One Team. One Vision.
Meet the Team Ready to Power Your Future
For over 15 years, Kleinschmidt and Chelan PUD have built a strong, collaborative partnership grounded in trust, shared goals, and a commitment to long-term success. We understand your vision because we’ve grown alongside it—and we’re ready to power your future together.
Paul Larson
Vice President West / Northwest Region
Paul brings more than 25 years of diverse experience in the utility and engineering sectors, including roles in consulting firms and utilities. His expertise encompasses a broad range of areas, including engineering, utility operations, business unit management, and leadership. His deep understanding of the utility industry further enhances his proficiency in hydropower, project and program management, budgeting, proposal development, and strategic planning.
MaryLouise Keefe
Principal Consultant
MaryLouise has been working on complex aquatic projects and coordinating multidisciplinary teams throughout the Pacific Northwest and in Alaska for over 30 years. Recent projects include independent expert for a complex Aquatic Invasive Species deterrent project in in New York State. She is the Ecological Representative reviewing the removal of four Klamath River dams and reviewing and assisting with fish passage design for Cougar Dam and providing fisheries technical support for several projects in Alaska and Washington.
Jeff Deason
Regulatory Technical Director
Jeff is a team leader with over 15 years of experience. He has has a background in NEPA/SEPA, hydro licensing and permitting. He specializes in FERC licensing, license compliance, permitting and natural resource management for electric utilities and hydro projects. Jeff’s experience includes FERC licensing and compliance, NEPA/SEPA, Clean Water Act, federal and state permitting, stakeholder negotiation and project implementation.
"Your team IS our team. We are in continuous contact with them and they provide terrific insight and ideas."
Chelan County PUD
Carl Mannheim
Principal Consultant
Carl is a Principal Consultant at Kleinschmidt with over 24 years of experience in hydraulic, water resources, and hydropower engineering. Carl’s experience includes hydraulic engineering expertise supporting and leading hydropower projects ranging from small hydropower development to new gate installations and upgrades to leading large pumped storage screening, pre-feasibility, and feasibility studies.
Clair Yoder
Senior Engineering Consultant
Clair has over 19 years of experience in the fields of hydropower licensing, water right adjudication, and instream flow studies for projects in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Specific expertise includes hydrology, water resources planning, PHABSIM modeling, and water quality. Her responsibilities range from project scoping, study planning, data collection, data analysis, and reporting.
Brad Johnson
Senior Engineering Consultant
Brad is a Senior Engineering Consultant with 17 years of civil, structural, and fisheries engineering experience. He is licensed as a Civil Engineer (P.E.) in Washington, California, Oregon, and Montana, and Structural Engineer (S.E.) in Washington, California, and Oregon. His experience has covered a varied array of structures including buildings, facilities, earth retaining structures, water retaining structures in-stream structures, and mechanical systems.
Jason Romine
Senior Scientist
Jason Romine, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist, with nearly two decades of experience in fisheries research at Kleinschmidt. Jason specializes in using Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) and acoustic telemetry to inform fisheries management decisions. His background includes designing multi-state mark-recapture studies, Bayesian modeling, and spatial movement analyses, with a focus on species such as Bull Trout, Lake Trout, sturgeon, and Pacific Salmon.
Kristi Webb
Senior Regulatory Consultant
Kristi Webb is a Senior Regulatory Consultant with over 20 years of experience providing regulatory support services for hydroelectric facilities in the Columbia River Basin and nationwide. Kristi has a Master of Science in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Science in Biology. She is a member of the Montana Chapter and National American Fisheries Society (AFS) and she is a Certified Fisheries Professional.
Jennifer Esteban
Structures Engineering Section Manager
Jennifer is a professional civil engineer with over 21 years of experience in structural engineering. She has performed structural design and evaluation for projects dealing with residential, multi-use, corporate, educational, healthcare, telecommunications, and fish passage facilities throughout the West Coast of the United States.