Team Bios
Michael Essrig, President & CEO
With more than 15 years of disaster preparedness experience, including seismic retrofitting, construction services, and developing incident command systems and terrorism awareness training programs, Michael Essrig presently serves as President and CEO of Safe-T-Proof.
A first generation Californian, Michael's professional highlights have found him serving Southern California since the inception of his disaster preparedness career when he was working out of his very own garage. Nearly two decades after the famous Sylmar earthquake where he found himself barely escaping falling furniture, Michael couldn't stand the thought of another quake occurring and not knowing if his own children would be safe. A self-starter with an entrepreneur spirit, Michael set out to "safe-t-proof" his own home. He had such peace of mind when he was finished that he launched a company, Safe-T-Proof, that now serves as the leader in hospital, commercial, institutional and governmental disaster preparedness services.
In 1994 Michael invented the "Quake Cottage," a mobile earthquake simulator that has become a popular educational tool for demonstrating the devastating effects of severe earthquakes and how the Safe-T-Proof fastening system securely locks down furniture and equipment to remain in place during the most violent tremblers (up to 8.0 on the Richter scale!). The Quake Cottage has been featured on numerous national and local news programs, and several have been sold to government agencies and municipalities for the earthquake preparedness programs. (More about the Quake Cottage ››)
In 2001 Michael teamed up with his longtime business associate Chris Taylor, who owned a construction company, to work together on retrofitting a hospital. Realizing the synergies of working together on construction and seismic retrofit projects with their combined expertise in health care and life sciences, Michael and Chris formed ETC in 2002 and have together enjoyed steady business growth and expanding base of satisfied customers since.
Chris Taylor, Executive Vice President
Chris Taylor has been working in construction since he was a teenager, and has over three decades of extensive construction experience. He started out working with his dad nights and weekends doing just about every construction task there was. By the age of 25, Chris had already accumulated a wealth of field experience, and decided to go out on his own as a subcontractor in commercial building.
While serving commercial clients, he also had the unique experience of working with an exclusive set of contractors building the homes of several notable Hollywood celebrities, stars like Burt Reynolds, Bruce Willis and Seven Spielberg. This kept him quite busy until the beginning of the ‘90s, when the California economy took a downturn. At this point Chris diversified, completing his first medical/dental office. Over the course of the ‘90s Chris’s company would complete over 100 medical/dental facility projects, usually with three or more projects underway across California at any given time.
In 2001, Chris teamed up with longtime associate Michael Essrig on a seismic retrofit job at the City of Hope hospital in Duarte, with Chris performing heavy construction fastening and Michael contributing facility-wide installation of his Safe-T-Proof fastening system. The project was very successful, leading to the two teaming up on an NPC2 Centex Rogers project encompassing six hospitals. This project was so successful that Chris and Michael decided to team up permanently, forming Essrig Taylor Constructions (ETC) in 2002. Since that time, the two and their team have firmly established themselves as the foremost experts in healthcare construction, renovation and seismic retrofit. Chris came to San Diego in 2007 when ETC relocated its corporate headquarters there.
John Mentzer, Vice President
John Mentzer got his start in construction working for Centex Rogers (now Balfour Beatty) while putting himself through school. John decided to focus on learning the hardest kind of construction short of building nuclear power plants -- healthcare construction. With Centex Rogers, John started out doing strictly negotiated GNP healthcare on large, out-of-the-ground projects.
Over time, John’s work took him all over the country, eventually landing him in California in 1998. At this point he got his initiation in OSHPD, gaining his IOR license (OSHPD inspector A-20169). He received his general contractor’s license by 2001. During this time he worked on numerous renovations and out-of-the-ground construction, progressing to Director of Operations and then Vice President of West Coast Operations.
He met Michael Essrig and Chris Taylor while looking for an NPC2 contractor for seven HCA hospitals in 1999. John was impressed with how Essrig and Taylor worked, particularly on the City of Hope project -- coming in ahead of schedule and under budget, and always making things right. This led John to join ETC, becoming a partner in the firm in 2006.
Since joining ETC, John has joined the Hospital Building Safety Board (HBSB) as a consulting member on the committee on IRO, helping to enhance communications and process between contractors and OSHPD on construction projects.
Mike Engel, AIA, Director of Design Services
Mike Engel manages design and engineering efforts for seismic retrofit and medical improvement projects. He brings to Essrig Taylor a wealth of experience - in the last few years he has managed 65 projects ranging in size from $15,000 to $35 million.
Prior to joining Essrig Taylor he was Principal Architect for UC San Diego Facilities Design & Construction in La Jolla, where he delivered over $100 million of capital improvements for the UC San Diego Medical Center. He managed all phases of the projects from feasibility to occupancy, and managed teams of consultants, contractors, users, equipment vendors, and specialty services while working with two hospitals, outpatient clinics, cancer centers, utility plants and multiple agencies.
A father of three, mike coaches children's soccer, plays the blues harmonica and piano, and enjoys mountain biking and yoga to stay in shape.
Jim Liston, Senior Project Manager, Life Sciences
Jim brings 30 plus years of experience in all phases of construction. He has a reputation for organizational skills, technical knowledge and attention to detail. Jim has extensive experience managing over one million square feet of high-tech and life science projects. Jim’s extensive life science experience includes vivariums, cGMP facilities, BSL laboratories, biology and chemistry labs and 30 clean rooms. Jim’s responsibilities include all traditional disciplines associated with preconstruction services: identification of constructability issues; building evaluation; conceptual budgeting; estimating; and development of appropriate design-build teams to best address client needs. Additionally, Jim is responsible for management of specific projects from inception to completion.
