Michael Jordan, SE
Founder
In Memoriam
Mike may be gone from this world but lives on in every Liftech team member.
Erik Soderberg, SE
President, Principal
Mr. Soderberg oversees the technical and contractual aspects of Liftech’s projects in addition to his design work. He is experienced in the design, review, repair, and modification of a variety of structural and crane related systems including wharves and piers, container handling cranes, and bulk loader structures. Other structures include crane lift and transfer systems, and concrete and steel floats. He is involved in strategic planning and technical development.
Jonathan Hsieh, SE
Vice President, Principal
Mr. Hsieh is experienced in design, review, analysis, and modification of container cranes, bulk handling cranes, and special structures. His expertise includes crane procurement, fatigue failure investigation and repair, and computer modeling and analysis. He has also worked on structural maintenance programs, seismic design of container cranes, crane instrumentation, and voyage bracing.
Catherine Morris, SE
Vice President, Principal
Ms. Morris has a wide range of experience in the design of container cranes, buildings, and special structures. She has worked on all facets of container crane design including designing new cranes, reviewing crane designs, crane modification designs, and voyage bracing. She has been involved in the design of one-to-seven-story office, retail, commercial, and industrial buildings. She has also reviewed and designed reinforcing for barge structures for transport of various equipment, designed chassis storage racks, and analyzed and designed equipment to lift and replace steam generators in nuclear power plants.
Nick Grebe, PE
Vice President, Principal
Mr. Grebe has extensive experience performing conceptual and detailed designs of mechanisms and systems, analyzing dynamic mechanical systems, and developing designs and detailed drawings suitable for manufacture. He is responsible for developing purchase specifications and reviewing contractors’ mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical designs for feasibility and contract compliance. He is experienced in reviewing heavy machinery and container cranes controls including logic, interlocks, system architecture, and automation features. He provides project management, condition assessment, commissioning, troubleshooting, and acceptance testing of material handling equipment including container cranes and bulk loaders.
Arun Bhimani, SE
Past President, Founding Principal
Mr. Bhimani is an expert in all phases of container crane and wharf design. He has developed innovative solutions to container crane design problems including a technique for combining analysis with heat straightening for repairing damaged container crane booms, the first seafastening design for transporting fully erected container cranes on barges, and a structural maintenance program used to periodically inspect cranes.
Sugiarto Loni, SE
Principal
Mr. Loni has extensive management experience and design expertise with marine terminal structures including crane-wharf interface, container and intermodal yard structures, and building facilities. He is responsible for contract negotiations, technical oversight, and quality assurance of project deliverables. His work includes managing a variety of engineering projects ranging from small projects with short duration to large projects with multi-discipline coordination.
Kenton Lee, SE
Principal
Mr. Lee is experienced in design, analysis, and project management of container cranes, floating cranes, rigging, and special structures. He specializes in container and floating crane procurement projects and crane modification projects. He is also involved in preparing structural maintenance programs. Some of the technical aspects of his work that are of special interest to him are steel connection design, wind effects on structures, wind tunnel testing, and structural fatigue of steel structures.
Patrick McCarthy, PE
Principal
Mr. McCarthy is experienced in container crane procurement, modification, reliability, and repairs. His work includes project management, condition assessment, and developing structural maintenance programs and repair procedures. He is Liftech’s manager for developing crane technical specifications and helps clients with pre-bid assistance, post-award design and fabrication review, and post-delivery structural assessment. He has expertise in wind loading, is responsible for Liftech’s wind standards, develops crane wind criteria for ports worldwide, has been involved in wind tunnel and other wind studies, and is an associate member of the Subcommittee on Wind Loads of ASCE 7.
Derrick Lind, SE
Principal
Mr. Lind is a structural engineer experienced in designing and evaluating existing industrial yard and marine structures. He has worked as project manager on several container crane procurement and modification projects including dual hoist tandem lift and low profile container crane designs. He also has experience with the design of various structural systems for commercial, industrial, and transportation facilities including buildings, foundations, seismic upgrades, and additions.
Anna Dix, SE
Principal
Ms. Dix is a registered structural engineer in California with experience in the design and analysis of various steel and concrete structures. Her focus is on ship-to-shore cranes and other structures that reside next to, in, or on top of the water, such as heavy lift and container handling equipment, wharves, and floating cranes. She likes earthquake and fatigue engineering topics and working with clients.
