CITADEL CARES BEYOND MEASURE

Our Environmental, Health, Safety, & Sustainability  expertise is top of the line, but it’s our approach that sets us apart: Mission First. Profit Second. Like any for profit company, reasonable profits are essential, but we see beyond that—we care about what we do. We choose to work on projects that reflect our ethos for ensuring the health and safety of the people we meet and the places we go. We minimize politics and maintain a high degree of morale, productivity, and low turnover, always. We even placed our company’s ownership where it belongs—in the hands of our hardworking team.

Our expert team is our biggest strength—we possess an integrative knowledge base of Architecture, Industrial Hygiene, Safety, Geology, Engineering, Environmental Compliance, Construction, Sustainability and more that together ensure comprehensive strategies and solutions. Citadel EHS consultants deliver expert Environmental, Health, Safety, and Sustainability advice and support on a wide range of EHS issues to a diverse and growing base of private and public clients, both large and small.

Our talented staff has generally seen it all, and pretty much done it all, at a level of quality that is uncommon. We are dedicated to making exceptional service and results possible, and that includes places outside our office locales. Citadel EHS may be headquartered in Southern California, but we can be anywhere that our clients are.

AWARDS

Our Values

At Citadel, we strive to have a positive social and environmental impact not only through the work we do for clients, but also in how we treat our employees and how we conduct our business. Our culture is the foundation of who we are and how we work, and is shaped by these shared beliefs:

We’re committed to doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Honesty and ethics are what build every relationship, and that includes the relationship we have with our clients and work.

We look at every project as a way to build long-lasting, meaningful, and honest relationships with our clients—because we believe in people first, always. Our corporate-client relationships are no different.

We maintain high expectations of ourselves as we strive to deliver innovative, comprehensive, sustainable solutions to our clients. We take pride in delivering outstanding results.

Corporate profit and societal benefit are not mutually exclusive. We develop solutions that decrease costs, reduce risk exposure, and create shared value for stakeholders, employees, clients, the environment, and the community at large.

Our commitment to our employees goes beyond a paycheck. We care about their safety, wellbeing, and financial success. We nurture a culture that empowers our employees, because they are integral to our success.

We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment while simultaneously looking out for the clients we serve and the businesses they hold. We practice what we preach and we lead by example.

Our Leadership

100% employee owned, 100% committed to client satisfaction

  • Leadership Team
  • Associate Team Leaders
  • Board of Directors

Loren Witkin

A creative and focused leader, Loren has 30+ years of experience in the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) industry, both in the public and private sectors, with numerous state, federal, and industry accreditations and certifications to his name. During his career, Loren has served as a panel member, speaker, and presenter on various EHS matters to universities, public agencies, cities, school districts, and industry conferences nationwide. He held tenure at UCLA as one of the first asbestos/lead program managers in California, where he developed policies relating to the identification and remediation of environmental contaminants for 17+ million square feet of property. He is also a founding member of both the California Medical Association Ad Hoc Committee on Lead and the California Chapter of the National Lead Abatement Council, where he currently takes an active role in the advancement of community awareness for lead poisoning.

Aside from his current CEO duties, Loren devotes his time to sitting on the City of Hope’s LA Real Estate Council, the Downtown Breakfast Club, AJU’s Real Estate Executive Council, and the Central City Association.

Greg S. McIver

Mr. McIver is a Principal Scientist, Co-Practice Lead and is on the Board of Directors at Citadel EHS. Mr. McIver has more than 25 years of experience in the environmental consulting field with a broad range of project experience including phase I/II site assessments, legal support, remedial pilot studies, remedial action design and implementation, vapor mitigation, bioremediation, cost to closure cost modeling, and risk sharing contracting structure. His portfolio includes varies types of industrial facilities, property transaction and redevelopment support, former dry cleaner facilities, fuel and service stations, railroads, DOD tank farms, irrigated lands, mines, and SCAP grants. The focus of Mr. McIver’s experience is successful site closure strategy execution and effective regulatory management. Mr. McIver Co-Founded RMD Environmental Solutions in 2018, which sold to Citadel EHS in December of 2022. Mr. McIver is an active member of the Nevada County Search and Rescue Team.

Simon Turner

Simon Turner was CEO of Healthy Buildings, until June of 2019. He joined Healthy Buildings in 1987 after sales and research experience in the UK and South Africa. Healthy Buildings was sold to Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in June of 2019 at which time he resigned his post to consult as Founder of Building Cognition LLC, advising growing firms in his field.

