ABOUT US
Houston Engineering at Its Finest
PGA Engineers: Consulting, Design, Engineering and Project Management
PGA Engineers, Inc. was established in early 2010 by a partnership between Mrs. Raini Payne and Mr. John Gruenwald. As classmates, Raini and John both obtained their bachelors degree in electrical engineering right here from the University of Houston. After college, they both worked at various consulting, engineering and telecommunications firms before they finally decided that it was the right “time to start our own dream”. Raini and John, along with their associates, bring a wealth of expert and industry leading knowledge to the fields of electrical engineering, information technology, security, and telecommunications.
PGA holds the following licenses/certifications:
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Texas Board of Professional Engineers: Professional Engineering Firm
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Texas Department of Public Safety: Security Consulting Company, Class B
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State of Texas: Historically Underutilized Business (HUB)
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City of Dallas: Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE)
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City of Houston: Women Business Enterprise (WBE), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
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City of Austin: Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE)
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City of San Antonio: Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE)
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Port of Houston: Small Business Enterprise (SBE)
Memberships:
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Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE)
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National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
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American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS)
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Building Information Consulting Services International (BICSI)
PGA Mission Statement:
We value knowledge, experience, ethics, honesty, integrity, motivation, innovation and creativity. Our mission is to bring people, technology, and operations together to create unique and innovative solutions in a rapidly changing global arena.
The Foundation and the Leadership of PGA Engineers, Inc.
Raini Payne
PE, PSP
Raini Payne is the president and co-founder of PGA Engineers, Inc. Mrs. Payne has over 15 years of experience in the electrical and security industries and has worked on many award-winning projects throughout her career. Raini prides herself on having exceptional project management skills, key to envisioning and delivering on client materials. She is an excellent researcher, ensuring that every design is functional, constructible and within budget. She is a member of the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS), the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Mrs. Payne is a professional engineer (PE), licensed in the state of Texas and Louisiana and is certified by ASIS as a physical security professional (PSP).
Raini specializes in the consulting and engineering of electrical and security systems. She has extensive experience in security and electrical distribution assessment, planning, engineering, design, project management and construction management. Some of the high-profile clients that Mrs. Payne has had the pleasure to be involved with over her career are the Port of Houston Authority, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Houston Airport System (HAS), Continental Airlines, George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, the University of Southern California (USC), Baylor College of Medicine, the Majestic Wind Farm and the Alley Theater.
Mrs. Payne was born in Indonesia and immigrated to the United States to pursue her goal of higher education and she graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering in 1998. While at school, Raini’s competitive spirit drove her to become a nationally ranked badminton champion. She has worked hard to instill this sense of fair competition in every facet of her life.
As a devoted mom, Mrs. Payne strives to instill in her children the same values that have contributed to her success over the years.
Raini’s competitiveness and commitment to giving an equal opportunity to all has become the lifeblood of PGA and the driving force behind gaining some of our most high-profile projects.
John Gruenwald
P.E, RCDD
John Gruenwald is the vice president and co-founder of PGA Engineers, Inc. Mr. Gruenwald manages the engineering staff and regularly contributes to projects as a senior project engineer and project manager. John is a consulting engineer with extensive experience in electrical engineering, information technology, security, and telecommunications and has worked on many projects in transportation (airports, sea ports, and public transportation), critical infrastructure (bridges, power plants, chemical plants, and water treatment plants), oil and gas (off-shore platforms, refineries, and LNG plants), and municipalities (city/county buildings, courthouses, and operations centers). Mr. Gruenwald is a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the state of Texas and Louisiana, a BICSI registered communications distribution designer (RCDD), certified by the Telecommunications Project Management Institute as a telecommunications project manager (TPM), and earned a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering (BSEE) from the University of Houston.
John is known and respected throughout the industry for his ability to optimize system performance, minimize downtime and reduce maintenance costs with an emphasis on designing integrated systems. As a consultant, John has written many white papers addressing problems in the telecommunications industry and regularly provides advice on system architecture strategy and high-level planning. John is a naturally inquisitive person and prides himself on being a highly analytical problem solver; in short, John was born to be an engineer. His time spent serving his country as a member of the United States Army helped cultivate in John a deep sense of discipline, camaraderie and a desire to give back to his community that he has carried over into every facet of his life. John’s mental fortitude and commitment to integrity is what keeps PGA moving ahead when the going gets tough and we are being called upon to pull off the impossible for our clients.
John is a proud family man with an intense love of sports and recreational activities: from hunting with his buddies, to playing soccer with his son, to DJing with his daughter, to cruising on his Harley-Davidson, John likes to stay active. A self-described “Cheesehead” and Wisconsin native, John is a diehard Green Bay Packers fan, although he considers the Houston Texans his favorite team (in the AFC). John is also an intense soccer fan who attends live or watches from home every Houston Dynamo or United States National Team game he can.
If your organization needs this level of expertise, we encourage you to contact us. Let’s build a winning relationship.