Around Town: Alumni Impact
Around Town: Alumni Impact: a podcast highlighting the people and stories that shape our engineering community in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering or CCEE at Iowa State University.
Around Town: Alumni Impact
Around Town: Alumni Impact with Greg Mulder
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On this episode of Around Town: Alumni Impact, we’re joined by Greg Mulder, P.E., a 1997 graduate of Iowa State’s Civil Engineering program, and a member of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Council. Greg currently serves as the Executive Director of the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Iowa Concrete Paving Association.
We’re excited to talk with Greg today about his journey as a CCEE alumnus, how he’s making a difference in the field, and the ways he supports and inspires current students, Iowa State engineers, and CCEE
Welcome to Aroundtown Alumni Impact, a podcast highlighting the people and stories that shape our engineering community in the Department of Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering, or CCEE, at Iowa State University. In each episode, we sit down with Cyclone alumni to talk about their journey from their time as students to their careers and the ways they continue to give back and make a difference. These conversations celebrate the impact of engineering, the power of connection, and the lasting role alumni play in supporting future generations. I'm your host, Linda Dainty, Alumni Outreach Specialist for CCEE. Today on Aroundtown Alumni Impact, we're joined by Greg Mulder, PE, a 1997 graduate of Iowa State Civil Engineering Program and a member of Civil Construction Environmental Engineering Advisory Council. Greg currently serves as the Executive Director of the Iowa Ready Mix Concrete Association and the Iowa Concrete Paving Association. Before stepping into this role, Greg served as State Construction and Materials Engineer at the Iowa Department of Transportation, overseeing highway construction and materials testing across the state. Today he helps lead organizations representing an industry that employs more than 43,000 Iowans and serves on the executive board of the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center, helping guide research, training, and innovation in concrete infrastructure. We're excited to talk to Greg today about his journey as a CCEE alumnus, how he's making a difference in the field, and the ways he supports and inspires current students, Iowa State Engineers and CCEE. Welcome, Greg.
SPEAKER_00Howdy.
SPEAKER_01Hi. I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00Me too. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Well, should we just jump into the questions?
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm game if you are.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So what inspired you to pursue your civil engineering degree at Iowa State University?
SPEAKER_00You know, that's an interesting story for me. I didn't follow the same path as most, but I'm sure I followed the same path as many do. When I left high school, I had zero intent in pursuing engineering when I left. I went to DMAC and I focused my studies on business. Um I wasn't sure what I was going to actually do when I graduated. I had no path and no goal, but I knew that businesses were everywhere. And if I pursued business, I could probably find a job somewhere. It was during that time at DMAC I worked with another Iowa State civil engineering student, Troy Van Marin, and we were doing residential concrete flat work around Ames and surrounding committees. Troy saw something in me, and I saw something in myself through many conversations with Troy. Troy explained how instrumental civil engineering was in so much of the construction world, whether it's design calculations, specifications, execution, and project management. That inspired me to change my path to civil engineering in that discussion. Before that, I really didn't even know what civil engineers actually did for work. So honestly, I didn't that one conversation and our job side experience changed the direction of my life.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's great. So, what is your favorite memory or memorable story about your time studying at Iowa State?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's uh it's hard to describe. Uh so many favorite memories here at Iowa State around campus, uh, springtime and and just the atmosphere around campus, the people. But, you know, one thing I didn't realize it so much then, but I certainly do now, is the people, my classmates, the professors, and the advisors. I don't know what I would have done without my chemistry and my physics study groups. I probably wouldn't be sitting in this room today. The professors such as Jim Cable that had real working knowledge and experience that helped me connect the classroom problems with real world situations that had changed the way I viewed problems that we were solving in class. It was other students and the atmosphere around town engineering. I knew it was a place I could gather and discuss classwork and our future. I wasn't a traditional student. I had already graduated from DMAC with a different focus, and I was almost starting from scratch, only a couple years behind behind my peers students. I was also married, living off campus, making some of those connections more difficult. I believe that is probably why I believe so much in the community space at town engineering and the and the library are so important.
SPEAKER_01So you were technically, even though you were young, a non-traditional student.
SPEAKER_00That's true.
SPEAKER_01So how did your time at CCEE shape your career and life? That's kind of a big question.