Turner is an SME in a wide range of indoor environmental disciplines and has a special interest in the relationship between indoor environments and productivity/human cognition. He has been on various global green building technical and steering committees. He currently serves on the BoD for the Green Building Initiative, operators of the GreenGlobes® sustainability programs, and on the Advisory Board for SafeTraces®, among other Board positions. He is a Life Member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

Jeff Mistarz

Mr. Mistarz has over 25 years of experience as a CFO guiding rapidly growing, small and mid-sized private and public companies, including a private equity-owned civil engineering firm ranked as the fourth fastest growing firm in the US for two years in a row and 14 years at a NASDAQ listed company. Over his career, Jeff has completed numerous financing transactions of all different forms and multiple M&A transactions.

Jeff is responsible for Citadel’s reporting, financing, M&A, and growth strategy formulation.

Janet Peters

Ms. Peters has over 35 years of experience in the engineering and environmental consulting industry ranging from Project and Client management to Business Unit and Operational and Divisional Leadership and Board positions. After serving as President of Ensero Solutions, Inc., where she was key in helping the company buy itself out from their former parent and setting up and managing all aspects of the business, she recently moved to a Board of Directors position. Previously, Ms. Peters held executive positions for Arcadis including the Environmental (Resilience) Division Director reporting to the CEO, and Chairman of the Board of the Lovinklaan Foundation, the largest Shareholder of ARCADIS NV. Ms. Peters is well versed in developing and implementing strategic plans providing for company growth, improved client development and satisfaction, and employee satisfaction and retention. She also provides a variety of services for M&A and operational support to companies to ensure short and long-term growth goals are met.

The Citadel Advantage

We set our standards high, and so should you. Here’s what you can expect from Citadel EHS’ trusted team of experts:

Citadel is committed to responding to the needs of our clients immediately, because time is often of the essence. We routinely provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Citadel maintains an in-house staff of multi-disciplinary professionals, including architects, engineers, industrial hygienists, geologists, safety specialists, and environmental scientists, because we know projects within our industry often require a number of disciplines.

Citadel’s staff is committed to ethical business practices, acting with integrity is one of our core operating values. Our actions are not governed by what is most profitable or expedient for us, but what is right for the client, the environment, and the community at large.

Citadel leverages the experience of our in-house team, each of whom averages 15 years of experience or more in their field of expertise, servicing Fortune 100/500 firms as well as high-profile public entities. Chances are, we’ve been there and done that.

Citadel is committed to providing exceptional service. As employee-owners, our staff is empowered to work seamlessly with one another, to exceed the needs of our clients.

Citadel is committed to continually improving its effectiveness through a comprehensive Quality Assurance review process, which contributes to providing clients with accurate and timely data and deliverables.

Citadel maintains the latest, top-of- the-line monitoring and diagnostic equipment and business management software, which assures accurate and reliable results.

Citadel is fully insured with a+xv coverage to protect the interests of our clients – some of the world’s largest public and private organizations.

Citadel regularly services our national clientele throughout the greater U.S., and our international, multilingual staff has serviced many of our clients abroad.

Citadel’s operations are guided by a sustainability policy committed to reducing our impact on the environment that informs the way we conduct business. We practice what we preach and we lead by example.

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Loren Witkin, CAC, CDPH, LEED AP

CEO

Loren founded Citadel with the goal of creating an employee- and client-focused consulting firm that fused a thorough understanding of the built environment within the fields of environmental, health, and safety.

As part of his vision to bring all employees into ownership roles, Loren drove the formation of the firm’s ESOP in 2003 while simultaneously overseeing all phases of corporate development, client management, and complex project management across multiple disciplines.

A creative and focused leader, Loren has 30+ years of experience in the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) industry, both in the public and private sectors, with numerous state, federal, and industry accreditations and certifications to his name. During his career, Loren has served as a panel member, speaker, and presenter on various EHS matters to universities, public agencies, cities, school districts, and industry conferences nationwide. He held tenure at UCLA as one of the first asbestos/lead program managers in California, where he developed policies relating to the identification and remediation of environmental contaminants for 17+ million square feet of property. He is also a founding member of both the California Medical Association Ad Hoc Committee on Lead and the California Chapter of the National Lead Abatement Council, where he currently takes an active role in the advancement of community awareness for lead poisoning.

Aside from his current CEO duties, Loren devotes his time to sitting on the City of Hope’s LA Real Estate Council, the Downtown Breakfast Club, AJU’s Real Estate Executive Council, and the Central City Association.

You can reach Loren at: [email protected].

