Mover: Donovan Hannu

Courtesty of the St. Paul Pioneer Press

What is your new title? Senior engineer, Bay West Inc., St. Paul

What are your responsibilities? Helping our clients investigate property with contamination in the soil and groundwater, evaluating the risks posed by this contamination, and developing clean-up and/or development strategies to reduce the associated risks.

Tell us about your educational background. After spending my high school years as a proud Mora Mustang, I headed northwest to Fargo, where I graduated with a B.S. in civil engineering from North Dakota State University in May 1990.

I entered this field because...while I have always leaned towards mathematics and science, my environmental awareness probably began with reading Ranger Rick magazine in grade school and it took off at NDSU. It seemed as if there was a shortage of technical people that were also focusing their efforts on the environment. It was very exciting for me to realize that there was room for both under the umbrella of civil engineering.

When I was a child, my plans were to become...an oceanographer, inspired by Hooper in "Jaws". It eventually became clear that staying in Minnesota with friends and family was better than to be eaten by a shark.

Something that surprised me when I started this job was...it's been surprisingly easy to fit right in here at Bay West.

Do you have a hobby or a favorite leisure-time activity? I have played bass guitar in a couple of bands throughout the past 13 years and am now really looking forward to helping my 3-year-old son learn to play, too.

If I were to tell my out-of-state friends about the Twin Cities, I'd succinctly say...the Twin Cities has something for everybody - beautiful parks and lakes, an active downtown scene in Minneapolis and quality neighborhoods to live in here in St. Paul.

At the top of my "bucket list" is my plan to someday...retire to a house on a river, where I can cast a nightcrawler from my backyard into a fishing hole and prop up my rod on a good "Y" stick.