Endi Zhai is a cheerful, charismatic geotechnical engineer who can charm people into doing what he asks. For example, he persuaded top-level transportation officials, mayors, city councils, and some 200 engineers and contractors from several countries to attend the International Chinese Transportation Professionals Association conference, which was held in Los Angeles in May.

Zhai, vice president for transportation technology in the Irvine, Calif., office of Kleinfelder West Inc., and his ICTPA board members recently transformed the 20-year-old regional social networking organization into a technical association that conducts conferences throughout North American and Asia that examine local and global engineering issues.