Founded in April 1989 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, CEC was built upon the value proposition that an employee-owned firm that focused on its clients and employees could provide a noticeably higher level of service than its competitors. CEC’s four founders — Jim Roberts, Jim Nairn, Ken Miller, and Greg Quatchak — believed that the higher level of service would result in more satisfied and loyal clients, and, as a result, overall revenue stability and growth. The founders also believed that the employees would find greater professional satisfaction when delivering a higher level of service.
The conviction to that value proposition led the founders to develop plans to create a new consulting firm. Over the first few months of operation, there was a focus on new client and new project development. CEC’s employee count grew to 25 by the end of 1989. The majority of those new CEC employees had worked previously with the CEC founders and were excited to join CEC because of the potential for career and personal advancement, and the opportunity to be owners of the new firm. By the end of 1989 after just over 8 months of operation, CEC saw gross revenues of $1.2 million.
CEC established its initial four practices during the first year of operations: civil engineering, environmental engineering and sciences, waste management, and water resources. Also, during that first year of operation, CEC’s founders put into place the business principles that continue to guide the firm today. For our clients, those principles included: providing comprehensive integrated services, engaged senior personnel, and personal business relationships with clients. For our employees, the principles included: focusing on employee development and reward, and employee ownership of the firm.
CEC grew quickly during the first five full years of operation. During that period, CEC made two significant investments that started us on our path toward consistent growth and success. In 1992, CEC opened its first office outside of Pittsburgh in Cincinnati, Ohio. The success of the Cincinnati office set the standard for CEC’s ongoing commitment to geographic expansion in support of its growing, geographically diverse client base. In 1994, CEC added its Ecological Practice. The success of the Ecological Practice led to the ongoing expansion of CEC’s service offerings in response to our clients’ needs that continues to present day. At this 35-year milestone, CEC has 35 locations and counting, and has expanded its services to nine practices: Air Quality, Civil Engineering, Cultural Resources, Ecological Sciences, Environmental Engineering and Sciences, Manufacturing Infrastructure Services, Survey/Geospatial, Waste Management, and Water Resources.
While celebrating our past affords us an opportunity to reflect on our hard work and success, as ever-expanding firm, CEC must continually stay focused on the future.
As an organization, we have built our processes and programs around those initial business principles. We continually look forward by preparing for the ongoing growth and evolution of our business. Our focus remains on our clients, their businesses, and our employees. We support innovation within the organization to continuously improve our effectiveness and efficiency – we are always looking for new ways to grow the business to provide new opportunities for our employees and better support our clients. We work hard to maintain our small firm culture and focus on employee care and development as we grow.
Dustin Kuhlman, P.E., who took the reins in 2022 as the firm’s first non-founder Chief Executive Officer, noted that leadership development is an essential part of our professional strategy. “If we share our knowledge and intentionally develop the next generation of leaders, we will be in a better position to grow in a responsible and sustainable fashion. It is essential that we develop great leaders because they will then support the development of others within the organization and further ingrain this focus on employees into our culture. Ideally, the impact is exponential.”
As we look to the future, CEC will remain focused on the fundamental principles and core elements of our culture that have provided such a strong foundation for exceptional client service, growth, innovation, and employee development. We will purposefully evolve our operations as we grow to meet the needs of new markets and the changing needs of the loyal clients, communities, and businesses that depend on us. We look forward to celebrating many more milestones in the years to come.
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