Founder

Perspective: Ron has focused on regulatory compliance for 30 years, with an attention to risk mitigation, and he understands the effect of compliance on an organization’s major business systems. He is effective on strategic and tactical levels and can increase efficiency, decrease costs and assure compliance to a myriad of Federal and State regulations. His interdisciplinary expertise across all OSHA, EPA and DOT Federal and state regulations enables him to offer bona fide value not found elsewhere. This is evident in his book, “The Failure of Compliance”.

Philosophy: The philosophy at Echelon is simply one of delivering outstanding service. Ron solves complex problems, resolves regulatory issues and helps relieve companies of the burden of deciphering the numerous environmental, health and safety rules required for regulatory compliance. Ron believes that running a profitable business and complying with the regulations are not mutually exclusive activities; thus, he strives to free clients’ resources to allow them to focus on their core initiatives.

Expert Opinion: Ron has given presentations and seminars, as an example to a meeting of the Utility Revenue Protection Council of North and South Carolina. As a sought-after industry expert, Ron was interviewed by National Public Radio affiliate ETV in Columbia. He has also opined to the Office of Nikki Haley, then Governor of South Carolina, on hazardous waste management policy recommendations that can reduce costs for both government and private organizations. Ron was recently interviewed by Bloomberg BNS regarding the implementation of the EPA’s new e-manifest system.

EHS Africa. Africa is in a stage of rapid growth, and Ron has determined to use his experience in the hazardous waste industry to help the nations of Africa avoid the environmental destruction and human suffering that has plagued many nations. On another personal note, he is using his experience in quality control and health to develop a goat dairy.

As a Lead Chemist for Clean Harbors in Braintree, MA, he supervised Quality Control chemists who processed up to 1000 drums of hazardous waste per day. His responsibilities included inspecting facilities for potential hazards, notifications to clients of off-specification drums, and customer billing averaging $1,000,000 per month. He was also the warehouse supervisor at the Clean Harbors’ facility in Natick, MA, where he continuously trained 10 other lab pack field chemists in DOT and EPA requirements.

Ron served in many capacities as a Technical Manager, Emergency Response Supervisor and Contract Manager for Perma-Fix in Albuquerque, NM, an environmental services company. After this, he and several partners formed a startup company, Advanced Environmental Solutions in Belen, NM, and he was instrumental in developing the company’s technical foundation. This included developing programs for the treatment, consolidation and disposal of hazardous wastes, regulatory compliance and training employees on handling waste, health & safety, transportation and emergency operations. He negotiated with the State of New Mexico and obtained authorization to receive, store and treat hazardous wastes from conditionally exempt small quantity generators (CESQG’s). This was only the second such authorization ever issued in that state. He won and managed a DEA contract for drug lab cleanups valued at $550,000 per year. Ron also led an emergency response to an oil spill, which became an $800,000 remediation project, where 450,000 gallons of contaminated sewage were shipped for disposal, and 7000 cubic yards of sediment were disposed of from a detention pond.

Subsequently, he was the Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Manager for GEL laboratories in Charleston, SC. He was the responsible for overall management of hazardous, radioactive and mixed wastes. He trained technicians in waste operations, regulatory, health and safety issues, and authored policies and procedures for the handling of waste. He reduced hazardous waste generation by 50%, upgraded the entire waste management program, and developed a method to separate radioactive PCB-Mixed Waste Oils from radioactive water, saving the company upwards of $75,000 per year.

Ron is now the principal of Echelon Environmental, which provides Compliance Management Services designed to relieve business owners and managers of the burdens of the OSHA, EPA and DOT regulations. These services take the form of four distinct programs: The Guaranteed Compliance Program℠, the Total EHS Compliance Program, the Regulatory Mentoring Program and the EHS Compliance Advisory.