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ON THE MOVE LJA ENGINEERING HOUSTON LAND DEVELOPMENT HAS PROMOTED THREE TO SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT LJA Engineering Houston Land Development division is making exciting changes. Growing the firm’s success across Texas for its clients and for its 750 employee-owners, these leaders have demonstrated true dedication to delivering unique hands-on solutions for today’s needs and the future’s ever-changing challenges. LJA’s ability to provide engineering excellence and broad-based expertise and resources with personalized attention and responsiveness is possible because of the solid foundation, reputation, and commitment of our senior leadership. Alan McKee is being promoted to senior vice president of the Houston Land Development division. McKee’s increased role will include leading Houston Land’s business development and client relationship program while utilizing and expanding the DiscoveryTM process. He will work with LJA’s GIS team to provide this powerful investigative system and other needed services to LJA’s clients. Throughout his 30-year career in land development and active involvement in public policy, McKee has built a wealth of knowledge and intuitive skills that are a natural fit to enhance LJA’s already established and comprehensive DiscoveryTM process. James Brown is being promoted to senior vice president of the Houston Land Development division. In his increased role, Brown will assume leadership and management responsibilities for LJA’s Katy office. He has provided engineering leadership at LJA for more than 25 years on major land development projects, large master

planned communities, Municipal Utility Districts, and subdivisions in and around the greater Houston area. He has a long-term dedication to clients, employees, and issues crucial to the stability and growth of communities in the region. James Ross is being promoted to senior vice president of the Houston Land Development division. James is currently beginning the transition process to become division manager of Houston Land Development. Upon completion of the process in 2019, Ross will manage 15 separate specialty teams and services including civil design, hydrology and hydraulics, planning, residential platting, site development, landscape architecture, water/ wastewater, and construction phase services. Along with overseeing this vital group of more than 300 personnel, James will continue to be involved in new and existing client management and development. He has served as a district engineer for various MUDs, TIRZs, and Special Districts providing key guidance to these organizations. With more than 750 employees in 28 offices across Texas and Florida, LJA is organized around six comprehensive sectors: Land development, public infrastructure, energy services, environmental and coastal, rail services, and surveying. LJA has significant engineering, planning, surveying, landscape architecture, GIS, and construction management talent to serve the technical needs of public and private entities in community and site development, midstream infrastructure, public works, transportation, water resources, and hydrology and hydraulics.

1200 North College Ave. Fayetteville, AR 72703 Mark Zweig | Publisher mzweig@zweiggroup.com Richard Massey | Managing Editor rmassey@zweiggroup.com Christina Zweig | Contributing Editor christinaz@zweiggroup.com Sara Parkman | Editor and Designer sparkman@zweiggroup.com Liisa Andreassen | Correspondent landreassen@zweiggroup.com

MARK ZWEIG, from page 1

❚ ❚ Their employees have good morale. Nothing good is going to come from having un- happy employees! Happy employees treat each other better and even more importantly, treat your clients better. You just can’t establish the real value of happy employees – but they are worth a lot to you. ❚ ❚ They don’t see marketing as an overhead cost to be minimized . So many small operators or owners of truly stagnant A/E firms think all overhead is bad and since mar- keting is a part of overhead, their goal should be to keep it minimized. The successful firm owners don’t look at it like that. They see brand-building marketing expenditures as “off balance sheet investments,” i.e., ones that may not be reflected on your balance sheet yet have huge value to your bottom line. ❚ ❚ They spend money on recruiting and training. You want to be the best but spend no money on finding and developing the best people? That makes no sense at all. The suc- cessful companies are investing in both because they realize that this is an extremely tough market for us to hire people in right now. ❚ ❚ They can make decisions quickly. Not everything “goes to the BOD” for a final deci- sion. Slow decision-making hampers more companies in this business than anything else. It seems like everything has to go in front of the board, and then the board is too big and meets too often as it is already. You don’t need to join hands on every single decision. Determine who can make what decisions and let them run with it! I could go on but am out of time. There will be more later! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.

Tel: 800-466-6275 Fax: 800-842-1560

Email: info@zweiggroup.com Online: thezweigletter.com Twitter: twitter.com/zweigletter Facebook: facebook.com/thezweigletter Published continuously since 1992 by Zweig Group, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. ISSN 1068-1310. Issued weekly (48 issues/year) $250 for one-year print subscription; free electronic subscription at thezweigletter.com/subscribe © Copyright 2018, Zweig Group. All rights reserved.

THE ZWEIG LETTER November 12, 2018, ISSUE 1272

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