Key hire Tim Leavitt brings community-changing experience to Portland
DOWL’s latest addition to the team is Senior Project Manager Tim Leavitt, PE. His resume is diverse and impressive, including early career experience in construction management/owner’s representation; guiding large, multi-disciplinary project teams; successfully establishing a new architectural/engineering office from the ground up; and providing practice area and business unit leadership. In other words, he’s got team leadership and engineering street cred.
As if those business achievements weren’t enough, go to lunch with Tim in any café in Vancouver, Washington, and you’ll likely hear “Hello, Mayor” or “How are you doing, Mayor?” As the former mayor of Vancouver (2010-2018), he’s accustomed to being in the public eye, and it seems there are few things people don’t already know about him, except perhaps his affinity for 1980s pop and rock music.
While his love of Journey, Guns N’ Roses, and Madonna might be a well-kept secret (until now) he is known for being involved with projects that make a difference in communities.
“We’re so fortunate, as engineers, planners, and scientists to create a positive impact on the built and natural environment around us,” said Tim. “I really enjoy working with our clients and team members on projects like mixed-use master plans, public plazas, trails and parks, and waterfront development.” It’s more of these types of projects that Tim intends to bring to DOWL!
Tim indicates he is committed to a lifetime of learning, and as an avid traveler, spends time absorbing and taking in the approach to infrastructure development around the world; from piazzas on the Amalfi Coast to bike lanes in the Netherlands, Tim enjoys observing and learning how other communities bring people together.
In his spare time, you can find Tim getting outdoors biking, golfing, or playing softball or pickup football. In fact, Tim has the bragging rights of shooting a hole in one on hole #8 at the Oregon Golf Club! We can’t say whether it was luck or talent that made it happen, but we do know he works hard and deals with issues as they arrive.
Tim says his experience has taught him that regardless of whether the matter is positive, constructive, or negative in circumstance, transparency, honesty, compassion, and at times a bit of immediacy is important to demonstrate in both professional and personal relationships. One of his favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Tackling issues and a burgeoning personality trait of patience—something he credits to raising a teenager—is a temperament that will fit right in at DOWL. And, while he says he does most of his 1980s singing in the shower, maybe after he’s been here a while, we will be treated to Tim’s rendition of a Rick Roll.