Erik Cempel

Class year: CEE '00, MEng '01
Job title: President
Company/organization: Cempel International Transportation Consulting

Cempel's responsibilities are advising agencies, developers, and others in the United States and internationally as well, on developing and implementing transportation plans and policies. This includes discussion on passenger and freight modes of transportation to strategic planning with stakeholders, identifying funding and project management.

Most memorable CEE experience: “I really appreciated being introduced to different sub-specialties within CEE. I realize now when I was going into college I had a very narrow understanding of what careers engineers engaged in and so overviews of different pathways were extremely beneficial. One of these classes, Introduction to Transportation Planning with Professor Arnim Meyburg, changed my path forever, as transportation planning ultimately became my career.”

Advice on entering the workforce: “The most valuable skills you have when leaving CEE are your ability to think critically, analyze, and solve problems. You can approach all of this leveraging solid data analytics to quantitatively assess a situation and arrive at the best solutions. These are things that make you adaptable and in-demand in any field or industry. Things very specific to a particular field, industry, or company ultimately get learned on the job (which, as a CEE graduate, will be easy for you to pick up).”