Staff Spotlight – Brian Ginter

Brian Ginter is a true Murraysmith + Quincy mainstay—he just celebrated his 20-year anniversary with the firm! Our Water/Wastewater Discipline Manager, Brian is a rock star when it comes to water system planning, analysis, and design. He serves up top-notch reservoir, pump station, and piping system projects across the Pacific Northwest. But Brian doesn’t just excel at the technical stuff, he knows how to meet people where they are, finding optimal solutions through communication and collaboration.

One of the first projects I worked on at Murraysmith + Quincy involved a City and a water district arguing over the fairness of annexation and withdrawal. The project was highly political—some of the engineers and city officials lived in these areas, both sides wanted to be paid for investing in infrastructure they might be forced to give up, and historical relations between them was not always amicable. I was impressed with Brian’s ability to mediate hours of discussions with district engineers, distill down the engineering questions, and provide solutions that both sides could agree to.”

– Claire DeVoe, Engineering Designer

We asked Brian a few questions so everyone can learn a bit more about him and his perspective on the firm.

The first time I had to speak in front of a City Council I realized that many of our interactions are with people who don’t really understand what we do, how the water gets to their tap, or where the waste goes after they flush. I had excellent mentors at Murraysmith + Quincy who helped me think about how to avoid technical jargon and speak in plain terms to relay the purpose of our planning and design work.

Getting the opportunity to work on new water supply projects, from groundwater development for Rockwood Water PUD and the City of Gresham to planning for new surface water supplies for the City of Newberg and the Springfield Utility Board. What I enjoy most is that these are new challenges—it isn’t every day that communities of this size are developing new water supplies—and new opportunities to utilize our expanded expertise and capabilities to help long-term clients. Gresham’s W/WW Manager was the first client PM I worked with 20 years ago at the former Powell Valley Road Water District.

As we have grown from 30 people to 300 people during my time here, I have seen us evolve from a single office, Portland-area firm that relied on relationships and an unrelenting client-service focus to win work, to a multi-office, five-state firm with true technical experts in their fields able to leverage the same depth of relationship and can-do client service attitude. I have personally experienced how our expanding technical capabilities have allowed me to be a part of larger, more complex water projects without requiring a global firm partner because we now have the resume and technical capability to lead them.

I really love to play Name That Tune… I have an encyclopedic knowledge of artists and songs (especially classic rock from the late 60s to early 90s) and can pick out the band/singer quickly. This useless knowledge is a nice party trick. I wowed Celeste Alvarez, Craig Anderson, and Bill Evonuk with it many years ago.