Jeff Mistarz

CFO

Mr. Mistarz has over 25 years of experience as a CFO guiding rapidly growing, small and mid-sized private and public companies, including a private equity-owned civil engineering firm ranked as the fourth fastest growing firm in the US for two years in a row and 14 years at a NASDAQ listed company. Over his career, Jeff has completed numerous financing transactions of all different forms and multiple M&A transactions.

Jeff is responsible for Citadel’s reporting, financing, M&A, and growth strategy formulation.


You can reach Jeff at: [email protected].

Scott Brehmer, MPH, CIH, CSP

Practice Leader, Industrial Hygiene & Safety

Scott joined Citadel in 2017 to lead our Industrial Hygiene and Safety practice areas. With over 20 years of consulting experience, serving in both technical and leadership roles, Scott adds important strategic and management consulting capabilities to the team. As the department leader, Scott provides vision for the future and inspires excellence in the present. He is particularly focused on delivering purpose-driven quality work, ensuring client satisfaction, and supporting the professional growth and well-being of his staff.

As a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Scott is best known for his ability to assess “all things safety” including culture, management processes, and safety performance of organizations. He supports all industries but is widely respected for his expertise in higher education including the University of California and California State University systems. Much of his career has been dedicated to improving laboratory safety and chemical hygiene on California college campuses.

As a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), Scott is an expert in protecting worker health. He excels in hazard recognition, industrial hygiene program development, exposure assessment, control strategies, and personal protective equipment (PPE) determinations. Scott believes in providing practical solutions that reduce employee exposure and have minimal impact on business operations and productivity.

Scott seeks out clients that value employee health and safety and is passionate about helping companies improve performance and gain or maintain compliance.

You can reach Scott at: [email protected].

Nalinna Rasu, CAC, CDPH, CHMM, LEED AP

Practice Leader, Environmental Compliance

An expert in the environmental industry since 2004, Nalinna has a broad range of technical specialties that focus on maintaining and promoting the health of those within a built environment, including environmental compliance; hazardous materials and waste management and inventorying; storm water sampling; air emissions reporting and permitting; asbestos and lead materials management; indoor air quality testing, both non-LEED and LEED; chemical exposure sampling; microbiological investigations; and NPDES permitting.

She has extensive experience in developing business and contingency plans for hazardous materials management (CUPA) and spill prevention (SPCC), as well as overall project management experience in conducting surveys for environmentally-regulated materials such as asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, PCBs, universal wastes, and Ozone Depleting Substances. A key component of this includes conducting on-site environmental compliance investigations to identify and assess existing hazardous materials that may be impacted by renovations and/or demolition projects.

You can reach Nalinna at: [email protected].

Julie Wojnowski

practice leader, esg & Sustainability

Mrs. Wojnowski comes to Citadel EHS after working 10-years with the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). She also has 10+ years’ experience as a nurse. She’s based just outside of Charlotte, NC. Julie is an expert in the WELL Building Standard (WELL), human health, healthcare, business and revenue operations, third-party professional accreditation (ISO/IEC 17011), and third-party certifying body programs (ISO/ICE 17060 & 17065.) Julie is known for her ability to develop and grow products, programs and teams, most notably the WELL AP credential, WELL Performance Verification and the WELL Performance Testing program and the Network Care team at IWBI.  

You can reach Julie at: [email protected]

Mark Drollinger, M.Eng, CSP, CHMM, EiT

Principal, Engineering & Environmental Sciences

As Principal of Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Mark has a level of expertise and experience accomplished by few, with a strong knowledge of EPA, AQMD, OSHA, and DOT regulations. He brings 35 years of managing Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) projects to the team.

A key negotiator for local, state, and federal agencies, Mark is accustomed to coordinating a complex array of multi-disciplinary project teams, while also taking on various high-level responsibilities: developing and implementing health and safety protocols; overseeing all engineering and geological science projects; and coordinating with his project managers and staff to solve the sometimes typical, but often complex and specific needs of each client.

You can reach Mark at: [email protected].

Greg S. McIver

PRactice Leader, ENGINEERING & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Mr. McIver is a Principal Scientist, Co-Practice Lead and is on the Board of Directors at Citadel EHS.  Mr. McIver has more than 25 years of experience in the environmental consulting field with a broad range of project experience including phase I/II site assessments, legal support, remedial pilot studies, remedial action design and implementation, vapor mitigation, bioremediation, cost to closure cost modeling, and risk sharing contracting structure.  His portfolio includes varies types of industrial facilities, property transaction and redevelopment support, former dry cleaner facilities, fuel and service stations, railroads, DOD tank farms, irrigated lands, mines, and SCAP grants.  The focus of Mr. McIver’s experience is successful site closure strategy execution and effective regulatory management.  Mr. McIver Co-Founded RMD Environmental Solutions in 2018, which sold to Citadel EHS in December of 2022.  Mr. McIver is an active member of the Nevada County Search and Rescue Team.