Simo Hoite, PE
Principal
Mr. Hoite is a registered professional engineer with extensive experience in container crane design, modifications, specifications, and procurement, as well as container and rail terminal operations. His experience includes development of innovative RTG and STS crane designs for container terminals. He is also experienced in the heavy rigging industry and has managed substantial design projects including wharf design.
Leah Olson, PE
Principal
Ms. Olson has managed multiple wharf and float projects, and has participated in the design, analysis, and modification of wharf and float structures, container cranes, steel barges, and other rigging structures. She has evaluated the behavior of various concrete and steel structures using finite element analysis (FEA) computer software. Her work includes project management, structural analysis and design, and site inspection and reporting.
Di Liu, PE
Principal
Mr. Liu is an experienced designer and project manager. His work includes structural analysis, design review, modification review, and feasibility studies of container cranes, wharves, and other structures. He has an MS and PhD from the University of Kentucky. He did his undergraduate work at Beijing University of Technology.
Ion Bazgan
Controller
Mr. Bazgan is experienced in business accounting and finance, taxes, budgeting, fiscal management, employee benefits, and payroll management.
Teresa Ferguson
Associate
Ms. Ferguson has experience in project controls and delivery specifically related to operation of intermodal shipping and rail terminals. Her most recent relevant work experience includes project controls of BNSF Railway’s capital improvement projects working as a liaison between BNSF and the State of California Department of Transportation for budget and schedule monitoring. She is well versed in the use of scheduling software and detailed work breakdown structure elements to assist in overall project delivery.
Alton Siver, PE
Senior Electrical Engineer
Mr. Siver has extensive experience in port facilities, cranes, and ships. His experience includes container crane design, crane raise and outreach extension design, drives upgrade design, standby power systems, design review, crane condition surveys, inspection testing, power generation commissioning, drives and automation systems, and forensic failure analysis. He is experienced in voltage drop, short circuit analysis, relay and circuit breaker coordination studies, and arc flash studies. He also has been responsible for gantry crane electrification on crane projects including port electrical permit preparations.
Steven Martinez, PE, PMP
Senior Associate
Mr. Martinez is experienced in the design and analysis of container cranes and heavy lift equipment. His areas of expertise include specifications, component design, procurement, review, testing, and commercial management. He is a project manager with a PMP certification and regularly manages procurement projects on behalf of clients. He has also worked on maintenance and repair programs, and raising and uprating modifications. He is a licensed engineer in several states.
Tais Shiratsubaki, PE
Associate
Ms. Shiratsubaki is a registered professional engineer experienced in project management and structural design, review, analysis, modification, and repair of various marine structures including container cranes, bulk material handling equipment, and special structures. Other structures include steel floats, gangways, and yard structures at marine terminals. Her experience includes participating in the design and review of a jacking frame for container crane modification projects. She has been involved in research and development and enjoys collaborating with clients to produce improved designs and solutions.
Juan Anderez, AIA
Construction Site Representative
Mr. Anderez has extensive experience in architectural design and construction management. His experience includes collaborating with team members on design and project development, writing and reviewing AIA architectural and construction contracts, reviewing bids for owners, permitting, estimating, and site management. He is currently Liftech’s Construction Site Representative on our project to provide engineering services for cranes and infrastructure at Broward County Port Everglades Department, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Yinan Guo, PE
Project Engineer
Ms. Guo has a BS in civil engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai, and an MS in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Coursework included dynamics of structures, earthquake-resistant design, nonlinear structural analysis, design of steel and composite structures, reinforced concrete structures, prestressed concrete structures, and wood structures. Professional experience includes finite element analysis, stress and fatigue analysis, crane and wharf seismic interaction analysis, and crane seismic analysis. She has worked on several wharf projects, including performing girder and pile calculations.
Jonathan Whalen, EIT
Mechanical Designer
Mr. Whalen is experienced in the design and analysis of various custom heavy machinery, container handling equipment, and various types of cranes and bulk handling equipment. His work includes detailed designs and analysis for low profile and traditional dockside container cranes, revolving pedestal cranes, and crane modifications and uprates. He also assists with feasibility studies and testing procedures.
Alvin Hoffpauir
Structural Drafter
Mr. Hoffpauir is an experienced structural drafter, 3D modeler, and AutoCAD customizer. Alvin manages Liftech’s AutoCAD work and developed Liftech’s AutoCAD Standards Manual. His structural drafting and 3D modeling skills support Liftech’s engineers in the design, analysis, and modification of container cranes, wharf structures, and other rigging structures.