Board of Directors

Lester Tovey

MECOP Board Chair | Sr. Manufacturing Engineer, Philips Neuro

B.S. Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Oregon State University

19 Years of service | Program Graduate

Before graduating in 1998 from OSU, Les completed two MECOP internships at A-dec and LMC West. Over the past 20 years he has selected and mentored dozens of interns in numerous business settings. First appointed to lead the Student Support subcommittee just a couple years after graduation, Les was the first program graduate to be elected Chair, and served during the 2004-2005 cycle year. Private ventures took Les away from the program for a few years until serving as alternate board member for JCI. Most recently employed by a new Philips acquisition in Eugene, he will shepherd six interns being placed this year at Philips Neuro. Les firmly believes that being involved with MECOP is a “best practice” every bit as important as any other in the Engineering and Operations world.

Dave Seluga

MECOP Board Vice Chair/Chair Elect | Owner, Servant Consulting LLC, MECOP Emeritus Member

B.S. Wood Science and Engineering, Oregon State University

14 Years of service

Dave has been a member of MECOP/CECOP since 2005 through various companies, serving as CECOP Vice–Chair 2011-12 and CECOP Chair 2012-13. He has been serving as the MECOP Student Support Committee since 2015 and was recently elected for a second term. Dave has served three terms as a MECOP Board Director in his varied capacities. One of Dave’s current assignments is to oversee the development of the MECOP Alumni Organization.

Ian Johnson

MECOP Outgoing Board Chair | IT Management, ON Semiconductor

M.S. Software Engineering, Portland State University

8 Years of service | Program Graduate

Having been a former MECOP graduate, Ian has been involved with MECOP since 2011 when he joined the Manufacturing committee. Since then he has chaired the Manufacturing and later Operations committees before becoming the current MECOP chair in 2018. At ON Semiconductor since 2005, Ian continues to work with ON’s internal teams in partnering with MECOP; taking in a new group of interns each year, and having hired multiple MECOP alumni during this time.

Jim Griffis

MECOP Treasurer | MECOP Emeritus Member

B.S. Forest Engineering, Oregon State University

22 Years of service

Jim is retired from practice, ending his career as senior vice president for a west coast based, 1000 person consulting engineering firm with offices throughout the U.S. Jim became involved with MECOP when more demand for civil engineering interns was expressed from industry (1998) and represented one of the six “founding” firms for the CECOP (Civil Engineering Cooperative Program) branch of MECOP. Jim is a past chairman of CECOP, having been involved with the program for 20 years now. Even in retirement, Jim strongly believes in the program and sees this small investment in his time as very small price to pay, working for and with those students who will take our place and become tomorrow’s leaders.

Cody Kenny

CECOP Board Chair | Principal, Evergreen Engineering

B.S. Civil Engineering, Oregon State University

7 Years of service | Program Graduate

Steve Townsen

Committee Chair - Business Disciplines | City Engineer, City of Portland

B.S. Civil Engineering, Oregon State University

18 Years of service

Having been a High School teacher and coach before becoming an engineer, Steve greatly values the partnership between the students, companies and universities to enhance the education of future engineers that MECOP provides. Steve began working with MECOP in 2000 and has been the City of Portland’s Member Representative for the last 15+ years. Over the years he has served on many committees and in many roles including serving as the MECOP chair and twice as the CECOP Chair. The year Steve served as the MECOP chair he led the effort to convert MECOP into a non-profit. Steve is involved with the universities and serves on the Civil Engineering Advisory Board for Oregon State, Portland State and also the University of Portland. The City of Portland selects around 18 MECOP interns annually across multiple disciplines.

Steve Horvath

Committee Chair - Electronics | Staff Aviation Systems Engineer, Garmin AT

B.S. Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

19 Years of service

Steve is a Staff Aviation Systems Engineer at Garmin AT where he helps define and develop state-of-the-art avionics. His MECOP involvement stretches back nearly 20 years in roles from being a mentor to his current position as MECOP board member and its Electronics Committee chair. His background includes leadership positions at Motorola and Garmin AT, and he currently sits on the Oregon State University EECS industry advisory board. Starting from his experience of being a Kemper Scholar intern while attending the University of Illinois working towards his B.S. in Computer Science, Steve strives to balance the needs of the interns, the goals of the MECOP organizations, and the role MECOP takes toward providing experiential learning for students at the MECOP universities.

Jordan Reed

Committee Chair - Manufacturing | Benchmade Knife Company

B.S. Industrial Engineering, Oregon State University

7 Years of service | Program Graduate

Eric Larson

Committee Chair - Public Relations | Production Manager, A-dec

B.S. Industrial Engineering, Oregon State University

12 Years of service | Program Graduate

Eric currently works as a Production Manager for A-dec and has been with the company for 17+ years. Eric graduated from Oregon State University in 2000 and participated in MECOP as a student. During his time at A-dec, Eric continued to support the MECOP program as a mentor, company representative, and currently serves as a MECOP board member. There are currently over 40 MECOP grads working at A-dec.

Gary McGuire

Committee Chair - Retention / Recruiting (MECOP) | MECOP Emeritus Member

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University

11 Years of service | Program Graduate

Gary was one of the first Mechanical Engineers to go through the MECOP program and was hired by one of the two companies that he interned with. His career has been in product design and has managed design groups through new product development cycles including sustaining the product during manufacturing. He has brought MECOP to new companies and set up the Rand Sherwood Scholarship fund with OSAC when he was the committee chair of the Student Support Committee. Later he served as MECOP's Chair, during which two committees were created; the New Member Committee and the New Company Recruiting and Retention Committee (NCRRC) of which he is currently serving as Committee Chair.

Sarah Jones

Committee Chair - Student Support (MECOP) | Civil Practice Leader, David Evans and Associates

B.S. Civil Engineering, Oregon State University

6 Years of service | Program Graduate

Ken Roley

Director at Large | MECOP Emeritus Member

B.S. Civil Engineering, Oregon State University

19 Years of service

Ken is an engineer with the City of Salem and completing has second term as a Member at Large on the MECOP Board of Directors. In prior years he served on the CECOP Executive Board, and has been involved in the program for 18 years. As a strong supporter of the MECOP program, he has enjoyed mentoring interns, and lecturing at the 407 classes on meetings, presentations, and engineering ethics. Ken has supported the program by volunteering to draft the bylaws, the Operations Manual along with a Member Handbook, news articles, and several resolutions adopted by the Board.

Steve VanArsdale

Director at Large | General Manager, Garmin AT

B.S. Industrial Engineering, Oregon State University

29 Years of service

Steve has been involved with the MECOP program for 28 years in a wide variety of roles including: mentoring Interns at Garmin AT, representing Garmin AT as it’s MECOP representative, serving as a Committee Chair for multiple groups, and three terms as MECOP’s Board Chair in 2000, 2006 and 2010. He also serves on the Oregon State University Dean of Engineering’s Leadership Council and is on the Executive Board of Directors for the Strategic Economic Development Corporation (SEDCOR). Employing over 250 engineers, Garmin AT has over 40 graduates of the MECOP program on staff and selects around 15 MECOP interns annually.