Co-Founder & Principal Ecologist Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc., Wyoming, United States
I am currently a Principal Ecologist and Director at Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc. (WEST), headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. WEST is an environmental and statistical consulting company with clients in industry, government, and non-governmental organizations. Dr. Lyman McDonald and I formed WEST in 1990 and since then we have grown to a company of close to 700 employees, with offices in 10 states, and employees in over 40 states. WEST also has a wholly owned subsidiary, WEST LLC in Canada. During my tenure at WEST I have served as CEO, President of the Board, Executive Vice President, and Senior Ecologist. I currently am project leader and principal ecologist on two projects, one for a mining company and one for the Army Corps of Engineers. Following graduate school I accepted a position with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department where I provided science support for terrestrial and avian wildlife management, including extensive work with endangered species and migratory birds. After 15 years and advancing to an administrative position, I decided to return to my primary professional ambition, a practicing ecologist. My primary career goal has always been to apply science to solve natural resource problems. While I considered going into academia after graduate school, I felt strongly that I needed practical experience before I could be an effective educator or researcher. Working for a state wildlife agency gave me the opportunity to apply scientific principles to wildlife management and the conservation of threatened and endangered species, including the grizzly bear, peregrine falcon, and black-footed ferret. It also provided me with the opportunity to work with the public, other scientists, and administrators throughout the country. In 1990, Dr. McDonald, a Ph.D. statistician and university professor and I decided that combining statistics and ecology in a consulting business would be an excellent opportunity to further our common career goals and thus, we both quit perfectly good jobs and started WEST. The best preparation for a career in consulting is to have a solid academic background in one’s chosen area of expertise and an aspirational goal for how to apply that background. In my case it was the use of science to support natural resource management. Academically I strongly encourage young ecologists to develop a good background in quantitative science as well as training in the scientific method. To be a successful consulting ecologist one must also be and effective communicator both written and orally.
