Engineering Influence from ACEC

We were honored to welcome Congressman John Katko to the program to discuss his work on infrastructure and his vote to approve the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in the House.

ACEC released our latest monthly video economic update. Each month, ACEC Vice President of Private Market Resources Erin McLaughlin analyzes the latest public industry data and provides insights for the engineering and design industry,

Here are the toplines from this month’s update:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) could add $132 billion and 82,000 jobs to the engineering and design sector, according to newly released estimates from the ACEC Research Institute and Rockport Analytics.

Total design and construction is up 7.5% from January through October 2021 over the same time-frame last year, per U.S. Census Bureau. That category remains driven by private residential spending which is up more than 24% over last year.

The economic growth outlook was downgraded in the latest National Association for Business Economics (NABE) survey. Respondents still expect economic growth and an increase in GDP, but point to inflation and vaccination challenges as obstacles. 

Supply of goods is expected to normalize in the first half of 2022, a majority of NABE respondents say. As engineers design for additional building for IIJA projects, this is especially important for construction materials in our industry.

Inflation won’t come down to 2% until the second half of 2023, NABE survey respondents predict. Two percent is the Federal Reserve’s stated goal, and respondents name supply chain bottle necks as the largest factor expected to keep inflation above that mark through the first half of 2022. Looking longer term, respondents said rising wages was the biggest factor over the next three years to keeping inflation above 2%. Wage pressure is one of the key challenges of the current engineering and design industry specifically.

The video series is one of ACEC’s resources for media and members, which also includes ACEC’s popular Private Industry Briefs. The briefs provide analysis on five key markets: Commercial and Real Estate; Intermodal and Logistics; Energy and Utilities; Health Care and Science+Technology; and  K-12 & Higher Education.

In March, the ACEC Private Market Resources team will hold a symposium on the commercial and residential real estate market in Scottsdale, Ariz.

We were pleased to welcome Carey Smith, the President and CEO of Parsons Corporation onto the program for a conversation about leadership, diversity in the engineering industry and what Parsons is doing to help Build Back Smarter with the newly passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  We were equally pleased to welcome our own CEO, Linda Bauer Darr to host the interview - chief executive to chief executive.  

Transcript:

Host:

Welcome to Engineering Influence, a podcast from the American Council of Engineering Companies. ACEC's strength lies in its member firms and the diverse set of markets those firms operate in to serve the interests of their public and private sector clients. And it's always great to have the opportunity to bring on one of those firms to spotlight their work and really look at what they are doing to improve their communities and the world around them. And I'm pleased to bring one of those shows to you today.

Host:

I am pleased to welcome to the program Carey Smith, the President and CEO of Parsons. Parsons is a leading provider of technology-driven solutions, focused on the defense, intelligence and critical infrastructure markets. And they've been in operation for more than 75 years. Parsons provides technical design and engineering services and software products to address their customers' challenges, and they have capabilities in cyber security, intelligence, missile, space, connected communities, physical infrastructure, and mobility solutions.

Host:

Now Carey Smith joined Parsons in 2016 as President of the Federal Solutions business. She was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2018 and President and Chief Operating Officer in 2019. She was unanimously elected Chief Executive Officer of Parsons Corporation by the board of directors and appointed to the position in July, 2021. Now, prior to joining Parsons, Carey held a series of progressive leadership roles within the defense and aerospace industry. She holds an MS in electrical engineering from Syracuse University and a BS in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University. In 2018, she received an honorary doctorate from Ohio Northern University for her outstanding contributions to the university and the field of engineering.

Host:

Now, interviewing a chief executive, sometimes it's best for me to take a step back and to allow a chief executive to interview a chief executive. So I'm also pleased to welcome our President and CEO Linda Bauer Darr to move us forward and take the mic. Linda, the floor is yours.

Linda Bauer Darr:

Great. Thank you, Jeff. I'm happy to be back on the podcast. I need to do this more often. You're doing a great job. So kudos to you, Jeff. Carey, we are so excited to have you in our offices. I think this is the second time in the short amount of time that you've been on board as the CEO of Parsons. It's been since July, I think now, right?

Carey Smith:

That's correct.

Linda Bauer Darr:

That you came on board and, it's a pleasure to be working with you. We're excited to have you here. So you're a CEO now - how did that come about? You know, you're an engineer, you're a CEO. What brought you into engineering? And, and tell me a little bit about how you made it all the way up to the top ranks of such a, such a significant company as Parsons.

Carey Smith:

Sure. Well, thanks first, Jeff and Linda, I'm pleased to be here and I appreciate you hosting me today. I'll start off. My dad kind of got me into engineering when I was really young. We had, I have one brother, one sister, he wanted all three of us to be engineers and one of us decided to be an engineer. So I went into engineering and one of my first experiences was working as an intern at LTB Steel in downtown Cleveland, really got hooked on the industry. Then when I graduated college start off, uh, with IBM, which subsequently became Lockheed Martin through acquisitions and had some great experiences. One of 'em I would highlight was being one of the

Engineers are often stereotyped as being introverts. Working on a design project, this can be a strength, but when it comes to business development--which is often critical to moving up in the firm--they may struggle.

