Cordoba Corporation is pleased to celebrate Engineers Week (February 20 – 26, 2022) by highlighting the experience, skills and insights of several of our talented engineers. These team members are serving in a wide variety of positions with our clients and represent different viewpoints, disciplines and experiences. They join our entire Engineering Team in celebrating Engineers Week and Making a Difference for our clients and communities.
Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, Engineers Week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers.
Happy Engineers Week from Cordoba Corporation!
Brad Carter, PE
As the Director of Electric Utilities, Brad Carter is responsible for Cordoba Corporation’s Energy Infrastructure Sector’s electric portfolio. He is a leader who leads by example and empowers and deputizes his team members. Brad is values driven and he advocates for diversity and challenging the status quo. A strategic thinker, he is results driven with a growth mindset.
Brad previously worked at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) for fifteen years in several key positions, including Transmission Engineering & Design Manager, Kearny Operations Services Manager, Supervising Regulatory Case Manager, Project Manager, and Civil/Structural Engineer. He led high-performing teams and prioritized work, aligned functions and created career pathways. In addition, Brad’s SDG&E experience includes supervising a team responsible for regulatory matters before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on infrastructure, safety and compliance matters. He also guided cross-functional teams to obtain licensing for large scale electric infrastructure projects and served as company liaison to the CPUC.
Brad is a licensed Professional Engineer (Civil Engineering) in California and a graduate of the LEAD San Diego Program, which is the nonpartisan, leadership development arm of the San Diego Regional Chamber. He is also a graduate of the Western Energy Institute’s Business Acumen for Emerging Leaders Program.
Brad learned how to juggle numerous projects from his work experience while earning a B.S. in Structural Engineering and a B.S. in Management Science at the University of California, San Diego. At one point in college, he held three jobs: pharmacy cashier, restaurant busser and a mortgage advisor.
Cody Irwin, PE
Cody Irwin has ten years of experience in transmission and distribution line design. He has designed hundreds of miles of power lines including steel, ductile iron and wood structures ranging from 12.5 kV to 230 kV within specific utility standards. He is considered a subject matter expert in PLS-CADD interface, line design and standards.
Cody is currently serving as a Senior Electric Distribution and Transmission Engineer on SDG&E’s Electric System Hardening (ESH) Program, which involves line hardening by way of replacing wood poles with steel poles, reconductoring, cross-arm analysis and remediation, and the addition of SCADA and sectionalizing equipment. Cody performs analysis using PLS-CADD software to verify structure utilizations and check pertinent clearances. He provides detailed documentation to ensure consistent designs have been submitted through QC processes. Cody also works with the client to verify that construction standards have been properly utilized.
Prior to joining Cordoba Corporation, Cody served as an Electric Transmission Line Engineer for several transmission and substation projects at NorthWestern Energy in Montana. He earned his B.S. in General Engineering with Mechanical Option at Montana Technological University and he is a licensed Mechanical Engineer in the State of Montana.
Madeline Knipfing, PE
Madeline Knipfing has 12 years of diverse utility experience managing teams and leading engineering and design efforts for utility distribution projects and programs. These projects and programs required her to develop methods, processes, and tools to identify, analyze, and plan for risks and leverage opportunities in managing scope, schedule, and budget to optimize performance and outcomes. She has a consistent and proven track record of being an effective leader of both people and processes to maximize performance and profitability.
Madeline is currently serving as a Project Manager at Cordoba Corporation on SDG&E’s Drone Investigation Assessment and Repair (DIAR) Program for the Owner’s Engineering team, working to deliver quality design packages. Prior to joining Cordoba Corporation, Madeline worked at SDG&E for 10 years serving in various Project Engineer, Project Manager and Supervisor positions on SDG&E’s ESH Program, Pole Risk Mitigation & Engineering (PRiME) Program, PRiME Risk Model Program, Steel Pole Inspection Program, and Gas Distribution Compliance Management Program.
Madeline earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering at San Francisco State University and her B.S. in Business Marketing at San Diego State University. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in California and is currently working on her Project Management Professional certification.
Dené Loban, PE
Dené Loban has 16 years of experience in senior transmission and distribution engineering roles on projects throughout the western United States, including experience working for the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and several engineering firms.
Dené’s experience includes developing budgets for transmission and distribution line projects; creating bills of material, specification technical paragraphs, and drawings for bid and construction packages for transmission and distribution line projects; and preparing designs and calculations for transmission and distribution line projects.
She has created procedures and standards, including: QA/QC procedures; QA/QC checklists; procedures for importing manual survey data and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey data into PLS-CADD; procedures for modeling distribution and transmission lines in PLS-CADD; procedures for performing various calculations on transmission lines modeled in PLS-CADD; procedures for running various reports on transmission lines modeled in PLS-CADD; and analyzing transmission lines based on calculations and reports from PLS-CADD. In addition, she has developed transmission line design manuals and has supervised teams.
