Senior Leadership Team

Doug Ciserella is a founding partner and principal of Pioneer Engineering & Environmental Services. Doug is currently responsible for the day-to-day management of the firm’s business and its sales and marketing efforts. Doug and his partner also lead the firm’s strategic planning and company’s expansion efforts.

Doug graduated from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale with a degree in Accounting. After earning his CPA and working as an accountant Doug realized accounting was not his passion (he hated it!).  Doug went back to school and earned a BS in Civil / Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. While studying at CU, a professor told the class that she thought Under Ground Storage Tanks were set to be regulated by the EPA. He thought that would be a good business to enter. In 1989, Mike and Doug Ciserella started Pioneer, and for over 35 years he has been involved in virtually every aspect of the company.

Doug provides his clients the added benefit of understanding the business side of real estate investment and development, which is a direct result of over 30 years of experience in real estate acquisition, construction and development as an owner and developer.

In his spare time, Doug enjoys spending time with his family. He also enjoys snow skiing, mountain biking, and hiking.

Mike Ciserella is a founding partner and principal of Pioneer Engineering & Environmental Services, LLC. Mike is currently responsible for the day-to-day management of the firms business, generation of new business opportunities and leading the firm’s strategic planning and company’s expansion efforts.

After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mike worked for Shell Oil Company in New Orleans as a petroleum engineer. With the advent of the Underground Storage Tank Regulations and Illinois Responsible Property Transfer Act, Mike and his partner started Pioneer in 1989. Their objective was straightforward: to provide responsive, efficient, and practical environmental solutions for the real estate finance and transactional industry. For over 35 years, Mike has been involved in virtually every aspect of the company.

Mike provides his clients the added benefit of understanding the business side of real estate investment and development, which is a direct result of over 30 years of experience in real estate acquisition, construction and development as an owner and developer. He has pursued extensive graduate level coursework in civil and environmental engineering and continuing education in real estate law, zoning, finance and development; LEED building design; geothermal heat exchange design and construction; and, brownfields redevelopment. He has been and is currently a member of various industry and real estate trade organizations.

In his spare time, Mike enjoys all sorts of outdoor activities including cycling, skiing, boating, and hiking as well as spending time with his family.

Jeff currently serves as Principal Engineer and has been with Pioneer since 1995.  He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the environmental assessment and remediation groups. Jeff has over 25 years of working experience and has conducted and provided technical oversight for thousands of environmental site assessments, risk assessments, and remedial approaches for residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

Prior to joining Pioneer, Jeff worked as a staff engineer providing geotechnical and construction materials testing services and gained considerable real-life experience regarding the construction and redevelopment of properties. Jeff has also completed continuing education in the field of geotechnical engineering and provides management and oversight of Pioneer’s geotechnical and construction materials testing groups. More recently, Jeff has focused on expanding Pioneer’s geotechnical investigation and pile testing services for community solar projects throughout the Midwest.

With his combined environmental and construction background and regulatory expertise, he also specializes in developing and evaluating various aspects of environmental land planning (environmental risk assessments, geotechnical investigations, and foundation recommendations) to facilitate cost-effective and environmentally responsible redevelopment.

Jeff graduated from Michigan Technological University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Engineering, completed a Business Practices Certificate from Northwestern University, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He also consults for NeighborSpace in the development of community gardens in the city of Chicago.

He enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids (boy-girl twins), working on a never-ending list of home and yard improvement projects, and spending time in the outdoors.

Wayne Smith is a Professional Geologist and the Principal Consultant with Pioneer Engineering & Environmental Services, LLC. He is also part of the executive management group that leads the company. His career with Pioneer began in 1992 and he has since conducted thousands of Environmental Site Assessments for industrial, manufacturing, and commercial properties throughout the United States during his tenure in the environmental field. 

Wayne has also developed and implemented active remediation systems and successfully achieved regulatory closures on a wide range of contaminated sites. Wayne was the lead consultant responsible for successfully completing more than 250 Brownfields redevelopment projects in Illinois. 

Primary responsibilities include technical review, project execution, assisting clients with State and Federal environmental rules and regulations, and regulatory negotiations. Wayne also provides technical/professional support for litigation matters involving cost recovery, cost allocation and property damage related to contaminated sites. A significant part of his responsibilities also include client development, client relationship management as well as revenue generation and new business opportunities. 

Over the years, Wayne has become extremely proficient in the interpretation and application of environmental regulations and gained valuable insight and expertise in a variety of environmental areas, especially Brownfields Redevelopment and regulatory closure projects. This expertise has afforded him the opportunity to be a featured and panel speaker at various environmental conferences and seminars. 

Boyd currently serves as Pioneer’s Vice President of Site Assessment Services. In this role he maintains oversight of a group that performs several hundred Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, as well as dozens of Property Condition Assessments, asbestos inspections, and other due diligence-related studies, annually. In addition to managing his staff and being directly involved in the investigation of more complex sites, Boyd aids the firm in its business development, sales, and marketing efforts.

Boyd earned a B.A. in Journalism from Columbia College of Chicago and has studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a multitude of historical epochs. Boyd began his career in the environmental field — literally the field — over 20 years ago, collecting soil, groundwater, wastewater, and asbestos samples, and he has been employed at Pioneer since 1996, quickly rising from his initial environmental inspector role.