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ON THE MOVE WESTWOOD ZEROS IN ON STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS WITH NEW C-SUITE As Westwood Professional Services prepares to achieve its next plateau, the national, award-winning architecture and engineering firm keys in on strategy and operations. Westwood recently announced it has established two new positions within its executive leadership team. On April 5, 2021 Aaron Tippie, PE, transitioned from his role leading the firm’s Power Division to chief strategy officer. Bryan Powell, PE, transitioned from his role leading the firm’s Land Division to chief operations officer. The Power and Land Divisions are now led by Dan Beckmann, PE, and Rob Copouls, PE, respectively. CEO, Paul Greenhagen, and his team at Westwood have grown the firm’s revenues seven-fold during Greenhagen’s 10-year tenure, and they show no signs of letting up. “The enhancements we made to our business and organizational structure over the past decade were vital to our success,” Greenhagen says. “We strengthened our leadership, affirmed our core values, and our team became aligned with our vision. All of which has prepared us for continued growth. We are excited to enter this next phase for Westwood with strategy and operations at the forefront.” As CSO, Tippie will be responsible for identifying and developing strategic initiatives, leading a comprehensive strategic planning process, and pursuing acquisitions and new business opportunities throughout the organization. Tippie’s work will be instrumental in helping the firm achieve greater strategic alignment across business units in the coming years. Tippie joinedWestwood in 2005. In his previous role as senior vice president overseeing the Power Division, his work was instrumental in
growing Westwood’s presence in the power industry. Under Tippie’s leadership, Westwood evolved from supporting wind energy with surveying services to serving wind, solar, and power delivery markets with a full range of solutions, supporting clients and their projects nationwide. He has led the expansion of Westwood’s Power Division to more than 400 team members. Tippie looks forward to his strategy role and believes growth is imperative to support clients and ongoing business success. He says, “Being future-oriented, pushing the boundaries of our own thinking, and finding better ways to respond to the changing world; I can’t wait to get started!” In his new role as COO, Powell will be responsible for the company’s operations and serving as an advocate for our divisions, corporate service teams, and other business units. This includes leading the acquisition integration process, oversight of the day- to-day administrative and operational functions of the company, and execution of Westwood’s business operations and strategic plans. Prior to his role as COO, Powell served as senior vice president leading Westwood’s Land Division. During that tenure, the division experienced a fivefold increase in revenue growth, added a new market (public infrastructure), successfully integrated nine acquisitions, expanded our geographic presence to four new office locations, and added multiple new service offerings. Powell says, “Our industry is constantly changing, which requires operational flexibility and scalability. At the same time, we have to maintain consistency and high performance within our organization so we can respond quickly for our clients. Westwood’s fresh
concentration on operations will empower us to achieve greater success as a business, employer, and consultant as we add new divisions and other business units as part of our growth strategy.” Over the past 10 years, Westwood has expanded across the country while continuing to invest in maintaining and building a strong culture, attracting and retaining top talent, and providing a great workplace. All, which are the ingredients for delivering the best results to its clients. “We have so much opportunity moving forward, and we will advance as one very strong team. Better people. Better results.” says Greenhagen. Westwood is a multi-disciplined national surveying and engineering services provider for wind energy, solar energy, electric transmission, private development, and public infrastructure projects. As a full-service firm, Westwood’s clients are able to easily tap into the extra knowledge it sometimes takes to keep projects moving forward. Westwood’s multi-disciplinary services frequently provide all that is needed in one consultant. Westwood was established in 1972 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has grown to serve clients across the nation from multiple U.S. offices. View more Westwood facts. In 2020, Westwood placed No. 4 and No. 9 respectively on Zweig Group’s national Hot Firms’ and Best Firms to Work for Lists. Westwood also ranked consistently higher three years in a row on the Engineering News Record list as a leading design firm in the country. The firm consistently ranks on industry top 25 lists and receives recognition for its involvement on award-winning projects nationwide.
to our vision, purpose, and core values. We complete these in-house. TZL: They say failure is a great teacher. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve had to learn the hard way? RM: Not emphasizing project management enough. Effective project management is the difference between a successful project and an unsuccessful one. “We are very thorough in our evaluation of future principals. That’s most important. A low-performing principal or department head who is negatively impacting culture would need to be coached up or out, relatively quickly.”
MANAGING CHANGE, from page 7
performing, entitled principal or department head have on firm morale? RM: Through feedback and goal setting. We are very thorough in our evaluation of future principals. That’s most important. A low-performing principal or department head who is negatively impacting culture would need to be coached up or out, relatively quickly. TZL: How often do you valuate your firm and what key metrics do you use in the process? Do you valuate using in-house staff or is it outsourced? RM: We conduct customer surveys once per year and employee engagement twice per year. Reviews and professional development planning are completed once per year. The behaviors and KPIs for performance are tied
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THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 3, 2021, ISSUE 1390
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