SPEAKER_00That is a big question, but uh you know, my life would have been completely different if I not found engineering here uh in the engineering department. I felt so welcomed, so connected. And as I mentioned, I was pursuing business with no real direction. My mind was very analytical, and the calculations and formulas really made sense to me. It gave me directions when I could identify problems that needed solved. I thanked my advisors, Ken Brewer, and outstanding advice from Jim Cable and others for my success in school. I could think of a handful of other professors that were very open and inviting and helping me understand I'm not an idiot. My advice to any student is to reach out to these professors and uh be a though they can be a big part of your success in the engineering department.
SPEAKER_01What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
SPEAKER_00You know, one of the that's hard to pick one. I've done a lot of things in this almost three decades of my career. If I had to pick one thing that I led from nothing to a current national standard is e-ticketing. This stems from a time at the Iowa DOT that started with a tragedy. An unfortunate situation occurred where a coworker was crushed under a truck after returning from collecting a verification ticket from the driver. Our practice was that you had to collect a paper ticket from the driver so that you knew the product that was delivered on site was what you ordered and was a certified material that you were looking for. So after collecting the ticket, the last truck of the day, a co-worker of mine was backed over while returning to his truck from collecting that ticket. This unfortunate accident and me driving Gary's truck back to the office made me think of a better way. I continued to pursue the electronic verification while managing an effort of e-construction for the Iowa DOT. This led me to a company that agreed with my vision and helped Iowa become the first people to test, trial, and adopt electronic ticketing. Now inspectors can see a verification ticket whether it's on their phone or on a tablet in a safe location. Not only did this make job site inspections safer, it also made project verifications and closeout more efficient. I'm really proud of this process for the engineering safety into everything that we do.
SPEAKER_01Well, you should be very proud. So is it national now?
SPEAKER_00It is. You know, in 2015 was the first project built. Here in Iowa, we did that on US 69, and then we started doing it on some bridges. We did it with asphalt, and we've continued that into ready-mixed concrete truck tickets. And it had a really slow start until 2020 came. And nobody wanted to get within six feet of anyone else. Right. And it took off and it is a na national standard now. Being an old guy like I am, I've I've got coined for the phrase of being the grandfather of e-ticketing. So I I helped get that started. And I'm really, really proud of the fact that it is now a national standard.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Congratulations. Was there any now you said there might be more than one. Is there another one?
SPEAKER_00You know, just everything I do, I lead with m lead with my heart. I do what I feel is right. I feel what's right, and I'm proud of everything I've done.
SPEAKER_01One of the reasons I invited you here was because your passion for what you do is obvious. Okay, so why do you think staying connected to Iowa State and the CCE community is important even years after graduation?
SPEAKER_00Like I mentioned before, I wouldn't be here today without the civil engineering degree. I had no direction in where I was going, and I'm very happy of where I've where I've ended up and where I where I land today. So I'm very proud of my civil engineering degree from Iowa State. It's opened so many doors for me in these last three decades since I graduated. My degree gave me the experience and skills that I needed to excel in my career. This aligned well with my college work experience with doing construction. I pride myself with having the boots on the ground experience and the learned knowledge to see the big picture that helped me daily reach my goals. I want to share my experiences with the upcoming leaders, so they can go even further and do even greater things.
SPEAKER_01So you've been extremely supportive of C CE program and our students. Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked your decision to support students?
SPEAKER_00I don't think there's a specific moment, but more of an experience. As I mentioned, the professors and guest lecturers that had a real experience in my life helped me connect real things in my life to what we were learning in the classroom. I wanted to be able to give back and support these students and let them know that how important it is that they chose Iowa State and the civil engineering career. Society needs them, and we need people who can design and construct quality infrastructure, not only in Iowa, but across the entire nation.
SPEAKER_01How do you hope your generosity will impact future engineers?
SPEAKER_00Well, I I hope that some of our, you know, contributions, whether it's scholarships and everything else, um, our time and dedication is my only hope is that we can continue to inspire the future leaders to continue and learn. Continuous learning, challenge old philosophies, and create new technology and be the future. There will be new challenges, and you will learn the skills at Iowa State to overcome any of these challenges that face you.
SPEAKER_01How would you describe power of alumni in one word? What would it be and why?
