About Us
Employee Owned. Service Driven.
We believe in offering the services our clients need throughout the life of their land development projects by providing civil / site engineering, land surveying, geotechnical engineering, environmental due diligence services, Construction Materials Testing (CMT), and inspection during the construction phases of a project.
TERRA is unique among engineering firms in that we provide “turn-key” services in-house. These services can provide significant cost savings to our clients due to cross-over of effort in our various departments: The bigger the project the larger the cost savings. Being an employee-owned company creates an attitude of where everyone at TERRA has an investment in doing the best job possible for our clients and ensuring we exceed the expectations of our clients. All our team members have “skin in the game” and understand how important repeat business is for TERRA long term.
Meet our team
Mark Behrens, BSCE
President & Principal of Engineering & Land Surveying
As a company founder and the principal of engineering and land surveying services, Mark has more than 26 years of experience in both the private and public sector and has considerable experience in Construction Materials Testing (CMT) / Inspection services and has specialized in Geotechnical engineering. He oversees many aspects of TERRA’s services and shares responsibilities for business development, strategic partnerships, back office operations, and community outreach.
Gregory (Greg) R. Ripple, PE
Senior Partner
Vice President – Civil Engineering / Site Design
Greg has 16 years of experience in civil engineering consulting industry. With his previous experience working for a commercial developer for 4 years has a firm understanding of what our clients needs and expectations are. His expertise in development services include conceptual layouts, construction plans, zoning assistance, drainage design and analysis, floodplain management consulting, municipal plan reviews and utility design and coordination.
Kevin Steely, CPESC
Senior Technical Engineer
Kevin has 20 years of land development and civil engineering experience. His experience includes detailed layout, production of construction plans, drainage analysis and design, and permitting assistance.
Kevin has worked in all facets of a project from site investigation and proposal development to construction administration and punch list generation. He is comfortable with technical writing of reports for agency reviewers and is experienced speaking publicly to communicate the project scope and impact to non-specialists. Kevin has been licensed in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana.
Professional Engineer (PE)
Wisconsin (2002 - 2007)
Michigan (2004 - 2007)
Indiana (2007 - 2018)
Gregory J. Dempsey
Senior PM & Lead Designer - Civil Engineering
Greg Dempsey has 30 years of land development and civil engineering experience. His expertise in development services includes exceptional client service, conceptual layouts, construction plans, zoning assistance, drainage design and analysis, floodplain management consulting, utility design, as well as a wide range of surveying experience ranging from field data collection and construction staking to preparing plats and survey documents and drawings.
Greg’s management and design of land development projects includes many aspects of civil engineering on projects ranging in size from less than an acre up to over 1,000 acres as well as managing teams of engineering professionals to ensure quality plans and specifications are delivered for our clients within the projects’ scopes.
Diego A. Martinez (Professional Architect - Venezuela)
Home Builder Services (HBS) - Office Lead
CAD Designer
Diego has a few years of experience contributing and supporting the planning and execution of architectural projects, both private and public. His architectural experience entailed working in a team environment and assisting with the preparation of detailed architectural plans and designs, including essential presentations, and helping develop and finalize building plans.
Diego obtained his bachelor’s degree in architecture at Rafael Urdaneta University in his home City of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Diego plays a vital role at TERRA by designing creative conceptual layout plans for civil / site design services, In addition, he is the Home Builders Services (HBS) office team lead coordinating the execution of single-family residential plot plans.
Diego believes we can improve human life by creating timeless, free, joyous spaces for all activities in life.
Andrew Chouinard
Project Surveyor / HBS - Field Lead
Andrew serves as TERRA's Project Surveyor in our land surveying department where he plays a critical role for creating land surveying CAD base files in Civil 3D CAD for our civil engineering department. This role also entails supporting the surveying department with detailed boundary, topographic, ALTA surveys and coordinating land surveying field crews by creating field packages and field point calculations for the crews. In addition, Andrew serves as the Home Builders Services (HBS) department Field Lead where he assists with creating single family residential plot plans and is responsible for coordinating all the house staking.
Joe Hill
CAD Techncian
Joe serves as TERRA's CAD technician in our HBS department and surveying department where serves and important role of creating plot plans for single family residential subdivision and supporting on calculating point calcs as needed. Joe has been instrumental in helping out the civil engineering / site design teams from CAD and the agency plan submittal & approval process. In addition, Joe has bene cross-trained to perform Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) Phase I studies which entails performing detailed environmental site assessments and writing the detailed reports. Joe is exceptionally creative in digital art but also a very supportive and upbeat team player willing to help out the design teams where needed. We are incredibly fortunate to have Joe on our team.
Michael Byrnes, B.S. BCT
Sr. Engineering Technician & Inspection Specialist
Mike has over 35 years of experience as a Senior Engineering Technician and Construction Inspection Specialist in the Construction Consulting Department for TERRA.
Mike is qualified to perform the following testing and inspection services, which include field and inspections testing on soils, shallow and deep foundations, concrete, masonry, aggregates, hot-mix asphalt, fireproofing, steel and roofing. Mike prepares detailed daily reports, performs maintenance and calibrations on field equipment, and provides training to entry level technicians.