Monica Parkin, author of Overcoming Awkward, came on the program to talk about how introverted people can change their approach to social situations--both on the job and in their community.

A successful businessperson and speaker, Parkin offers a step-by-step process by which people can overcome their innate shyness and improve their business development skills. 

Click here to view the book.

Congressman Don Bacon (NE-2) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1) joined the program for a discussion about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and their votes that helped pass a generational investment in the built environment.  

Transcript:

ACEC: 

Welcome to the Engineering Influence podcast from the American Council of Engineering Companies. Today, I am very pleased to be bringing you two members of Congress who were instrumental in helping get the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act across the finish line. Congressman Don Bacon, representing Nebraska's Second Congressional District, and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, representing Pennsylvania's First Congressional District, join us today on the show. As a matter of introduction, Congressman Bacon was elected in 2016 and represents Nebraska's second congressional District. Now prior to serving in the House,, Congressman Bacon served as an officer in the Air Force, specializing in electronic warfare intelligence and reconnaissance. He served 16 assignments with the Air Force, including four deployments in the Middle East, including Operation Iraqi Freedom. He retired with the rank of Brigadier General and currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Agricultural Committee. 

ACEC: 

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick represents Pennsylvania's First Congressional District. Prior to his election, he served as both an FBI special agent and as a federal prosecutor fighting both domestic and international political corruption and supporting global counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence efforts, including being embedded with U.S. Special Forces as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the 117th Congress, Brian was elected co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, having previously served as the vice-chair. He is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment, and Cyber, and was appointed by House Leadership to currently serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and as a Commissioner on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Additionally, Congressman Fitzpatrick serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a committee near and dear to our hearts. Thank you both for joining us today. 

ACEC: 

I'd like to start off, with Congressman Bacon first, and then Congressman Fitzpatrick. For our audience, who may not be well acquainted with Nebraska or Pennsylvania, can you tell us a little bit about your districts? 

Congressman Bacon: 

My district is Omaha and the south suburbs, so we have about 700,000 in about a county and a half, but it's really Omaha suburbs. In the next cycle, with redistricting, I gain another county. It's an urban/suburban community. It's one of the most purple districts in the country, officially R plus one. It's a railroad junction and an interstate junction, so it's very infrastructure intensive. 

ACEC: 

And Congressman Fitzpatrick. I have to admit full transparency. I am from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, so I am Bucks County all the way. Of course I remember it fondly as the Eighth Congressional District, but tell us a little bit about the First. 

Congressman Fitzpatrick: 

I didn't know you were from Doylestown, but I knew you're familiar with the area. So, the First District is the Philly suburbs. It's all Bucks County, which is the county just to the north of the city line of Philadelphia. The southern part of my district borders the city line of Philadelphia. The entire east side of my district borders, the river, crossing over into New Jersey. And then about 12 percent of my district is the adjacent county to the west Montgomery County. So I have sort of the central part, that's adjacent to Bucks County. Lke Don, we have about 740,000 constituents or so,. We're actually losing a district in Pennsylvania, going to 18 to 17, so my district will grow by about another 4

Registration is now open for the 7th session of Project Management 101 - the popular course focused on giving registrants the knowledge and tools necessary for successful project management at any level of their career.

To help announce the new session of the course, we're revisiting a conversation from August 2020 where we spoke with course instructor Howard Birnberg who discussed the new structure for the course and why it's important for engineering firm leaders at all levels.

Learn more and register for the course here: https://program.acec.org/pm101

Ryan Suydam,  the founder and Chief Experience Officer at Client Savvy, joined us on the program. Client Savvy works with professional services firms to understand how they are performing when it comes to their client expectations.

Click here to receive Client Savvy's One-Year Client Experience Plan.

Click here for information about the Client Experience online community and annual conference.

Click here for more information about Client Savvy.

Barritt Lovelace, Director of UAS/AI/Reality Modeling at Collins Engineers in St. Paul, MN, came on the program to talk about how his firm used drones, digital twins, and holograms to streamline its recent Stone Arch Bridge Rehabilitation project in Minneapolis.

Bentley Systems recognized the firm's achievements in its 2021 Going Digital in Infrastructure Awards, which honored projects from around the world that are pushing the envelope on digital solutions.

Hot off the heels of ACEC's first Private Market Symposium on Intermodal and Logistics, Erin McLaughlin joined the program to delve into the newly released Private Industry Brief on that market.  Download your copy here: https://www.acec.org/publications/private-market-resources/

Labor shortage issues are big news, both on the national stage and within the design services industry. For design firms, these shortages are largely due to long-term declines in the number of STEM students as well as the need to attract a more diverse workforce.

In this episode, we dove a little deeper into the situation for firms in a key segment in the design services industry—surveying. Surveyors perform the initial fieldwork on civil engineering projects and they face some particular workforce constraints related to state licensing and other issues.

To talk about these issues, Joe Romano joined us on the program. Joe is a principal and Director of Surveying and Mapping at Langan, which is a 1,500-person consulting firm with offices worldwide. He is also the Chair of ACEC’s Coalition of Professional Surveyors (COPS).