New Staff Add to ICC-ES Technical Expertise and Ensure Timely, Accurate Evaluations

ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) has expanded its staff to ensure timely service and accurate evaluations as its customer base continues to grow.

“We are very pleased to be able to add talented engineers to the ICC-ES technical staff,” said ICC-ES President, Shahin Moinian, P.E. “Each brings a different skill set that will complement our existing programs and further enhance our customer service, technical proficiency and speed, allowing us to serve our clients at an even higher level.”

Jeff R. Filler, Ph.D., P.E., joins the Birmingham office as a Staff Engineer with a primary focus on evaluation of wood products. Filler is a licensed professional engineer, educator and writer. With multiple degrees including a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from Washington State University, he most recently worked as a consulting engineer in addition to being an adjunct/affiliate faculty member at both the University of Idaho and Washington State University School of Design and Construction. He has written on platforms from blogs on wood engineering to technical and content editing for revisions of the American Institute of Timber Construction Timber Construction Manual and technical review assignments from large publishing houses and industry publications. He is a professional member of the West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau and Timber Framers Guild. He serves as Chairman of the ANSI A190.1 American National Standard for wood products-Structural Glued Laminate Timber and is a voting member of the Wood Design Standards Committee, American Forest and Paper Association/American Wood Council and the American Concrete Institute, Residential Concrete Construction (ACI 332).

“To be able to work with manufacturers to produce ICC-ES ESRs and support the work of code officials is a dream-come-true for me,” said Filler. “In the classroom I preached, ‘Only specify products that have an ICC-ES ESR!’ and in my professional practice, I required ESRs for products I specified. My teaching, writing and design work all derived from the I-Codes and ICC-ES ESRs, and now I have the opportunity to contribute to such well-respected organizations.”

Eric C. O’Neal, P.E., also will serve on the Birmingham staff as a Staff Engineer. O’Neal will work on evaluation reports for exterior veneer products, gypsum board, wall sheathing, fire doors and fire shutters. As a licensed professional engineer, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has worked as a Civil and Design engineer for various firms, and was most recently employed by a project management company that provided a full range of preconstruction planning and construction management services for the public and private sectors. He served as a Supplemental Civil Engineer for the Southern Company Services E&CS. He prepared site design plans, determined project scopes and schedules and monitored project progress. He also served as the site work lead for alert and notification system upgrades at Southern Nuclear Company’s Plant Hatch and Plant Farley.

Ralph Leyva joins the Whittier staff as an evaluation specialist. He will serve as a general practitioner and work on processing evaluation reports for a variety of building products. For the past several years, Leyva was employed by RADCO, a nationally recognized independent testing and inspection lab for building systems and materials. He worked closely with senior project managers, the project team and clients to support project objectives and refine project scopes. He also has extensive knowledge of the International Building Code,^® the International Residential Code,^® and other codes. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Structures from San Francisco State University.

About ICC-ES
A nonprofit, limited liability company, ICC-ES is the United States’ leading evaluation service for innovative building materials, components and systems. ICC-ES Evaluation Reports (ESRs), Building Product Listings and PMG Listings provide evidence that products and systems meet requirements of codes and technical standards. Reports from both listing programs are now accepted in Canada. The ICC-ES Environmental Programs issue VAR environmental reports that verify a product meets specific sustainability targets defined by today’s codes, standards, green rating systems and ICC-ES environmental criteria. The Environmental Programs offer Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and validation/verification of EPDs to meet global market demand for science-based, transparent, quality-assured information about a product’s environmental performance. ICC-ES is a subsidiary of the International Code Council^® (ICC^®). For more information, please visit www.icc-es.org.