Darren Coughlin, ARRA President

President, Coughlin Company

Darren Coughlin has been involved in the asphalt recycling industry for nearly 20 years and with cold in-place recycling specifically for more than 10.  He is the president of Coughlin Company located in Saint George, Utah.

Mark Fernandes

CEO, Capitalism 2.0

Following up on his informative and crowd-pleasing keynote on "Values-Based Leadership" at the 2018 AEMA-ARRA-ISSA Annual Meeting, Mark Fernandes is back to talk to Semi-Annual Meeting attendees about "Humanizing Business," actualizing the limitless potential and performance capabilities of the workforce.  

An Inc. Magazine "Top 50 Leadership Innovators Changing How We Lead", Fernandes has also been listed as one of Inc.'s Top 100 Great Leadership Speakers as well as a Top 75 Human Business Champion by Switch & Shift. As CEO of Capitalism 2.0 and Chair of the Board for George Mason University's Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, Fernandes pursues his passion for changing the way we work for the better.

Lindsay Matush

CEO, Vario Consulting

RoadResource.org, a first-of-its-kind initiative to equip agencies with the tools and resources they need, will be launched in the summer of 2018.  Devoloped by ARRA in conjunction with sister associations AEMA and ISSA, this digital resource hub will help agencies more quickly adopt recycling and preservation approaches for their networks. The initiative is built on an intensive research project, where agencies and owners described what they need from industry.

Lindsay Matush, the founder and CEO of Vario Consulting, the firm that partnered to build this resource, will provide an overview of the site as well as an in depth workshop on how to use RoadResource.org to positively change your business.

Brian Diefenderfer

Associate Principal Research Scientest, The Virginia Transportation Research Council/VDOT

We are excited to have Brian back to share more real life experience in evaluating and developing QC/QA testing for use in the VDOT I-64 Project.

Brian performs research related to pavement design and paving materials and works to implement the findings of research into the business practices of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Recent work includes characterizing the laboratory and field performance of materials from in-place pavement recycling projects.  Brian holds a doctorate in Civil Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.

David Jones, PhD

Associate Director, University of California Pavement Research Center

Speaking on "Cold Recycled Materials - An Alternative Approch for Pavement Structural Design," Jones will discuss the main differences in mechanistic behavior of pavement structures that incorporate recycled layers compared to those with conventional materials, and suggest approaches to more appropriate designs.

As Associate Director of the University of California Pavement Research Center in Davis, CA, Dr. David Jones manages research into sustainable road and airfield design with special interest in in-place pavement recycling, the use of recycled materials in pavement layers, low-volume road management, and permeable pavements.  He works closely with federal, state, and local road agencies to implement research findings, evaluate performance, and to refine life-cycle costs and life-cycle environmental impacts of the various initiatives.

Brett Haskins, CSP

Global Consulting Manager, Caterpillar Safety Services

Haskins is a Certified Safety Professional with more than 24 years of experience working with executives to front-line employees. While serving customers in North and South America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe Brett has successfully established and sustained management systems and culture excellence within the manufacturing, mining, construction, heavy equipment and pipeline industries.  Brett has authored a number of best practices articles about safety culture and employee engagement in safety for trade journals, including ASSE Perspectives, Waste Advantage and IFAP SafetyWA (Australia). Prior to becoming the Global Consulting Manager, Brett served three years in Australia as a Regional Manager for Caterpillar Safety Services, where he developed the business, expanded the customer base, delivered consultant services and built a regional team.  Before joining Caterpillar in 2012 he worked in the manufacturing, power generation and steel industries.  Brett holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Murray State University, where he studied Occupational Safety & Health and Criminal Justice.

Mike Galli, PE

Vice President/Principal Engineer, ECS Mid-Atlantic, LLC

Michael J. Galli, PE, has over 30 years of experience in providing Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Materials Testing services. A licensed professional engineer in VA and NC, Galli has a Master's in Geotechnical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Averett University, and recently received his Diplomate, Geotechnical Engineering certification from the ASCE Academy of Geo-Professionals.