While working at WAPA, Dené performed thermal studies on 2,620-miles of 115 kV, 230 kV, and 345 kV transmission lines using PLS-CADD and SWRate. She also provided thermal and ampacity ratings for 2,620 miles of 115 kV, 230 kV, and 345 kV transmission lines based on the thermal studies. Her work at WAPA also included reviewing the electrical and physical characteristics of various sizes of optical overhead ground wires and selecting optical overhead ground wires for installation on 15.6-miles of 115 kV transmission line and 263.7 miles of 230-kV transmission line based on optical overhead ground wire diameter, fault current rating, and weight. In addition, Dené’s diverse experience at WAPA included analyzing electrical and sag characteristics of various sizes of conductors and selecting the conductor size and type required to mitigate National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) clearance violations on 60 miles of existing 115 kV, 230 kV, and 345 kV transmission lines using existing transmission line structures while maintaining the capacity ratings of the transmission lines.
Dené joined Cordoba Corporation in December 2021 and is providing QA/QC expertise on the SDG&E DIAR Program. She earned her Master of Engineering in Transmission and Distribution Engineering from Gonzaga University and her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. A licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado, Dené is currently working on her B.S. in Computer Science – Software Engineering at Colorado Technical University.
Annette Madril-Molina, EIT
Annette Madril-Molina recently passed her Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Civil exam to become an Engineer in Training (EIT). She is currently supporting Cordoba’s Energy Infrastructure Sector as a Project Engineer for the Material Coordination Team conducting Closeout for SDG&E’s Line 1600 Project. In addition, since fall 2020, Annette has also served as a valued and supportive mentor to Cordoba Corporation’s Pathway to Success workforce development program.
Prior to joining Cordoba Corporation, Annette served as in such diverse roles as Project Engineer at Naval Base San Diego, Cost Engineer at San Diego International Airport, Project Engineer for The Californian Mixed-Use Apartment Complex in San Diego, and Engineering Analyst at SDG&E. Annette is a graduate of Colorado State University Pueblo, where she earned her degree in Civil Engineering Technology.
While working in one of her first jobs after graduating from college, Annette states that she knew she had chosen the right profession on a company summer white water rafting trip down the Arkansas River in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Her boss pointed out the ruins of a nineteenth century wooden water pipeline along the gorge walls. Annette and her team had been working on water delivery systems the day before and when she found herself on the rafting trip looking at a 100-year older water delivery system, she realized that Engineers have been making things safer and cleaner for our societies since the dawn of time and she is proud to be part of that story.
Liem Mai, PE
Liem Mai joined Cordoba in April 2021 as a Senior Transmission and Distribution Engineer. His experience includes overhead distribution line design and underground transmission and distribution design using ETAP electrical power system analysis and operation software. Liem is highly experienced using PLS-CADD.
His expertise includes conducting North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) clearance and line rating assessments on existing transmission lines; rebuilding partial and complete distribution line segments; performing overhead line design QA/QC; and designing a power system for an electric propulsion lift-boat.
Liem is a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer in nine states, including California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas, Nebraska, and Rhode Island. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Orleans.
Liem is also the co-author of an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) publication, “Instant Power Asset Information and Construction Status Tracking System Using a Geographical Platform,” which was presented at the IEEE T&D Conference in 2018.
George Younan, PE
George Younan has over nine years of electrical design and construction experience including residential, commercial, light industrial, and education. He has managed and designed numerous projects using standard engineering materials and practices. His diverse experience includes developing electrical single-line drawings, service connections, interior/exterior/site lighting plans, electric vehicle charging stations, and distributed photovoltaic systems. In addition, he is well-versed in Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards.
George is currently providing leadership and expertise for Cordoba Corporation’s Energy Infrastructure sector as a Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Owner’s Engineer (EO) Engineering Supervisor on SDG&E projects and programs. Prior to joining Cordoba Corporation, George served in project management and electrical engineering roles for a wide range of projects, including a mixed-use development in National City; the redevelopment of Southern California Edison’s Blythe Service Center; the City of San Diego’s Plaza de Panama & Organ Pavilion Parking Structure at Balboa Park; and San Diego State University’s Engineering & Interdisciplinary Sciences Complex, Tenochca Entry Building, and Tula Conference Center projects.
George’s previous projects also include Cal State San Marcos’ Extended Learning Building; San Diego County’s Borrego Springs Library, Sheriff’s Office & Park Project; Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest’s Naval Medical Center in San Diego; and various projects for the Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake. In addition, his experience includes supporting electrical distribution programs at Pacific Gas & Electric Company and serving as an Intern at SDG&E. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in California and has a B.S. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Power Systems from California State University, Sacramento.
Peter Yu, PE
Peter Yu joined Cordoba Corporation in August 2018 and was recently promoted to Director of Gas Utilities. Peter’s responsibilities include supporting his fellow Energy Team Members to be as successful as possible; help identify any potential issues or problems and come up with innovative solutions; and provide training to help develop the Energy Infrastructure Sector’s Gas Team.
Peter’s previous experience includes managing exploration and production projects, including projects at the Port of Long Beach and in Bakersfield, supporting oil and gas industry clients with piping, oil and water separation, well work, and pipelines. He is well versed with pipe stress analysis, hydraulic analysis, surge analysis, cost estimating, procurement, scheduling, material specification and construction support.
Peter honed his leadership skills while in college serving as President of the UC Irvine Circle K International Club. Peter also served as Membership Development and Education Chair for the Circle K International California-Nevada-Hawaii District. He later served as a member of California Young Professionals of Kiwanis for several years.
Peter is a licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer in California and certified Project Management Professional. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, where in addition to being active in Circle K International, he was also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pi Tau Sigma, and the Chinese Association.