You can reach Greg at: [email protected]

Kier DeLeo, CHMM

Principal, Building Sciences

Kier joined Citadel in 2015 as the leader of Citadel’s highly regarded Building Sciences group. Kier has over 20 years of experience in the environmental industry, holding management positions with both consulting and contracting firms. He has extensive experience in Building Sciences related work, Industrial Hygiene, moisture intrusion, and environmental due diligence.

He is a recognized business leader, growing companies and practices through increased sales and client focus, process refinements and efficiency, new market penetration, and staff recruiting and development. Kier drives organizational change through a collaborative leadership style.

You can reach Kier at: [email protected].

Kirsten Duey

Associate Practice Leader, Engineering and Environmental Sciences

Ms. Duey has more than 20 years of technical and project management experience in the environmental field.  She  provides a unique blend of superior project management, technical expertise, and open communication skills.  She has acted as manager or project engineer on a wide range of projects including soil and groundwater investigations, feasibility studies, remedial action plans, and site closures.

Her portfolio of projects includes design and implementation of numerous remedial approaches, including air sparging, soil vapor extraction (SVE), pump and treat, chemical oxidation, permeable active barriers, in-situ anaerobic biodegradation, and monitored natural attenuation programs. She has significant petroleum chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOC) experience and has worked with a number of regulatory agencies in the California Bay Area to successfully negotiate site closures and remedial curtailment requests for chemical facilities, dry cleaners, redevelopment sites, and other commercial facilities.

You can reach Kirsten at: [email protected]

Natasha Stratton, MS

Associate Practice Leader, Industrial Hygiene & Safety

A dedicated leader, Natasha cultivates a motivating and empowering team environment that encourages everyone to exceed expectations. In her day-to-day, she ensures that Citadel’s strategic vision is properly implemented, always pushing the core values while managing operations and logistics for the Industrial Hygiene and Safety team.

Natasha has 18+ years of experience in the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) industry, including over 12 years as a Citadel consultant. She leverages her skill and expertise as Associate Principal Industrial Hygienist to partner and collaborate with clients on a wide range of projects including: developing industrial hygiene sampling strategies; conducting health and safety program gap assessments; designing wildfire assessments and sampling strategies; performing occupational safety compliance audits; developing and implementing occupational safety programs; overseeing large-scale moisture investigation and mitigation efforts; and performing office and industrial ergonomic evaluations.

You can reach Natasha at: [email protected].

Michael Roy, CAC, CDPH

Associate Practice Leader, Building Sciences

Michael is a graduate of the Global Sustainability Certification Program at UCLA and currently leads a diverse team of Project Managers, Field Representatives, and Project Assistants. With 27+ years of extensive environmental-industry-related experience, Michael’s core responsibilities include managing various clients, negotiating contracts, developing and implementing project programs, reviewing architecture strategy, and much more.

You can reach Michael at: [email protected].

Jeff Klein, CAC, CDPH

Associate Practice Leader, Refinery & Industrial Programs

Since 2003, Jeff has been the point person for a large Refinery located in Torrance, CA, managing the daily operations of the on-site Industrial Programs Team from Citadel. From technical and personnel oversight to advocating for his client, he also manages site audits, site investigations, expert witness testimonies, hazardous materials surveys, air monitoring management, and abatement project design.

Jeff has overseen all facets of asbestos, lead, Industrial Hygiene, SCAQMD Rule 1166 and moisture intrusion projects. Moreover, he has assisted in SCAQMD audit compliance, Procedure 5 responses, waste management and the supervision of refinery turnaround. As a result, is a crucial member of Citadel’s Emergency Response Team.

You can reach Jeff at: [email protected].

Jack Samuels, CAC, CLC

Associate Practice Leader, Building Sciences

Jack’s expertise spans 29+ years in the hazardous materials and construction sphere, where his primary responsibility has always been consulting services. He manages a diverse staff of Certified Asbestos Consultants, Certified Site Surveillance Technicians, and Certified Lead Consultants who work together on client communication, project evaluation and design, project cost and scheduling, contract administration, and the overall management of environmental issues that come up through renovation and demolition construction projects.

