Jim Likins is the founder and first CEO of Geocon.  He grew up in Santa Cruz and attended UC Berkeley graduating in 1964.  Jim married his high school sweetheart Nancy in 1961.  After graduating with a BS in civil engineering, Jim went to work for Bowman & Williams (a general civil engineering firm) and started working as a Geotechnical Engineer from 1968 to 1971 for Gribaldo & Jones in Mountain View, California.  Earth Systems, a holding company that included Gribaldo & Jones, opened Geocon in 1971 in San Diego with Jim as the office manager.

By this time, Jim and Nancy had two young boys – Steve is now a Senior VP for Whiting Turner’s office in San Diego and his brother David has managed ski resorts (Kirkwood and Mammoth) and now is COO of a real estate firm catering to skiing, surfing type clients.

During an economic slowdown in the early 1970’s, Earth Systems decided to shutter some of their smaller operations including the San Diego office.  Jim and Nancy took a second mortgage on their home, bought Geocon and embarked on the roller coaster that is owning a geotechnical engineering company in 1974.

Jim, Tom Langpap and several other partners along the way, grew Geocon from a small handful of engineers, geologist and soil techs into one of the premier geotechnical and environmental firms in California.

Jim was the president of Calgeo in 1982-1983.  By the time he retired in 2000, Geocon was a $15,000,000 company with offices in San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Murrieta, Portland and Livermore.  Jim retired in 2000 and has been an avid golfer, wine lover and engaged grandfather since.