Jason Love has spent a lifetime playing on teams, coaching them, building them, and leading them—on the field, on the sidelines and in the office. From playing with Post 22 and cheering on his daughters in basketball to guiding a global engineering consulting firm, he knows that a strong team isn’t just the key to winning games—it’s the foundation of a thriving business.
Jason’s passion for creating effective teams is the guiding principle in his newest role as president and chief executive officer of RESPEC, a worldwide integrated solutions firm headquartered in Rapid City with a wide range of expertise from water science and engineering to data and internet technology.
For three years, he has been preparing for this moment, guided by the mentorship of former president and CEO Todd Kenner. In 2022, RESPEC’s board of directors proactively separated the two roles to ensure a seamless transition when the time came for Jason to take the helm.
“It was a very intentional process designed to prevent any major disruptions,” Jason said, seated in a conference room within RESPEC’s newly expanded 70,000-square-foot facility. The move marked achieving a strategic goal set in 2018—to establish RESPEC’s fourth generation of leadership by 2025. This deliberate approach reflects the company’s unwavering dedication to stability and long-term vision.
“I have an amazing mentor in Todd. He spent many years bringing me into this position. As I was moving up, there was an opportunity to build a team up underneath me. This role is a big one, but it is a team. You have to have the right team around you,” Jason said.
Jason, a Rapid City native, has been with RESPEC since 2005. Prior to joining the company, he spent nearly a decade working in the San Francisco Bay area.
His story is similar to that of many from the Black Hills area – limited job opportunities led him to seek work elsewhere.
After graduating from Stevens High School, Jason spent a year playing baseball at South Dakota State University before transferring back to his hometown to attend South Dakota Mines. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering with an emphasis in water resources. “I wanted to work on water quality and explore how integrating technology could help address water-related challenges.”
After graduation, Jason packed up and moved to the West Coast with his then-girlfriend, now wife, Sonja – a rival Central Cobbler – whom he met at Mines.
“I went out to San Francisco during the dot-com boom. Google was starting up next door. It was a really cool time to be out there,” he said. “I really loved what I did. I liked the technical aspects of the water quality work that I did around the country.”
Jason and Sonja had their first daughter, Gabbie, who is now a sophomore at the University of South Dakota. Their youngest daughter, Finley, is a high school junior at Jason’s alma mater.
Despite his love for his job, Jason had a desire to return home to the Black Hills. That opportunity arose when fellow Mines Hardrocker, Dan Hoyer, working on his doctorate, contacted Jason for his expertise in water resources. “I started to get to know him, and he connected me with RESPEC.”
RESPEC brought Jason in to launch a water-focused market sector, expanding the company’s long-established portfolio.
Founded in 1969 by a group of South Dakota Mines professors, RESPEC—short for Research Specialists—was created to tackle one of the nation’s most pressing challenges at the time: the disposal and storage of nuclear waste. The founders also aimed to provide Mines graduates with opportunities to build successful careers in engineering and science within South Dakota.
“I longed to come back home and make an impact locally,” Jason said. “I loved the Hills and wanted to use my capabilities to build something here. I was fortunate that RESPEC gave me that opportunity.”
Today, RESPEC operates across seven market sectors, ranging from mining and water to infrastructure and technology. Since 2005, the company has expanded from 90 employees in two offices to a team of 650 across 30 locations—and it continues to grow.
The goal for 2030: double that number and be a recognized North American company.
Jason believes they are already well on the way to achieving that vision.
“Our larger purpose really revolves around enriching lives – for the communities we live in, the clients we serve and for our employees,” he said. “Through that, we create new opportunities. When we grow, we gain new expertise, new geography and new cool projects our people can work on.”
That creates longevity and a workplace culture that keeps RESPEC at the top of its game.
“One of the things I love about RESPEC, and our employees do, is we are 100 percent employee-owned, and no one owns more than 5 percent, so when we make decisions, it is for the whole company,” Jason said. “That’s kind of what I think really allows us to have the mindset of building a legacy.”
That legacy is also deeply rooted in its partnership with South Dakota Mines, which has long provided a strong pipeline of talent. It is a partnership that is the foundation of RESPEC. As CEO and president, Jason remains committed to fostering that talent and continuing to invest in the next generation of engineers and scientists.
“It truly became my passion to build something that provides opportunities for people to stay in the region, have good paying jobs and do cool work around the world,” he said. “That is building upon our vision.”
As a 20-year veteran of RESPEC, Jason has been instrumental in the company’s continued success, although he credits the leaders before him and the 649 other players on the team. “I have been fortunate that the ones before me have built something that is better than when they came, and I want to leave that same legacy.”
When he isn’t strategizing his next play at RESPEC, Jason is on the road with Sonja cheering on Finley at basketball games or visiting Gabbie at school.
He’s building a legacy that goes beyond business.
This story was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Elevate Magazine.
