Joseph T. Ridge
Joe is an economist with 37 years of extensive experience in assessing the fiscal and economic impacts of capital projects on municipal governments and authorities. He has assisted clients in assessing and implementing programs to improve competitiveness and in determining the financial feasibility and economic impact of proposed projects. Joe has developed financing plans, assessed financial capability, and conducted financial feasibility and marketing analyses for more than 50 projects. Most recently, when he hasn’t been fly fishing, he has been involved in a number of CDM Smith’s major asset management projects, serving in the role of project manager, technical director or reviewer.
What inspires you? Working with staff and project teams that are really good at what they do and provide that to clients and other staff.
Which one of CDM Smith’s core values do you identify with most and why? Shared commitment—within our project teams and our clients. The success of CDM and of our clients is driven by everyone doing their part and following through. I think our most successful projects are when clients are fully committed and deliver on their side.
What does “listen. think. deliver.” mean to you? One of the most important things we can and need to do is to listen to our clients and help them isolate their problems. Frequently, they know there is an issue and we need to help them really focus on that problem before we create a solution.
What are your 3 non-work passions? Fly Fishing, soccer and spending time with family.


A trusting relationship with clients enables us to develop targeted and innovative solutions to meet their requirements.

