2019 Agenda

Dr. Bennett has 39 years of geotechnical and trenchless engineering experience. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Mississippi State University, and his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in five states.

Mary Neher is a Senior Project Engineer with Bennett Trenchless Engineers in Folsom, California. She has 11 years of experience in trenchless and geotechnical engineering. Mary received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and her master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from the University of California, Davis.

With more than 30 years experience working at Ditch Witch, Bruce Koch was an integral part of the organization’s partnership with a vocational school to develop a technical degree program, and has lead the technical training efforts at the Perry, Oklahoma, campus and in Barcelona, Spain. Today, Koch travels to dealerships worldwide assisting with training seminars and jobsite training.

Tom has led the Underground Solutions, Inc. development of Fusible PVC® from its inception to record setting product it now is in the HDD industry for thermoplastic pipe. He has also led development of the necessary tools for the training, handling, and installation of Fusible PVC® in trenchless applications.

Mark Gallucci has more than 22 years with Digital Control Incorporated. Mark has held many positions over the years including Western States Field Manager, Training Manager and General Manager of DCI Australia. Mark currently looks after the In-house Customer Service Group and is responsible for much of the DCI’s training materials.

Siggi Finnsson has an engineering background and has been involved in the underground construction industry for 30 years. Since 1995 he has been involved in the development of most of DCI’s locating products, additionally working in customer service and marketing activities. Finnsson is currently a Product Manager, primarily involved with new product development and product and design definition.

Dr. Ariaratnam is a professor and construction engineering program chair in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He has published more than 250 technical papers, holds four patents and is active in numerous professional organizations. He is the immediate past chairman of ISTT and was appointed to the Executive Committee of the ASCE Pipelines Division. He is co-author of the “HDD Good Practices Guidelines” and the “Pipe Bursting Good Practices” books.

Jason founded LaValley Industries in 2006 with the mission of bringing new innovative technologies to the pipeline and HDD industries with a focus on safety & efficiency by leveraging the experience of industry veterans. Since the 2015 release of his three-time award winning TONGHAND exit side wrench; Jason and his team have been hard at work designing three new industry advancing products with an early 2019 release. Prior to founding LaValley Industries in 2006, Jason spent the better part of a decade working in the directional drilling industry throughout North America, spending the last 5 years as a superintendent. In his career, Jason has worked on several world record directional drilling projects.

Chris has worked at Halliburton, focusing on drilling fluids for industrial drilling applications, for over 10 years. This includes technical field support, logistics, customer service, and operations. Chris currently manages business development for the construction market for Bentonite Performance Minerals LLC, a Halliburton company.

Ben Clark is Derrick’s global manager for civil construction applications and resides with his family in Katy, TX. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hamilton College and has worked at Derrick for 14 years. Derrick has over 68 years of experience in the manufacture of premium solids control equipment for the industrial mining, oil/gas drilling, and civil construction markets.

James Russell has nearly two decades of experience in the underground construction industry. Russell began his career at the Ditch Witch factory in January 2000 as a Machine Operator, and has since served in various roles including time on the Product Development team, working to meet the needs of customers. As a product sales specialist, he provides direct sales support and equipment training.

Richard Levings has 29 years in the underground construction industry with Charles Machine Works companies. The last 24 years has been focused on the global development of the HDD industry as the Charles Machine Works companies seek to help solve the industry needs and challenges.

Adam Bates grew up in rural Iowa with involvement in agriculture and the family manufacturing business.  He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa and received a B.S. in Manufacturing Technology with double majors in design and production and automation.  He joined Vermeer Corporation in 2007 and has held positions in product enhancement, continuous improvement, and product management across numerous business segments while at Vermeer.

Dr. Lang’s background is in civil and mechanical engineering. After working for Herrenknecht as project manager on some traffic tunneling jobs in Europe he finished his PhD in civil and a MBA in international marketing before he went to work for Amiantit. Since 2008 he is back with Herrenknecht as Business Development Manager for the Utility Tunneling division with focus on the North American market.

Aaron is the Associated General Contractors (AGC) lecturer at Arizona State University, where he teaches courses that focus on heavy/civil construction methods in the Del E. Webb School of Construction. Aaron holds bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and a master’s from DePaul University. Prior to joining ASU, Aaron served for 10 years as the president and owner of Apollo Trenchless Inc.