Mr. Stephen Rhoades brings a wealth of management experience to the team having held key positions in the private sector and the military over the course of his career.
Rhoades served a full career on active duty in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Brigadier General after 30 years of service. During that time, he held a variety of command and staff positions at both the tactical/operational level and with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he was Commanding General of the North Atlantic Division in New York City. During his service, Rhoades was responsible for meeting future port facility needs in northeast to include the harbors of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk. Additionally, he led the organization responsible for meeting extensive regional water resource and environmental needs in the northeast to include managing the nation’s largest Superfund Program.
Rhoades was appointed by the White House to serve on two river basin commissions (Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers) to represent the Federal Government. By Congressional action, Rhoades served as the engineer for the District of Columbia Public School System which had an annual budget of $160 million. His responsibilities included the design, contracting, and construction of new schools, revitalization of existing schools, and facilities maintenance. Rhoades has also managed the $1.3 billion annual Military Construction Program in the U.S. Northeast, Europe, and Asia Minor and has served as the Federal Engineer for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 3 major disaster recovery efforts. His international experience includes leading a $300 million facility planning, project management, engineering, and construction effort in Kosovo to providing facilities for over 7,000 soldiers in 9 months and the international engineering, contracting, and construction team to successfully build $350 million new facilities to support U.S. interests in Israel.
As Assistant Commandant with the U.S. Army Engineer School at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, Rhoades was responsible for the training of all Army engineer soldiers and engineer commissioned officers, and led junior and mid-level officer academic and professional engineer education programs for 25,000 soldiers and over 400 engineer officers annually. In addition, Rhoades was responsible for developing future engineer equipment and human resource requirements for the Army. As Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Engineer School, Rhoades oversaw the day-to day operations of a major Army installation with over 7,000 employees and a daily population of over 25,000 people.
As Engineer Brigade Commander stationed in Bamberg, Germany, Rhoades led a 1,000-man Engineer Brigade, conducted a politically sensitive start-up of U.S. operations in Albania, conducted engineer operations in Bosnia meeting construction and facility requirements of a 10,000-man force, and provided leadership and effective partnerships to engineer units of allied nations.
Rhoades also served as Staff Officer in the Pentagon, where he was a member of a team of officers that resourced current and future facility priorities for the Army.
For the private sector, Rhoades has also served as Senior Vice President and Northeast Division President for HNTB Corporation, a national architecture and engineering company. Rhoades was responsible for overseeing eight offices and a work force of 380 professionals. And, as Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan District Commission of Hartford, CT, which he positioned to move into compliance with the Clean Water Act.
Rhoades received both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Florida and is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington, D.C. He is registered as a professional engineer in the state of Florida.