Join fellow environmental compliance managers to re-think compliance strategies, stay current on emerging requirements, and exchange ideas with colleagues from across the U.S.
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Craig Schwarze is an environmental regulatory compliance expert with more than 30 years of hands-on experience assisting clients to achieve and maintain compliance nationwide. He has provided environmental compliance support to more than 400 private companies and Federal agencies, ranging from steel mills to the US Army, and has led environmental compliance assistance audits for more than 350 facilities in 42 states, and has been approved by multiple EPA regions, the Department of Justice, and several state environmental departments as a third-party compliance evaluator. Mr. Schwarze is the President of Aarcher Institute and has served as an instructor since 2005, helping to deliver training to more than 9,000 students. He has been awarded a Certified Instructional Trainer for Environmental, Health, and Safety (CIT) certification based on this experience and knowledge of adult education methods.
Christine Jochim is a partner in the Environment, Land, and Natural Resources group of K&L Gates LLP. With two decades of legal and public policy experience, Christine focuses her practice primarily on the defense of complex enforcement actions involving alleged violations of state and federal environmental, health, and safety regulations. Christine routinely advises clients on compliance with environmental laws and regulations and coordinates closely with the firm’s Policy and Regulatory Group on legislative and regulatory developments. While serving in both in-house and private practice roles, Christine has resolved environmental and other enforcement actions taken by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Interior, and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, among other regulatory agencies at both the state and federal levels. She represents domestic and international clients in a range of legal forums, including state and federal courts, administrative tribunals, regulatory hearings, and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. Christine returned to the firm in early 2024 after serving in-house as senior environmental counsel to a multinational energy company.
Mr. Mandel is a certified risk management professional (CRMP) with more than 30 years of executive experience in large global corporate risk management. He was previously named “Risk Manager of the Year” by the Risk Management Society (RIMS), for whom he served as president and 7-year board member. RIMS awarded him a lifetime achievement award (Goodell) in 2016, and he was voted in as a member of Risk Who’s Who (RWW). He is recognized by his peers as a thought leader in risk management and related disciplines, teaching and writing for various organizations including RIMS, George Mason University, and ICCIE. Mr. Mandel has numerous certifications and designations including CPCU, ARME, RIMS-CRMP, AIC, and DCRO.
As Chief Risk Officer at USAA, he pioneered the development of the advanced risk management strategy, where S&P rated USAA as “excellent” and a “leader in Enterprise Risk Management” for five consecutive years during his tenure. His career also included risk related leadership roles at Liberty Mutual, Marsh, Verizon, American National Red Cross, YUM Brands, and PepsiCo. He was the SVP, Strategic Solutions for Sedgwick and the Founding Director of the Sedgwick Institute.
Chris Mandel provides risk consulting and services as assistant professor teaching enterprise risk management in the worldwide college of business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Nelson Brooks is a registered professional engineer and a professional geologist with more than 25 years of experience in environmental compliance, engineering design/permitting, environmental and hazardous waste site investigations and assessments. He is certified as an Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) Inspector by the Steel Tank Institute and Underground Tank Inspector by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Nelson designs, permits, inspects, and provides on-call engineering support for aboveground and underground storage tanks nationwide, but primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region. His experience includes operation, performance, and regulatory compliance. Nelson has completed a multitude of fuel tank system designs ranging from 300-gallon diesel fuel emergency generator systems to 50,000-gallon boiler fuel systems for both public and private clients.
Mr. Brooks currently serves as Mid-Atlantic Tank Program Manager with EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., PBC., an environmental consulting firm that provides environmental, compliance, natural resources, and infrastructure engineering and management solutions to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
Ms. Belhateche is a professional engineer with more than 35 years of consulting, operational, and engineering experience in the environmental field, with a major focus on providing industrial multi-media environmental compliance support to facility personnel. She has performed projects for diverse industrial facilities, such as petroleum refineries, petrochemical and plastics manufacturing facilities, upstream and offshore oil and gas exploration and production sites, power generation plants, metal forging and electroplating plants and other manufacturing plants. She has led numerous multi-media compliance audits at industrial facilities to assess compliance with federal, state, and local environmental regulations and she has prepared hundreds of spill response plans for these types of facilities. Ms. Belhateche is the vice president and environmental technical director for compliance and permitting at Braun Intertec, an environmental consulting firm.
