Built from the ground up.

Jon Ellingson's path to Summit Excavation & Remediation didn't begin with the idea of owning an excavation and remediation company. It began with a fascination with the ground beneath our feet, a willingness to work hard, and a belief that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

He started his career in geology at the University of North Dakota, where he earned a BS and an MS in Geology. His education went well beyond the classroom. He spent those early years in laboratories, on drilling projects, mapping sand and gravel resources, teaching students, and doing fieldwork, learning firsthand how geology, construction, natural resources, and the environment come together in the real world.

Over the next three decades, that foundation took him places he never imagined. He worked in government, consulting, mining and mineral resources, geotechnical engineering, environmental remediation, construction materials, and oil and gas. At its annual peak, his work included managing more than 350 projects a year for 135 clients across 48 states and 32 countries. Every position brought more responsibility, and another chance to learn.

Along the way he learned how to build teams, develop people, manage budgets, solve difficult technical problems, open offices, develop new markets, earn clients' trust, and turn opportunities into successful projects. Most importantly, he learned that leadership isn't about a title. It's about taking responsibility for your people, your clients, your decisions, and the quality of the work you leave behind.

North Dakota brought many parts of his career together. He became deeply involved in investigating, remediating, and reclaiming sites affected by oilfield development, particularly brine and petroleum impacts. Those projects were never just technical exercises. They involved landowners, agricultural land, natural resources, businesses, regulators, and communities. Success meant more than finishing the job. It meant restoring land so it could serve a productive purpose again.

That experience changed how he saw the industry. He saw an opportunity to bring science, excavation, environmental remediation, reclamation, and practical field experience together under one company, one that could understand a problem from the ground down, then put the right people and equipment in the field to solve it. That vision became Summit Excavation & Remediation.

Summit is the culmination of everything he has learned. The goal isn't simply moving dirt or checking boxes. It's to understand the problem, develop the right solution, carry it out safely and efficiently, and leave the site better than the crew found it. Whether Summit is excavating, investigating a site, remediating contaminated soil, reclaiming land, exploring for aggregate, or restoring property, the principle is the same: do the job right and take pride in the result.

His career has taken him from a geology student studying rocks and sediments to scientist, instructor, project manager, office manager, consultant, researcher, business developer, and now co-owner and CEO. Every job, project, success, and setback added something to the journey. Today, Summit gives him the chance to put those lessons to work while building something for the future: a company where good people can build careers, clients can depend on its word, and the quality of the work speaks for itself.

Outside of Summit, Jon's first priority is his family. He and his wife, a nurse, are raising seven children, and the family has moved back to the farm in central North Dakota. Away from work, Jon enjoys time with his family, travel, hiking, and just about anything that gets him outdoors.

“For me, reaching the Summit isn't the end of the journey. It's a chance to see how far we've come, and how much farther we can go.”