"Leader has been around 17 years. We were founded it in 1995; my partner in Buffalo Jeff Wittlinger and I founded the business in 1995, and we've been going strong ever since and our business is growing,” said Michael P. Rumrill, president and co-founder of Leader Professional Services, Inc.

Rumrill says his people are his competitive advantage.

“This guy here is Peter von Schondorf. Pete's a senior project manager and a senior geologist,” he said, showing us around.

Mary Ellen Holvey is the senior industrial hygienist overseeing the LeRoy project.

"I think it's the depth of our knowledge and our experience and our responsiveness,” said Holvey.

The Pittsford-based business employs about 20 people and has offices in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"They're the jobs that graduates of schools like RIT and the University of Rochester are looking for,” Rumrill said.

Rumrill says his scientists and engineers design environmental investigations, interpret results, and are involved in nearly all steps in between.

"What we are is problem solvers and our clients come to us with questions or they have an issue at their property or location and they ask us to solve it,” said Rumrill.

Rumrill says the LeRoy School District is one of more than 100 active clients the professional services company is working with.

He says Leader's projects range in cost from several hundred dollars, to upwards of a million. Those projects can involve air quality testing at local apartment complexes to large industrial remediations involving federal, state and local stakeholders as well as multiple contractors.

We asked if Leader had ever gone into a situation where people were really sick because contamination was high.

"We've looked at mold investigations where people are suffering some allergic reactions or didn't feel well, but nothing on the environmental contamination side and we've worked on some very big cases,” Rumrill said.

One example is a site in Mendon, uncovered by a construction crew in 2005.

When your business is environmental science, Rumrill says there are no absolutes, but he says Leader can guarantee clients a thorough review and analysis of whatever is causing them issues, from some of the most knowledgeable people in the field.