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P R O F I L E
Good choice: Matt Hoying (part 1) President, Choice One Engineering Corp. (Best Firm Civil #2 for 2018), a 45-person firm based in Dayton, Ohio.
By RICHARD MASSEY Managing Editor
“W e had been planning for our transition for seven years, and though it came sooner than we had anticipated, it has been an extremely smooth one,” Hoying says. “Additionally, by opening shares to anyone who has been with the company for more than three years, we have been able to transition the shares being bought back by the company to new owners without a financial toll being taken by the company. The key to the entire transition was to plan for it early so when it came time to move forward, we weren’t stuck with unexpected scenarios.” A CONVERSATION WITH MATT HOYING. The Zweig Letter: How many years of experience – or large enough book of business – is enough to become a principal in your firm? Are you naming principals in their 20s or 30s? Matt Hoying: I am defining principal as a shareholder of the company. To become an owner of Choice One, you need to be a regular (non-seasonal) employee for three full calen- dar years. After three years, we feel that both the employee
and the company have had a chance to understand if we are a fit for each other, and if so, we offer ownership to those employees. Because of this, we have quite a few owners that are in their 20s, with many purchasing shares when they are 25 or 26 years old. If by “principal” you mean a position of leadership in the company, we are an entire company of leaders who think, act, and feel like owners. The leadership in the company is determined by how much responsibility the employee is willing to take on and willingness to contin- uously learn and improve. If that is the definition of “prin- cipal,” then we have an entire company of principals, half of which are in their 20s or 30s. TZL: Do you tie compensation to performance for your top leaders? MH: Everyone at Choice One is compensated in the exact same way. We have our base salaries, and then a bonus program that is based on the performance of the company, which is calculated in the same way regardless of position in the company.
THE ZWEIG LETTER Janu
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