ROBERT BROWNELL

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GENERAL OVERVIEW

 Mr. Brownell is the third generation of his family to be in the construction industry, he was preceded by his father, two uncles and grandfather.  He became an apprentice electrician at the age of sixteen, and then worked his way through the University of Oregon gaining his Journeyman Electricians License one month after graduation from college.  He is the father of three grown children and grandfather to six.  He is a life long resident of the State of Oregon.  He also holds an Oregon Signing Electrical Supervisors License, # 1906S, the highest trade license an Oregon electrician can receive.

CONSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE

Mr. Brownell has over forty-nine years of experience in the construction industry.  His experience covers heavy industrial construction, commercial construction, multi-family and single-family housing construction, high-rise and flat-rise construction, along with a number of years in the electrical service industry.  This experience has created a large reservoir of knowledge for problem solving.  During that time he has served in many positions from apprentice electrician, journeyman electrician, foreman, general foreman, project engineer, electrical consultant, and head of quality control for all trades, project electrical engineer, project engineer, electrical inspector and contractor.  His specialty has been the designing of the build fast-track projects for national industrial and commercial clients, where he wrote as a well as negotiated many of these contracts.          

Mr. Brownell has worked with ARCO Alaska as head of quality control, for the electrical contractor as project manager and project electrical engineer for two sets of well head skids that were sent to Kuparic, Alaska.  Mr. Brownell was responsible for the efficient expenditure of 7000 man hours in fourteen weeks.  Upon arrival at Kuparic, Alaska these skids were noted as the best product ever received for use by ARCO.

Mr. Brownell served as a consultant for the systems needs to the design engineers and then to the project manager for the electrical construction of two recovery boilers and associated process elements and six major control panels for three Boise Cascade plants in Oregon and Washington.          

Mr. Brownell was the electrical contractor’s project electrical engineer for a twelve week total rebuild of the number three paper machine at Wanau, Oregon for the James River Paper Co. It was his responsibility to maintain a consistent and steady flow of drawings and information to the more than 200 electrical construction personnel so that they could continue their installation process after the customer realized that the design engineering firm that he had hired could not keep up with the pace of construction.

Mr. Brownell’s company furnished maintenance and electrical construction services for over fifteen years to Teledyne, Wha Chang, Albany.  Here his company worked with the product design and development group of Wha Chang and with companies such as Texas Instrument and General Atomic and government agencies like E.R.D.A. and the Department of the Navy helping to develop techniques for new and improved products, process systems and micro processor based control systems.

Mr. Brownell served as the project manager and project electrical engineer for the Georgia Pacific Company’s new chemical resin plant in Albany, Oregon.  His design was used for the construction of five like plants in the southern United States and South America.  Mr. Brownell was the electrical project manager for a major three building expansion of the Cataplillar Corps. Dallas, Oregon High Lift Truck Lift plant.

Mr. Brownell’s company was responsible for the electrical installation of five Olive Garden Restaurants and two Red Lobster Restaurants in the Salem and Portland vicinity for General Mills.  Mr. Brownell’s company also completed major electrical projects and plant expansion projects for the Portland General Electric, K Mart, Fred Meyer Corp, Gte Mobil net, American Can Corp., and The Bonneville Power Administration.

It has been noted in the industry that because of Mr. Brownell’s extensive knowledge of the codes, construction materials and design practices, he is recognized as an expert in all phases of construction problem solving.   Mr. Brownell is a court sanctioned mediator for the State of Oregon’s Third Judicial District in Marion County where he has successfully completed over three hundred Mediations.  He is considered by the Court to be an expert witness for testimony pertaining to electrical codes, management practices, installation and design problems.  He is an experienced investigator for construction disputes, studying all business records, communication, site specific conditions and any other legal records for information pertaining to the case at hand.  He is also experienced in investigating wage statute violations in the area of the Oregon Prevailing Wage Statutes, using interviews, business records, communications and logs, both personal  and job  related to determine the nature and extent of the violation.

 EDUCATION

M Brownell is a graduate of the University of Oregon, receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree with minors in architecture and economics.  He received his ADR training at the Willamette University College of Law.  He studied labor law and collective bargaining at Linfield College and studied communications in project management at Portland State University.  He received his mediation training from Bridgewater Mediation Training Companyand his arbitration training from Willamette University and from the Construction Dispute Resolution Services Dispute Resolution Training Institute.   He studied lighting design for one year through the Illumi nation Engineering Society at Portland State University.  Mr. Brownell has completed ten National Electrical Contractors Association sponsored courses including such topics as  foremanship, advanced foremanship, accounting, contracts for contractors, job management, overhead studies, profitability, project management and both the long and the short estimating courses.  Mr. Brownell is also trained in commercial contract mediation, victim offender mediation, and Oregon trailer park mediation.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Mr. Brownell served for three years as the off campus advisor to The University of Oregon Chapter of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and two years in the same position at Willamette University.

He served four years on the Board of Directors of The Willamette Valley Bid Depository and one year as its President.  He served three years on the Hayseville Local School Advisory Committee and one year as its President. He served two years on the Board of Directors for Project Escape, a non profit agency that provides counseling to troubled families.  He has coached boy’s baseball and girl’s softball for eight years and served one year on the Board of Directors of the Pioneer Little League. He is a volunteer mediator for a non profit community mediation Service called Neighbor to Neighbor and serves as a volunteer mediator for the Third District Circuit Court in Marion County of Oregon.

Mr. Brownell is the family representative for the Russell Brooks Scholarship fund at Willamette University College of Law.