Rob Ralstin
Senior Compliance Specialist
I try to get to know my clients on a personal level and not just professionally. Finding common ground, even in small ways, helps me understand them and their business needs more completely.
Hired
- 2023
Location
- Redmond, WA
Expertise
As an environmental professional, Rob partners with clients to help them understand and manage their environmental risks in accordance with applicable regulations. Throughout Rob’s diverse career, he has worked with a variety of government agencies, industrial companies, and other businesses—and he understands the delicate balance between supporting human development and protecting the world we share.
“I do my best work when I have spent the time getting to know my clients both personally and professionally,” Rob says. “Knowing and understanding our clients’ needs depends on our ability to ‘walk the walk’ and not just ‘talk the talk.’”
Rob grew up in Oregon, exploring the mountains and lush forests of the Pacific Northwest. He left home looking to serve his country in the U.S. Army, but science and the environment were always an interest thanks to his fascination with figures like Carl Sagan and John Muir. After more than eight years expanding his horizons with military operations in the southeastern United States and across the world, Rob returned to his roots in the Pacific Northwest to explore a new career in environmental science.
“I came to realize just how lucky I had been to have grown up in Oregon,” Rob says. “When I finished my initial active-duty contract, I took my first courses in ecology and biodiversity, and I was hooked.”
Rob launched his second career working as a research scientist in a materials and microbiology lab. His research in product development focused on biofilm growth, inhibition, removal techniques, and analysis, and Rob’s research and equipment designs were used for testing shock products that he helped formulate (used for biofilm removal) and waterline treatment efficacy studies.
These days, Rob specializes in environmental compliance, which means much of his work is proactive. He conducts environmental impact studies, secures industrial stormwater, industrial wastewater, and air discharge permits, builds air dispersion models, and designs environmental programs that protect both his client and the environment. Rob also has compliance experience in the complex world of air toxics. He helps his clients obtain and manage air contaminant discharge and operating permits, and navigates Oregon and Washington toxic air pollutant emissions inventories and health risk assessments.
Rob is deeply committed to shaping the next generation of leaders, both inside and outside the environmental profession. As a dedicated U.S. Army Reserve Engineering and Operations Manager, Rob spends several weeks and substantial portions of each summer training with our ally’s militaries around the world, fostering esprit de corps with the United States military and its foreign partners across the globe.
Whenever he can, Rob loves to spend quality family time with his wife and three children. Rob is also an avid adventurer. He’s an aspiring rock climber and mountaineer, and enjoys dirt biking, camping, fishing, snowboarding—or anything else that gives him an excuse to get outside!