SPEAKER_00If I had to describe it in one word, I've been thinking about this for the last week. So thanks for asking this question. Because alumni generation doesn't just add, it multiplies across time. Whether you give a single gift of a scholarship which educates a student who graduates, builds a career, gives back, and then funds the next student. That cycle repeats, accelerates, and grows each generation. The original dollar doesn't just do one thing. It echoes forward for decades. It's compounding in the less financial cest. Trust compounds, community compounds, and the reputation of the program compounds. An institution known for loyal, generous alumni attracts better faculty, stronger applicants, and more philanthropic partners, each reinforcing each other. And unlike then an endowment built from a single donor, alumni generously is distributed, compounding thousands of smaller acts into graduated accumulating into something no single gift could ever achieve alone. That breath gives a resilience and a kind of moral weight that a single donation simply doesn't carry. One word, but the math is extraordinary, compounding.
SPEAKER_01Well, that was great. What advice would you give to current students or young alumni?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think back, you know, when I first left Iowa State in in 1997, wasn't sure how I could get back or what I could get back. You know, I was have to worry about financials. As I mentioned, I was I was sort of a young, non-traditional student. You know, I had a family already, I was already married, I was living, I had a mortgage, I had all this other stuff, but I always wanted to get back. So I started giving back with just some time. Time is a great thing to give back, also. So and give when you're when you don't even feel like you're ready. You don't have to go and do a twenty million dollar donation, even though that's great, right? It it every little bit helps, whether it is helping guest selecture, helping um helping advise more students, help just help in any way you can to grow that. So help compound your efforts and and grow that uh support the program. So give one, it doesn't even feel right. It's not it's like a muscle, generosity, and uh it's like any other m muscle. If you don't use it, it'll become atrophy and and and you won't be able to give back. So yeah, so I think we need to start a relationship as soon as you can. It's not just a transaction. It's students who tend to give early, that stay engaged. They mentor, they recruit, they advocate, and they show up. They're the ones who don't often drift. Giving is an on-ramp to a lifelong relationship with the community that can open doors in ways you generally can't predict. You're casting a vote. Every gift, whether it's time or money, says, this place helps shape me, and I want to help shape others.
SPEAKER_01So when you think about the future of engineering or the next generation of cyclone engineers, what excites you the most?
SPEAKER_00The future of these cyclone engineers really give me hope. One way I can describe this and give to the story that you you alluded to earlier, is uh is is the best thing I can say, I learned early while I was still in school, while I was doing my summer uh internships, I learned from uh a seasoned engineer, let's call call him that. Um, and I continue to use it daily because I believe it. Um when people ask me how I'm doing, I always say I'm tremendous. Tremendous. And I often get questions to that response. And I always respond, I have these amazing experiences that have built me to who I am today and a bright future to look forward to. Why wouldn't I be tremendous today? And I think I've I've lived that attitude. I've I've learned it and I believe in it. I think these cyclone engineers, these that these engineers, whether they're young students and and I have kids going through the same college, right? They're they're trying to do this. I want them to believe they're learning these great experiences that are building them every single day. And they have a bright future in front of them. So I think that um these students had the same opportunity to learn from some of the best professors around. Iowa State is an excellent engineering college. And uh I'm so excited for them to go further and be even better than than I am. So I'm excited for them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And a great faculty that helps them get those experiences to learn how to solve the problems. You don't you no need to be able to critically think what is the the right answer to this. So you and it's the process of the thinking that will help you get there. And that's what I learned at Iowa State. It's the process of the thinking. Um I didn't learn the answer to every question, but I knew how to question every problem.
SPEAKER_01Oh, nice. Greg, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story from Iowa State alum to oh we also didn't mention that you're at the city council in Huxley. That's why I'm gonna do that. I'm a city councilman too. I just want to thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Uh, thanks for having me. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell my story. Yeah. Thanks for mentioning the city council. It's another thing that I do just to give back. Right. I have these experiences with infrastructure projects with with the DOT and my almost three decades of experience here that I just always love to give back, whether it's generosity to the future students or generosity back to my community. I believe it's so important to stay involved and and to give back if any talents you have and you're willing to do that. So it's been a part of my life and and I appreciate it, and I appreciate the opportunity to help Iowa State University do that with their civil engineering department and our community in uh in Huxley, Iowa, Go Huxley and Go Iowa State.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, we're grateful for your continued involvement with the advisory council, sponsor of Football Tailgates, and hopefully more great things to come.
SPEAKER_00You bet we're I'll stay involved. It's important to me, and it's important to the future generations of Cyclones.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening to Aroundtown Alumni Impact. I hope today's conversation showcased the many ways CCEE alumni give back, stay connected, and help shape the future of our department. Join us next time as we continue highlighting the alumni impact happening all around CCEE.