Congratulations 2025 New Principals
June 17, 2025
Please join us in congratulating our newly appointed Principals for 2025! This achievement recognizes their outstanding leadership, commitment to our values, and contributions to the continued growth of our company.
PRINCIPALS
Bruno Bagnérès, P.Eng., M.ASCE
Bruno is a Senior Civil Engineer, originally from France, with more than 34 years of international experience relating to hydroelectric projects. His area of expertise is in feasibility through detail design engineering, and dam safety reviews (FMEA reviews), including several field resident engineering assignments in Kenya, Africa, Asia, and North America. Bruno also has extensive experience in and has solid knowledge of all areas relating to a hydroelectric project, including leading project teams and coordinating multidisciplinary activities including environmental services. His certificate in Mountain Guiding enables him to perform inspections and site visits in rugged and steep terrain.
Dr. Thava Thavaraj, PhD., P.Eng,
Thava brings over 25 years of experience in seismic design, seismic hazard assessment and geotechnical engineering, focusing on hazard assessments, structural safety, and seismic upgrades for hydroelectric dams, tailings dams, bridges, and port facilities across Canada, the U.S., and internationally. He specializes in advanced numerical analysis, seismic deformation, and soil-structure interaction. Thava has led seismic upgrades for critical infrastructure in British Columbia and served as a senior technical reviewer for dam projects globally. In 2023, he joined Canada’s reconnaissance team in Türkiye after devastating earthquakes. He has authored over 45 technical papers and co-chaired symposiums for the BC Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
David Willms, M.Eng., P.Eng.
David is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with over 20 years of experience in the mining industry. He is focused on engineering services for tailings facilities, including geotechnical design, construction, and dam safety. He has experience in all areas of design and construction, from concept to closure. He also has experience with mine water management, mine rock dumps, rock slopes, and open pits. He has worked on a broad range of projects in North America, South America, Australia, Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Pamela Fines, MASc., P.Eng.
Pamela is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with more than 20 years of experience as a geotechnical engineer, with a focus on water dam and tailings dam design and construction for mining projects, transportation geohazards, and municipal projects. She has broad experience with geotechnical engineering, dam design, mine tailings and waste rock design, 3rd party reviews, and dam safety reviews. She has experience in field investigations, soils testing, analytical design, data management and construction management. She has worked on a broad range of projects in North America, Australia, Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Mahmoud Elbanna, MSc., P.Eng.
Mahmoud is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with more than 20 years of experience in leading geotechnical teams to deliver tailings dam design, construction and operation support, site characterization, liquefaction analyses, risk assessments, ground improvement, quality management system development, dam safety inspections/reviews, and dam performance evaluations. Mahmoud’s key project roles include Designer of Record (DOR), Engineer of Record (EOR), Senior Reviewer, Dam Safety Assessor, Technical Review Board Member and Project Manager for Tailings Storage Facilities.
Orlando Bravo, CIP
Orlando is a Civil Engineer with over 23 years of experience in the development of multidisciplinary geotechnical, hydrological, hydrogeological, and socio-environmental projects for the mining and transportation infrastructure sectors, with a primary focus on geotechnical engineering for tailings structures, waste dumps, slope stabilization, dam safety audits, and mine closure planning. His experience ranges from the development of conceptual designs to detailed designs for construction, as well field/laboratory geotechnical characterization, QA/QC supervision, and as EoR for tailings facilities. He has participated in significant mining projects in various countries, including Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Guatemala, Canada, and Papua New Guinea, as well as infrastructure projects in Peru and Central America.