Glen Toepfer
CQA Solutions President
OUR GOAL:
Impact every country in the world to create safer containment systems and jobsites.
Milestones
34
Years Experience CQA / CQC
100
Sq Ft of Geosynthetics QA / QC
7
Countries: Performed Fieldwork
20
Technical Papers Authored
50
Speaking Engagements
170
Countries reached by blog / book
1
Industry-Leading Field Manual
50
Speaking Engagements
170
Countries reached by blog / book
1
Industry-Leading Field Manual
Our History
1990
A New Passion
Glen Toepfer, C.E.T. is the company’s founder. A summer CQA job before his Master’s program changed his course. “My first boss as a CQA technician expressed concern about my quietness, and questioned whether I would indeed be willing to stand my ground against contractors hell-bent on doing things their way. I quickly learned that fieldwork will either crumble you into the ground or forge you. Quietly, I began a transformation, my new job was morphing from a paycheck into a passion.”
“As weeks turned to months, the Master’s Degrees were long forgotten and the challenge of fieldwork was fully embraced. I set my course to mastering the role of Quality Technician and never looked back. The challenge of the field still drives me today.
“There is something so satisfying about getting out of the truck as the sun rises, seeing the crews prep for the day eagerly anticipating the start of activities. Days spent in the field are still some of my favorite workdays; long hours, crazy weather, difficult personalities and all, I still love it!”
“I could get a monkey to do your job.”
2003
A New Perspective
Tired of comments like “I can get a monkey to do your job” and disrespect from senior engineers, something had to change. Glen saw his CQA role differently.
He saw himself as the eyes and ears for the engineers and site owners. He viewed the work as important not only to pass regulator’s review, but to ensure we protect ourselves and future generations from environmental disasters.
A lot of soul searching, including a year hiatus from the field, led him to decide he couldn’t walk away from this challenge, but he couldn’t stay put either. So, he went out on his own as a technician for hire in 2003.
2005
A New Venture
Toepfer Technician Services, LLC (TTS) was formed in 2005 to help meet the increased demands for Glen’s CQA services. Glen hired his first employee in 2005 to help meet client needs and primarily serviced client projects across Ohio.
2007
A New Name
TTS changed to Toepfer Environmental Services, LLC (TES) to reflect expansion of our services beyond the technician role, such as consulting and training. TES remains an umbrella holding company for our portfolio of services. TES continued to grow, serving clients across the United States, with opportunities internationally.
In 2009, TES began leading the CQA efforts for evaporation pond relining at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS).
“There is something so satisfying about getting out of the truck as the sun rises, seeing the crews prep for the day eagerly anticipating the start of activities. Days spent in the field are still some of my favorite workdays; long hours, crazy weather, difficult personalities and all, I still love it!”
Zero Leaks IS Possible
2011-Present
A New Vision
With a background in incubating small business in/for Private Equity firms, Joanna Toepfer joined TES, becoming the majority LLC member. Simultaneously, TES created a subsidiary company as CQA Solutions, Ltd. (CQAS) to offer expanded services including SuperTek, a real- time CQA/QC data collection and management software.
In 2012, CQAS’ involvement in the PVNGS project finished with approximately 483-acres of a double-lined geosynthetics system having zero-leaks at filling, and zero-leaks at seven years post-construction.
CQAS identified the industry need for improvement in construction quality and has proven zero-leaks can be obtained.
We’ve geared our services not only to help our clients, but to help the industry as a whole by sharing our lessons learned and not excepting the status quo.
Our field experience is the backbone of everything we do. We’ve authored a field guide written from a field perspective; authored numerous technical papers presented at conferences worldwide; added training platforms for every industry role from owner to regulator, and project auditing services – all focused on increasing the quality of the industry.
CQAS has become internationally recognized as the Thought Leader in obtaining quality containment systems. This position has allowed us to collaborate with key industry resources.
We believe the best project comes from a team of Subject Matter Experts each with their own field, working together to create the best possible project specific outcome. By creating a “push-pull” atmosphere where each segment of the project works to get their specific needs met within the considerations of the other project aspects, poor decisions are avoided, and success is created.