Jack has managed numerous high-profile projects for clients like Macy’s, Hines, CIM Group, the Port of Los Angeles, Topa Management Company, and CBRE (United States Commercial Real Estate Services). He is regularly involved in hazardous materials surveys; scope preparation; bid specification plus plan preparation; environmental construction management; environmentally-regulated materials building surveys; supervising and managing projects; operations and maintenance projects; report writing and reviews; and project engineering.

You can reach Jack at: [email protected].

Paola Gomez-Bierenbaum, PG

ASSOCIATE Practice Leader, ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Ms. Gomez-Birenbaum is a State of California licensed Professional Geologist (Number 9095) with over 19 years of experience in the environmental due diligence, subsurface investigation, and remediation industry. She has completed Phase I site assessments, Phase II site investigations, and site characterizations for remediation. She has prepared and implemented work plans to attain closure at underground storage tank (UST) sites and has coordinated quarterly groundwater monitoring reports involving sampling and data analysis.

Ms. Gomez-Birenbaum has overseen various remediation projects, including the construction quality assurance for installation of monitoring and remediation systems, remedial excavations, in-situ chemical oxidation, and soil vapor extraction wells, with oversight from various regulatory agencies and Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs) including the Los Angeles and Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Boards (LARWQCB and SARWQCB), Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), Los Angeles County Fire Department Site Mitigation Unit (SMU), Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA), Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS), City of Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), and Santa Monica Fire Department (SMFD). Ms. Gomez-Birenbaum has successfully obtained closure for numerous commercial and industrial sites under the oversight of these regulatory agencies.

You can reach Paola at: [email protected].

Vincent Tilotta, PE, QISP

ASSOCIATE Practice Leader, ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Vince Tilotta is a Professional Civil Engineer, registered in California and Washington State with 14 years of environmental engineering experience working in both consulting and the public sector. His experience includes project management, technical design, and regulatory agency relationship management.

Vince specializes in environmental due diligence investigations for residential, commercial, and industrial properties; site remediation; regulatory closure of post-remediation properties; and post-remediation compliance. His technical experience includes soil, sediment, surface water, groundwater, and soil vapor investigations, stormwater compliance, and remediation design. He has evaluated, implemented, and operated a wide range of remediation processes, including ex-situ and in-situ chemical oxidation, permeable reactive barriers, soil vapor extraction and vapor mitigation systems, excavation, enhanced bioremediation, natural attenuation, in-situ soil stabilization, and groundwater extraction.

You can reach Vince at: [email protected].

Kristina Krissakova

ASSOCIATE PRactice Leader, Sales and Marketing

Kristina has been working in the environmental consulting industry since early 2010, primarily in the areas of environmental due diligence, contaminated site assessment and remediation, and human health risk assessment. Kristina is originally from Slovakia, where she obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental management and planning. Kristina’s technical background allowed her to gain valuable experience in building and maintaining a professional network and sourcing of new clients, prior to her joining Citadel EHS in May of 2023.

Kristina’s role at Citadel EHS is to recognize and match client needs to the strong Citadel’s skill set. In addition, Kristina assists with leadership, planning, organization, direction, coordination, and control to meet the sales revenue objectives of Citadel EHS. Kristina is responsible for initialization and management of relationships with clients in both the public and private sectors.

You can reach Kristina at: [email protected]

Ivy Inouye

Associate Practice Leader, Engineering and Environmental Sciences

Ms. Inouye has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of environmental toxicology and environmental consulting as a toxicologist. She is dedicated and focused to providing excellent project management and regulatory agency interaction and negotiations, while delivering on-time, high quality consulting to clients. Her experience includes site investigations and risk assessments for complex contamination sites, commercial and industrial facilities, abandoned mines, military facilities, hazardous waste facilities, manufacturing facilities, and redevelopment properties. In addition, Ivy has prepared human health risk assessments and ecological screening assessments to support on-going environmental assessments and site remediation and restoration programs. She supports clients in a range of industries, including private, commercial, and government. 

You can reach Ivy at: [email protected]

John Alexander

Associate Practice Leader, Engineering and Environmental Sciences

Mr. Alexander is a licensed Professional Engineer with over 15 years of experience in Phase I due diligence, implementation and management of remedial investigations, remedial technology evaluation and design, regulatory compliance, facility inspections and inventories, and storm water quality management. His experience has included managing site investigation sampling programs to assess the nature and extent of contamination, identifying contamination sources, assessing migration pathways, and evaluating and selecting remedial alternatives.  Mr. Alexander has also developed specialized expertise in design and construction oversight of vapor intrusion mitigation systems for new and existing buildings affected by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and/or methane in the subsurface.  This work has included coordinating and negotiating with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies across the US in order to achieve case closure.

 

You can reach John at: [email protected]

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