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ON THE MOVE MICHAEL BAKER INTERNATIONAL CEO BRIAN A. LUTES APPOINTED TO LEADERSHIP PITTSBURGH INC.’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Baker International , a global leader in engineering, planning, and consulting services, announced that Brian Lutes, the firm’s president and CEO, has been appointed to a three- year term on the board of directors for Leadership Pittsburgh Inc., the region’s foremost multi- disciplinary leadership identification, enrichment, and networking organization. Lutes and his fellow board members will provide strategic guidance to the organization to further enhance its presence in the Pittsburgh region. Lutes is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh Class of XXXII. “I am proud to join the board of directors of an organization dedicated to building a community of leaders and arming them with the knowledge and networks to make our region a better place to live and work,” said Lutes. “As a graduate of the program, I have experienced first-hand Leadership Pittsburgh’s impressive curriculum that helps develop the leaders of our city. I look forward to contributing to this important initiative.” Lutes was appointed president and CEO of Michael Baker in January 2017. Prior to this role, he served as the firm’s COO after joining the company as the CFO in 2014. Lutes has held several executive positions throughout his career, including CFO at Sypris Solutions, Inc.; CFO and vice chairman at MAG – Industrial Automation Systems; CFO at The Wornick Company; and senior vice president – human resources at Fifth Third Bancorp.

about it? Generating interest in this industry’s remarkable work is a step we must take if we want to elevate beyond the confines of our firms and into the mainstream. “Growth demonstrates that AEC firms are helping to improve peoples’ lives by giving them more opportunities for great jobs. This is incredibly important and is something we should be sharing with the rest of the world.” As the awards manager at Zweig Group, my role is to help firms brand themselves as a great place to work with great projects and people. That’s difficult to do, however, when we as an industry aren’t ready to promote, celebrate, and present ourselves like we should. KYLE AHERN is the awards manager at Zweig Group. Contact him at kahern@zweiggroup.com. Lutes holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut School of Business and a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Louisville J.B. Speed School of Engineering. He is also a graduate of GE’s Manufacturing Leadership Curriculum and Corporate Audit Staff. “We are excited to welcome someone with the record of success and breadth of experience that Lutes brings to our board of directors,” said Aradhna Malhotra Oliphant, LPI’s president and CEO. “Our board members bring diverse experience and expertise that builds on the immense strengths of our organization to ensure that LPI remains at the forefront of leadership development.” Founded 35 years ago, LPI is an independent nonprofit organization with a network of nearly 2,500 graduates. It is recognized as the premier resource for community leadership in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Michael Baker International is a leading provider of engineeringandconsultingservices, includingdesign, planning, architectural, environmental, construction, and program management. The company provides its comprehensive range of services and solutions to support U.S. federal, state, and municipal governments, foreign allied governments, and a wide range of commercial clients. Michael Baker’s more than 3,000 employees across nearly 100 locations are committed to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technological advancement to help solve challenges for clients and communities throughout the country.

Zweig Group’s 2018 Marketing Survey of AEC Firms is a benchmarking and advisory guide to industry firm marketing activities, budgets, marketing department organization, staffing levels, compensation, and investments in marketing systems and infrastructure. The topics covered in this comprehensive report are: ❚ ❚ Marketing staff. Data on marketing departments at firms of different sizes/ types, along with experience, education, compensation, and expectations and sales goals for various marketing related job roles. ❚ ❚ Proposals and sales. A full breakdown of proposal actives and hit rates by firm type, size, location, and other factors. ❚ ❚ Marketing systems. Data on the prevalence of various marketing systems and data relating to their use. ❚ ❚ Promotion. See what most firms in the industry are doing to promote themselves, along with a full report on statistics of what is working and what is not working. ❚ ❚ Marketing expenditures. Data on marketing related expenses including actual figures from the previous year and budgeting for the future. ❚ ❚ Strategies. Data on the use and effectiveness of a variety of marketing approaches. ❚ ❚ Challenges. Data on what respondents feel have been marketing challenges and victories for their firms over the past year. Visit bit.ly/2M1e88a to learn more.

KYLE AHERN, from page 3

While we need to acknowledge the talent and accomplishments of individuals and teams, we also have to celebrate the industry’s overall growth. Revenue and employee counts are on the rise, and we should be quick to let people know. Growth demonstrates that AEC firms are helping to improve peoples’ lives by giving them more opportunities for great jobs. This is incredibly important and is something we should be sharing with the rest of the world. A lot of this boils down to marketing and how we are not effectively doing it for ourselves. Historically, the AEC industry has underinvested in marketing, and by a large degree. Marketing is seen as overhead rather than an investment, a fact that’s amply born out in Zweig Group’s 2018 Marketing Survey . Twenty-three percent of firms don’t send out a single press release. Forty-four percent don’t even publish newsletters. How is anyone – including engineers, architects, and consultants – supposed to know about our success if we are not saying anything

THE ZWEIG LETTER October 15, 2018, ISSUE 1268

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