Steve Wanders - Office of Professional Practice - Purdue University

Prior to joining Purdue University, Wanders was employed for 35 years by CH2M, Inc., a global consulting engineering firm based in Denver, Colorado, with 25,000 staff and $6 billion in annual revenue. With CH2M, Inc., Wanders served in many roles including project structural engineer and project manager, and later in senior leadership roles in staff development, operations and business development across various business units in the Civil Infrastructure Division (Highway/Bridge, Transportation, and Ports and Maritime). In his last position with CH2M, Inc., he was vice president, geographic manager, of the Midwest Transportation Group.

For the majority of his career with CH2M, Inc., Wanders served as its ambassador to Purdue University in the firm’s University Relations Program. He recruited undergraduate and graduate engineering students from Purdue for positions in all business units across the United States and initiated the co-op program with Purdue in 1988 for CH2M, Inc. He received the Bravo Award in Operational Excellence from Purdue’s College of Engineering in 2017 and the Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award from Purdue University in 2002-2003.

Purdue experience

Served as the associate director for Cooperative Education in the Office of Professional Practice at Purdue University, working with employers, students and faculty advisors in 48 schools, departments and majors in eight colleges to provide opportunities for domestic co-op and internship assignments for undergrad and graduate students