Pilko & Associates | Helmut Dorr

Innovation for Emerging Issues

Helmut Dörr

Position: Senior Advisor
Office: Zeppelinstr.12, D - 69168 Wiesloch
Email: HelmutDoerr@gmx.net
Phone: 0049 6222 52125
Mobil: 0049 176 64113338

Biography

A focus on emerging issues is a natural outgrowth of Helmut Dörr’s lifelong desire to undertake new challenges. He spent a year of his graduate work at Columbia University in New York, where he was involved in the first models of climate change and greenhouse warming, and he received his PhD in Environmental Physics from Heidelberg University based on work with natural and artificial radioactivity in soil and groundwater. After graduation, he took off for East Germany, newly reunited with the West, where he helped remediate extensive contamination from past uranium mining. “The impressions I had in East Germany reminded me of what my Grandma told me about West Germany after WW II,” he says. “It was like nothing had changed in 50 years.”

Helmut joined ARCADIS in 1991 as project engineer, became Head of the Environmental Division in Darmstadt in 1997, and by 2001 was Managing Director. By 2008, he was responsible for 120 employees and 15 million € in gross revenue. But that wasn’t enough. “After seven years of increasing profitability, it was no longer a challenge,” he says. “So I decided to leave ARCADIS and sell my professional experience. What gives me satisfaction is that my clients benefit directly from my experience.”

Helmut is most proud of helping move ARCADIS from its history of focusing on technical projects for small local authorities to looking at the world of multi-national clients and those clients’ needs. Changing the mindset of German engineers was no trivial task: “The typical German engineering mentality is very tradition-oriented,” he says, with a hint of irony. “Sometimes it was very hard to shift their focus from their own work and needs to be asking the clients what they needed!”

During his professional life, Helmut has led a number of innovative projects. Based on his work with radioactive contamination, he was drafted to the seven-nation team that developed a permanent solution to Chernobyl, helping to devise a shelter that would stand apart from the ruined reactor and not be compromised by further collapses or radioactive releases. In 2005, he was granted a patent for WinnerWay®, an innovative method for melting snow off unmanned rural railway platforms using recirculating water to capture and store summer heat underground and recycle it to the platform in winter.

Helmut is very enthusiastic about his work for Pilko. “In the past, I had on average 10 seconds for a decision,” he says. “Now I have time to find the best solution –that is one reason why I like this new job. I have much more direct contact with clients. And I feel very strongly about providing solutions to the whole range of climate issues, renewable energy, and other emerging issues. It’s really all about challenge and innovation.”

Professional Experience:

2001-2008, ARCADIS Consult GmbH, Darmstadt, Managing Director: Responsible for the Mid/Northwest region, including offices in Darmstadt, Kassel, Braunschweig and Köln. Managed 120 employees and 15 million € gross revenue. Primary focus environmental issues; also responsible for the IT systems, the quality management system and ISO 9001 certification of ARCADIS in Germany.
1997-2001, ARCADIS Consult GmbH, Darmstadt, Head of Environmental Division: Managed four departments, about 30 employees and about 4 million gross revenue. Responsible for the laboratory for soil- and rock mechanics and field sampling, and for sampling- and testing equipment.
1991-1997, Trischler und Partner GmbH, Darmstadt. Expert, project manager and head of department for remediation of uranium mining sites in East Germany. Responsible for investigation, risk assessment and remediation for mines, tailings and tailing ponds.
1984-1991, University of Heidelberg. Head of the scientific group for soils at the Institute for Environmental Physics, Research and Teaching.

Projects:

WinnerWay® railway platform heating: Developed concept and design, and supervised a two-year pilot project. This platform heating system uses “green energy” – a circulating water system collects summer heat from the platform and stores it in underground rock formations. In winter, circulation is reversed and the stored heat melts snow and ice from the unmanned platform.
Remediation of the “Neue Sorge” brownfield and acid tar pond in Rositz, Thüringen. This brownfield was an open-pit brown-coal mine from 1922 to 1932. From 1935 to 1990, the pit was used for wastes from tar and crude oil production. The Brownfield remediation started in 1995, and today removal is close to complete, with about 350.000 cubic meters having been removed and disposed.
Remediation of CHC-groundwater contamination in Oberursel, for TOTAL FINA ELF. The “Funnel & Gate” technology developed for this project was instrumental in the competitive win. The project included permitting, conceptual and detailed design, contracting, construction supervision, and health and safety supervision. The project included soil remediation for BTEX pollution using excavation and on-site/ex-situ treatment.
Project management for the in-situ remediation of PAH, BTEX and hydrocarbon pollution in soil and groundwater in Bärlocher, Müchen.
Project manager for in-situ remediation and closure of a waste-oil refinery in Pintsch, Hanau. The concept and design included removal of buildings, and various remediation technologies, including hydraulic barriers, insulation by a vertical slurry wall, microbiological soil remediation (pile technology), and on-site soil washing and water treatment. The final report was published as a book.

Management skills: workshops and methods

Leadership training, teambuildung workshops, 360° Feedback
Vivatectur – “Werte leben – Werte bauen”, a roundtable initiative to increase value in the construction business by bringing together participants from various aspects of the market. The group was able to define a common mission statement based on value rather than technology or money, 2004.
Implementation and further development of a “management by objectives” – system based on a Balanced Score Card.
Go To Market Strategy Session, Revenue Strategy Session, LaVon Koerner Revenue Storm Corporation, 2001.
Personal Leadership Training , St. Galler Business School, October, November 2002.
Introduction in the “works council constitution act”, ifb, November 2002.
Creating Business Value Workshop, Gary M. Kunath, The Summit Group, 2002.
Key Account Management Training, Dieter Frantzen, a.i.m.s.s. Nov.2003 – Dec. 2005.
Forget The Box, Alternatives Workshop, Kevin Hoffberg, DQI, LLC, 2003.
Taking Innovation Further, Hans Bakker, 2004.
Clients as Assets Workshop, Peter Mathias, 2006.

Scientific & technical skills:

Numerous talks, 58 scientific and technical publications, presentations at trade shows (e.g. Expo Real, Brownfield symposia, Geothermal Seminars), press campaigns, TV contributions.
In-depth knowledge of fate and transport of pollutants in air, soil and water, radioactivity in the environment, isotope hydrology, modelling, remediation technologies, green energy, climate protection.
Build up, growth and positioning of in-situ remediation concepts and competencies.
Development and market introduction of a patented system for de-icing railway platforms (Winnerway® ) in Germany.

Education and professional memberships:

PhD (Dr. rer. Nat.) University of Heidelberg, Environmental PhysicsMember of the German Brownfield Association (ITVA)
Member of “Altlastenform Baden-Württemberg”
Member of the Radiation Protection Association (Fachverband für Strahlenschutz)
Member of the Commission for Environment, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Darmstadt (IHK), chairman since September 2006
Member of the Commission for Environment, German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Berlin (DIHK)