- Abbott (IBIS), Carlsbad
- Eli Lilly
- Alexandria Real Estate Equities (AREE)
- BioMed Realty
- Genentech
- Hybritech
- Beckman Coulter
- NovaRX
- BD Diagnostics
- Vical
- SGX Pharmaceuticals
- Archimedes Technology Group
- Conforma
- Navcare
Jim’s project experience includes:
Vincent Gonzales, Project Manager, Life Sciences
Vincent brings over 30 years of experience in a ll phases of construction including over 1 million square feet of healthcare and life science tenant improvements consisting of cGMP facilities, BSL laboratories, animal vivariums, chemical and biological laboratories, clean rooms, server rooms and construction of new buildings from gound up including site development. He has been employed with DBC for over ten years.
Vincent’s projects range from negotiated (design-build) to hard bid. His personal experience with all phases of construction allows him to analyze and evaluate client design criteria for value engineering and/or proposed bid alternates, establishing a strong rapport with the client as a valuable source for reliable project management.
- San Diego Science Center
- Neurocrine Biosciences
- Burnham Institute for Medical Research Campus Remodel
- Alexandria Real Estate Equities
- INOVA Diagnostics
- Amylin Pharmaceuticals
- Display Research Laboratories
- Exelixis
- Sequana Pharmaceuticals
- Epimmune
- University of California San Diego (UCSD)
- Palomar Pomerado Health
- Scripps Health
- Rady Children's Hospital
Vincent’s project experience includes:
Amy Aitken, Director of Marketing & Business Development
Amy Aitken has a long history of serving customers over the course of the entire vendor/customer relationship, with years of experience in the construction industry. Aitken is a seasoned senior manager withexpertise in corporate business development including sales, marketing and creative design as well as customer service, safety and environmental compliance. Aitken has spearheaded customer outreach and client service at several construction and industrial companies to provide the best possible experience to customers. She’s also been instrumental in developing sales and marketing plans and managing corporate public awareness campaigns, and has led large departments.
- DBC Construction
- MAI Indusries
- Norcal Waste Systems, Inc.
Aitken’s career experience includes work at:
Cindee Futo, LEED AP, Sr. Project Manager
Tom Ross, Project Manager
Alan Turner, AIA, Principal Architect
Alan Turner has more than 35 years of experience in all phases of Architectural Design and Production. Alan has consistently delivered a high quality of design and construction documents for all type of facilities. His resume includes work with most of the leading hospital systems in San Diego such as Sharp, Scripps, and the UCSD Medical Centers. Mr. Turner has been the Principal in Charge of Production and Contract Administration for two architectural firms in San Diego, as well as Principal in Charge of the San Diego office for an award winning, Southwestern regional architectural firm.
Concurrent with his work in the medical field Alan has worked on some of the more notable hotels in San Diego including Emerald Shaprey Center and Loews Coronado Resort. This blending of backgrounds has worked well with the new emphasis in hospital design for a more hospitality like experience for patients.
Alan is the father of two grown children and lives in the East County area of Ramona.
Jose V. Alberdi, Jr., Assoc. AIA, Project Design Manager
Jose is involved with the design/build/engineering efforts for seismic retrofit and medical improvement projects. He brings to Essrig Taylor a wealth of design build experience requiring significant integrations of City/State Agency processes, managing teams of consultants, contractors, users and architectural design. He has been responsible for developing small to large scale projects from conceptual spatial diagrams, through final design, construction documents and construction administration. Prior to joining Essrig Taylor he was a Project Design Manager for several local San Diego firms with over 25 years of experience. He served and chaired the Chula Vista Design Review Committee from 1996-2007. He enjoys traveling with his family, jai alai, and playing golf.
Jose’s project experience includes:
- Rady Children’s Hospital
- Sharp Memorial/Grossmont
- CHW (Catholic Hospitals West)
- VA Hospital 500 Million Las Vegas, CA
- Evolution Lofts, 28 story Condominium Tower, Las Vegas, NV $80 million.
- Valley View Casino Hotel/Non-Smoking Casino Expansion, Valley Center, CA $75 million.
- Lowes Coronado Hotel, Corando CA
- Emerald/Shapery 30 story Hotel/Office tower, San Diego, CA
- Admiral Baker Golf Clubhouse (MWR), San Diego
- High Security Facilities throughout the country involving the implementation of latest Anti-Terrorist Force Protection Standards.
Aimee Amarillas, Project Design Coordinator
- Historic restoration in urban design
- Medical/Commercial conversions
- Rady Children's Hospital
- Sharp Memorial
Glen Granholm, Director of Operations
Glen is the Director of Operations for Essrig Taylor Construction’s Northern Region.
A thirty year veteran in management and marketing, Glen joined the ETC team in 2006, where he helped manage Los Angeles area operations and projects involving clients such as City of Hope National Medical Center, Adobe Systems and Johnson and Johnson. In 2007 he was instrumental in the company receiving recognition in the international “Out of the Box” contest, sponsored by UPS, where ETC was named “One of the Most Innovative Companies in the World.”
The next year, Glen moved to the San Francisco bay area, where he directed the NPC-3 seismic retrofit project at San Ramon Regional Medical Center. Following that project, Glen led the ETC team through the completion of multiple additional construction projects at the facility, including the new, state-of-the-art “Breast Center at San Ramon”.
As the coordinator of outreach and education for the Bay Area Earthquake Alliance, Glen is heavily involved in the Seismic Readiness education of businesses, schools and communities throughout the region. He is also a member of the Cascadia Region Workgroup. Glen is a frequent speaker at California organizations such as the American Society of Safety Engineers and the International Facility Managers Association.
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