Leadership
Leadership
TGE was organized and founded by Dr. Charles H. Thornton together with Jeffrey Grillo and Daniel Esparza (Thorton, Grillo, Esparza – TGE).
Dr. Thornton is one of the preeminent structural engineers and educators in the world; co-chairman of Thornton Tomasetti until 2004, and as Honorary Chairman/Founder of the ACE Mentor Program, a non-profit organization that, each year, offers guidance and training to inner city high school students in architecture, construction and engineering in cities across the U.S.
Dr. Thornton has been involved in the design, construction and analysis of billions of dollars worth of projects worldwide, including hospitals, arenas, mid/high-rise buildings, airports, transportation facilities and special structures. His award-winning work has set industry standards for innovative thinking and creativity. Dr. Thornton has led the structural design of some of the world’s most significant and monumental structures, including two of the tallest: Taipei 101 in Taiwan, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Dr. CHARLES H. THORNTON, PhD., PE
Chairman, Managing Member
Charles Thornton’s forty-four years of experience as an entrepreneur and founder of Thornton Tomasetti has included involvement in the design and construction of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of projects in the U.S. and overseas, ranging from hospitals, arenas and mid/high-rise buildings, to airports, transportation facilities and special projects.
Principal, Member
Mr. Grillo is the former VP of Construction for Intel’s Global Construction Team. He successfully managed and oversaw a multibillion-dollar global expansion of leading edge manufacturing capacity.
Mr. Grillo focuses on strategic planning and development supply chain partners to increase construction responsibilities and delivery performance for overall project delivery efficiency.
Principal, Member
Mr. Esparza is an accomplished executive and entrepreneur with domestic and international construction experience and operations for General Contracting, Design / Build, and Civil / Infrastructure related projects.
Mr. Esparza has managed and operating construction companies from start-up through $500M in market development.
Director of Design
Mr. Casolaro has worked for AT&T and other Fortune 500 companies in both the A&E and construction, development sectors – he has overseen and managed the TGE Building System for international program work and provided modeling for MRP II systems.
Mr. Casolaro manages and directs all design and architectural collaboration for Top DownSM structures.