Engineering Influence from ACEC

Mergers and Acquisitions activity in the engineering industry is at an all-time high, and Jon Escobar of Morrissey Goodale came onto the program to delve into the trends and causes and to offer his thoughts on what the future holds.

In September, Willis A&E completed a survey of claims managers from 12 A&E professional liability carriers on the emerging risks and claims trends in the design profession.

Dan Buelow, managing director of Willis A&E’s Architects & Engineers Division, joined the program to share some results from the survey and discuss what they mean for individual engineering firms.

PSMJ's David Burstein joined the program to break down the results of the firm's latest quarterly market trend survey for the A/E industry. In addition to discussing overall market performance and that of the specific market sectors, we delve into the impact of the labor shortage and what firms can expect in the coming few years.

Click here to view the slides from Burstein's recent presentation on the market trend survey results at the 2021 ACEC Fall Conference.

Click here to sign up to participate in the next quarterly survey. All participants receive the survey results for free.

We spoke with Terry Neimeyer about the ACEC Retirement Trust's new offering; the Student Debt Solution.  If a participating firm employee uses 2% or more of their salary to pay off student loans, an employer can match that amount as a contribution into a 401(K).  This allows the employee to get started towards retirement savings while still allowing them to repay their debt.  The Student Debt Solution is the only structure that allows employer assistance with student debt repayment on a pre-tax basis.  This is a great way for a firm to attract and retain talent in a competitive marketplace.  You can learn more at https://acecrt.com/student-debt-solution/

Alan Crockett was joined by ACEC Young Professional of the Year Molly Dee Ramasamy from Jaros, Baum & Bolles, New York, NY.

As head of deep carbon reduction at JB&B, Molly initiated a process of assessing how clients’ buildings could conform to such a regulation.  She has successfully led and completed more than a dozen complex building decarbonization and building electrification studies for large commercial, institutional, and cultural buildings.

Alan Crockett sat down with Victoria Ballestero, PE, MBA with ATCS in Largo, MD, who was honored as an ACEC Young Professional of the year during the awards program at the 2021 ACEC Fall Conference in Marco Island, FL. 

Victoria is recognized for launching her firm’s Prince George’s County, MD office and leading a team of professional engineers, planners, and land surveyors. Besides managing growth of the office, she is responsible for technical design leadership and project management.

Chris Harman, the new National Director for Digital Delivery and Innovation in Transportation at WSP USA, came on the program to share what one of the nation's largest engineering firms is doing in these two key areas.

It's an in-depth conversation, looking at how digital delivery is changing the face of engineering and what firms can expect in this fast-moving technology over the coming months and years.

Chris Grindler stayed on the microphone after our conversation with Fall Conference Keynote presenter Mitch Joel came on the show to discuss digital marketing for engineering firms and what ACEC is doing to improve its marketing programs.  This was recorded live at the 2021 ACEC Fall Conference in Marco Island, Florida.

We sat down with Keith London, the 2021 ACEC Chair Emeritus Award honoree to discuss his style of leadership and his contribution to the engineering industry and ACEC.