Past Chair, SEAS external advisory board

Steve Simmons spent much of his career working in the field of environmental consulting for large engineering companies involving environmental studies of energy and natural resources development projects for hydroelectric power and nuclear energy, as well as water supply and water management projects domestically and internationally.  In addition, as work evolved to clean up the nation’s vast number of hazardous waste contaminated sites, he has managed contaminated site restoration projects under federal and state programs including the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program.  He later worked with site owners involved in contaminated site restoration to negotiate clean-up strategies with the US EPA and the US Department of Justice, saving site owner’s substantial investments to arrive at fair and equitable allocation of liability and balanced restoration plans that led to implemented site restoration and the delisting of Superfund sites following clean up.

Simmons built consulting staffs during his career managing a large engineering company’s western environmental consulting business in significant disciplines including those that have studied marine mammals in the Bering Sea, North Pacific and Arctic environments.  His responsibilities involved managing business units that worked to establish second generation high-level nuclear waste disposal site analyses and nuclear waste cleanup solutions at USDOE complexes.  He led work in the commercialization of landfill gas-to-energy projects and worked to coalesce investment in these projects amongst multiple parties under federal programs that created investment incentives.

In his latest engagements, where he works as a consultant in his own business, Simmons provides individualized consulting services developing and implementing turnaround strategies and business betterment roadmaps for engineering and technical firms that have lost their competitive edge.  In this role he has converted firms that had lost focus into profitable businesses, prepared them for sale, and worked through the sale process to meet owners’ objectives.  He currently provides strategic and operational advice to a business in the construction quality assurance market, a marine services business, and a mid-sized engineering and environmental services company where he works on mergers and acquisition strategy.  Simmons also provides litigation consulting services to establish strategies in concert with attorneys in the management of complex environmental litigation involving insurance matters.  

Simmons graduated from the University of Michigan with BS and BSF degrees.