EnSafe Senior Vice President Jim Speakman, PhD, PE, received the Memphis-Area Joint Engineers Council’s 2008 Award of Excellence, recognizing his contributions to the engineering profession over a career spanning three decades.

The umbrella organization, comprising more than 20 engineering organizations and engineering educational institutions in the Memphis area, presented the award to Dr. Speakman at the National Engineers Week kickoff luncheon February 18, 2008, at the Holiday Inn University of Memphis.

Dr. Speakman was nominated for the honor by the Memphis Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies. He was selected for this honor based on his professional accomplishments and contributions to the engineering profession, its associations, and societies as well as humanitarian and civic activities. Dr. Speakman joined EnSafe in 1982. He began his engineering career as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Registered as a professional engineer in 15 states, Dr. Speakman earned his doctoral degree in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and his master’s degree in Sanitary and Water Resources Engineering from Vanderbilt University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Tennessee Technological University.

Dr. Speakman has several career "firsts," including managing the first risk-based Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) facility closure in South Carolina as well as authoring the first RCRA Part B Permit application for a U.S. Navy treatment, storage, and disposal facility in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 4. He also was program manager for EnSafe’s largest single contract — Comprehensive Long-Term Environmental Action Navy — a 10-year, $100 million contract that was granted an unprecedented extension to 13 years and an increase in contract ceiling to $160 million. Under that contract, EnSafe performed 174 task orders valued at $150.8 million, most addressing investigation and remediation of contamination. The more than 100 remediation tasks performed involved investigating contaminant sources, delineating nature and extent of contamination plumes, assessing risk to human health and the environment, developing and evaluating remediation alternatives, estimating costs, designing/preparing performance specifications for the selected remedial action alternatives, and oversight and verification of installation, maintenance, and performance of the selected remedial systems/actions.

In 1999, Dr. Speakman received the University of Memphis’ Herff College of Engineering’s Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering, recognizing his commitment to advancing the Herff College of Engineering and his significant professional contributions to the engineering profession.