Principal Geotechnical Engineer
& Geotechnical Group Manager
Apex Companies · Portland, Oregon
29 years of geotechnical practice
Ryan White is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer and Geotechnical Group Manager at Apex Companies, where he leads a team of ten engineers and geologists across four offices in Oregon and Washington. Twenty-nine years in, the work he cares most about is developing the next generation of engineers — the projects are how that happens. His project work ranges from transportation infrastructure and bridge foundations to commercial buildings, schools, landslide investigation, and energy sites.
He holds a Geotechnical Engineer (GE) license in Oregon, along with civil PE licenses in Oregon, Washington, and California. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE) and sits on the Board of Directors of the Geoprofessional Business Association (GBA), and is the board liaison to the Inclusion Advancement, Emerging Issues & Trends, Council of Fellows, and Resource Collaboration committees. Ryan also actively contributes to the Multimedia Delivery Committee.
A principal geotechnical engineer who builds teams and develops people.
Shallow and deep foundations for buildings, bridges, and industrial structures
Landslide investigation and mitigation; stability analysis for natural and engineered slopes
Investigations and design for highways, interchanges, bridges, and transit
Site response, liquefaction assessment, and seismic design parameters
Retaining walls, temporary shoring, and earth retention systems
Solar farms, closed-landfill development, wastewater treatment, and complex industrial sites
Managed the geotechnical program across a decade of build-out
Geotechnical investigation and design for site infrastructure and 12 city blocks of multi-story, mixed-use waterfront development along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
Led the geotech work on the first of several bond-funded projects for the district
Geotechnical exploration and design for the reconstruction of Milwaukie High School.
Geotechnical lead for bridge design and construction
Geotechnical evaluation for a bridge replacement in Clark County, Washington.
Technical support to the design-build team
Geotechnical data reports and retaining wall design reports along the I-405 Sepulveda Pass freeway widening in southern California.
Managed the project and led the geotechnical design
Geotechnical services for new bleachers, locker rooms, and athletic fields built over a closed municipal solid waste landfill. Published a paper on the project and presented it at the ASCE conference, Geo-Chicago 2016.
Managed the project and led the geotechnical design
Geotechnical exploration, analyses, and design for a multi-story hotel supported on a grid of deep soil mixed (DSM) columns, along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
Apex Companies
Portland, Oregon
Leads a geotechnical group of ten engineers and geologists in four offices across Oregon and Washington following Apex's acquisition of PBS Engineering in March 2024. Work spans transportation, commercial and institutional buildings, seismic retrofits, and site development.
PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc.
Portland, Oregon
Thirteen years growing from Senior Engineer to Principal and Group Manager. Proposed on and won the work, ran the field investigations and lab programs, completed the analyses, wrote the reports, and observed the construction for transportation projects, bridges, commercial buildings, schools, and landslides across Oregon and Washington.
Kleinfelder
Portland, Oregon
Managed commercial and local-agency projects, supported the I-405 Sepulveda Pass and I-15 CORE design-build teams, and led multidisciplinary teams for solar energy projects across the U.S.
Geotech Solutions, Inc.
Portland, Oregon
Served as project manager and engineer in a small, local firm specializing in projects in Portland, Vancouver, and the northern Oregon Coast. Responsible for all aspects of project delivery including exploration, laboratory testing, geotechnical design, and construction observations and consultation.
GeoDesign, Inc.
Portland, Oregon
Started as a graduate-school intern, came on full time after graduation, and advanced to Project Manager. Learned to prepare proposals and budgets, lead field investigations and lab programs, and complete slope stability and foundation design analyses for commercial, municipal, residential, and infrastructure projects.
Things built for fun, a mix of engineering tools, a home automation hack, and a nonprofit in progress.
A free web app for calculating AASHTO LRFD seismic design parameters — built to turn a manual code lookup into an instant result.
A nonprofit dedicated to funding small, meaningful experiences for the people who give the most of themselves to others.
An iOS home-screen widget that pulls live data from the EMA solar API to show daily, monthly, and annual kWh — something EMA's own app doesn't offer.
A simple breathing exercise app for slowing down and resetting.
A GUI that removes the friction of writing raw AutoHotKey scripts — for text expansion, shortcuts, and date insertion.
A private, self-hosted habit tracker with daily streaks, an editable weekly/monthly history, and CSV/Markdown export — no account, no subscription.
A self-hosted reading tracker with auto-fetched cover art, a searchable history, and export to CSV, Markdown, or PDF.