served as interim dean at The Ohio State University College of Engineering, where he provided leadership, oversight and management for one of the nation's largest and highest ranked engineering programs. Over the years Washington also served as the college's Associate Dean for Research and led OSU's Institute for Energy and the Environment. Washington earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Thomas Woelker, Dipl.-Ing.
COO of ThyssenKrupp IT Services GmbH, ThyssenKrupp Group
A mechanical engineering graduate of Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, Woelker joined ThyssenKrupp in 2001 and has served in several successive management roles, becoming operating unit head of the newly founded ThyssenKrupp IT Services GmbH in 2009. ThyssenKrupp is an integrated materials and technology group with almost 180,000 employees in more than 90 countries developing ideas and innovations to offer solutions for sustainable progress. Eight business areas focus the Group’s activities and know-how in strategic competency areas of Materials and Technologies. In addition to manufacturing materials and plants, the Group also provides complete system solutions and innovative services.
Judy Wornat, Ph.D.
Dean, Louisiana State University College of Engineering
Dr. Mary Julia (Judy) Wornat began her tenure as Dean of the College of Engineering in February 2017. She holds the Bert S. Turner Chair in Engineering, the Robert Hughes Harvey Professorship and the William G. Reymond Professorship in Chemical Engineering. Wornat has held various leadership roles since joining the College, first serving as the Director of Graduate Studies in the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering (2005-2011), Chair of the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering (2011-2015), and most recently, as Interim Dean (2015-2016).