Robert Laakso
Inducted into Academy 2006

Bob is currently the Owner and President of a company called Shaft and Tunnel Engineering Services, operating out of Holland Landing, Ontario.  In addition to his B.S. in Geological Engineering which he received from MTU in 1964, Bob earned a graduate diploma from the Haileybury School of Mines in Haileybury, Ontario.

After leaving Michigan Tech, Bob worked with a wide variety of projects in a few different companies, including Dravo in Australia and the U.S. and Vice President of Harrison Overseas Construction, headquartered in Toronto, but supervising projects in Brazil and Peru.  Bob has led a number of other projects, but one of the most impressive is driving two tunnels through serpentine in Guatemala in 1982 with a budget of $45 million and 600 men. The safety record for one of his projects, the deepening of a mine, was such that the mine was declared the safest mine in Canada, and they were awarded the Ryan Trophy in 2004.