Galli specializes in shallow and deep foundation design, transportation related infrastructure design, and heavy industrial design applications.  He also specializes in subgrade stabilization and improvement alternatives such as Lime, Cement, Calciment, and Full Depth Reclamation.  He has been the Principal Engineer of Record involved with in Full Depth Reclamation Mix Design, Soil Cement/Calciment, or Lime Stabilization, in addition to QA/QC Management and oversight on FDR roadway projects.  He has developed sampling alternatives and compliance testing in accordance with VDOT Special Provisions, FHWA and ASTM standards.  He has provided consultation to VDOT, FHWA, many municipalities and private businesses on soil/pavement stabilization alternatives.  

Stephane Charmot, PhD, PE

China Asphalt Technical Team Leader, Ingevity

Speaking on "Cold Recycling in China: An Effective Means of Using RAP", Stephane Charmot will share the experience of emulsion CIR and CCPR in China with details related to specification requirements and construction methods.  Specific performance results in term of rutting and cracking resistance of cold recycling mixture will be discussed and project examples shared.

Charmot has been involved with pavement engineering services for more than 20 years. He is responsible for the implementation of cost effective maintenance and rehabilitation technologies. RAP usage and recycling are key focus areas of his. He currently has responsibility for technical services and activities in China for Ingevity.

 Stephane has been involved with the construction of more than 30 large cold recycling projects in China since 2011.

 Thomas Tate, P.E.

District Pavement Engineer, Hampton Roads District Materials, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)

Tom Tate performs and manages pavement evaluation and design services for VDOT’s Hampton Roads District. The Hampton Roads District is made up of 12 cities and nine counties in Virginia’s southeastern coastal region.  The District contains over nine thousand lane miles of pavement made up of Interstate, Primary, and Secondary routes.  Tom works to bring quality oriented cost effective solutions to building, re-building, and maintaining the pavements in the Hampton Roads District.  Currently full depth reclamation (FDR), cold in-place (CIR), and cold central plant recycled material (CCPRM) have been used in the District along with the more traditional hot or warm mix asphalt, and concrete paving.

Girum Merine, P.E.

Senior Pavement Engineer, Materials Division, Virginia Department of Transportation

Girum Merine, P.E. is a senior pavement engineer with The Virginia Department of Transportation, Materials Division. He has over 10 years’ of experience in pavement design, material characterization, design and construction of pavements using various in place recycling technics. Before joining VDOT Mr. Merine led The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Cold In - Place Recycling (CIR) pavement rehabilitation technique implementation effort. Mr. Merine was instrumental in developing Wisconsin DOT CIR special provision, CIR project selection, and design guidelines. In addition, Mr. Merine provided CIR training and presentations within Wisconsin DOT and in technical conferences. Mr. Merine has provided design support and construction consultation on 10 CIR projects.

 Mr. Merine has a master’s degree in civil engineering specialization in pavement design and material characterization from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Mr. Merine is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.

 Mark Larranaga

Senior Manager Intelligent Paving Business Development, Topcon Positioning Systems

Mark Larranaga is the senior manager of intelligent paving business development for Topcon Positioning Systems.  Larranaga’s history in the construction and survey business goes back to 1997 when he was a technical advisor for contractors on global positioning systems.  Mark is in charge of sales and market development for Topcon’s asphalt focused technologies.  Over the past four years he led a team to implement GNSS and Lidar data that is used for variable depth milling and paving with highway contractors across North America.  

Bill Painter
Senior Manager, OEM Paving Products

Bill has been working in the construction industry for 35 plus years. Painter currently works in the sales, manufacturing, and development department of Topcon. 

Todd Thomas

Todd Thomas is a Senior Field Support Engineer with Asphalt Materials, Inc., starting in September, and previously worked for Colas Solutions. He has 27 years of experience in the asphalt industry with hot mix asphalt, in-place recycling and reclamation, and preservation products.  He is a Purdue University Civil Engineering graduate with Bachelor and Master degrees. He led the Recycling Emulsions subcommittee, working with ARRA members, to develop cold recycling mix design and materials standards for AASHTO publication. He is active in ARRA, a registered professional engineer, and the author of several papers on in-place recycling and reclaiming.