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TZL: Do you tie compensation to perfor- mance for your top leaders? PBC: We try to pay our people well for the job they are being asked to do. Our goal is to set clear expectations and to provide the support and framework for success- ful delivery. While bonus payments can be useful in specific cases, I have not found a system that treats employees fairly over the long term and the consequences of re- ality not meeting expectations (fair or not) can be terrible. Being paid well for the role I am asked to deliver and continuously be- ing helped to develop my professional val- ue and pay level without having to leave the firm, is how I would want to be treated, and we work hard at treating all staff that way. Overall corporate performance and the resulting risks and rewards are really an investor’s concern. I would much rather have key employees own stock and stay fo- cused on the long-term growth of that in- vestment. TZL: Do you share base salary or bonus amounts with your entire staff? PBC: Not specifically, but in our world of cost plus contracts and certified pay- rolls there are few secrets. We work hard to make sure that we’re comfortable with and can explain any pay differentials, one on one, if we are asked or challenged. “AI is going to enter our space far faster and more profoundly than most of us are able to imagine, and when it does it will seriously change the role of engineering professionals.” TZL: Have you ever closed an underper- forming office? If so, tell us about it. PBC: For years we had offered architec- tural design services. In recent years, we struggled with the financial performance of that work segment. It simply wasn’t growing and financial subsidies from the firm were needed. About a year and a half ago, we shut it down. We’d been providing that service for decades, and many staff members were less than happy with the decision because they had strong work- ing relationships and friendships with our principal architect. But just as it’s impor- tant to make sure people are rewarded for the value they deliver to the company, it’s also vital to step in and make chang- es when someone is not delivering to their

expected role. We’re a small firm, and when an investment isn’t working, we need to be agile enough to adjust. As that hard change fades into the past, we see healthier team- ing opportunities with larger architectural partners than we were ever able to realize when we “owned it.” “It is not a surprise to me that our focus on professional ability and potential has led us to far exceed the AEC industry’s average measures of gender and racial diversity. Talent resides across the full spectrum of gender and race, and I believe CME is proof of that.” TZL: Internal transition is expensive. How do you “sell” this investment op- portunity to your next generation of principals? How do you prepare them for the next step? PBC: I am bewildered by the desire in our industry to intermingle employment and ownership. From an employee’s perspec- tive, if you work for say GE, the first advice you would receive from a competent finan- cial advisor would be to not invest your 401(k) in GE stock. If the company goes south (a real possibility few would have expected five years ago), you not only have lost your job, but also your life savings. From a stockholder perspective, bonus- ing profits to employees so they can afford to buy firm stock, seems rather unfair to the current investors. I understand there is the whole issue of liquidity exasperated by many arcane state regulations that in- tertwine licensing and ownership require- ments (to no avail, I’ve asked people who are much smarter than I am to explain how publicly traded AEC firms meet those ownership rules). I believe that maintain- ing long-term growth in firm value will create the best opportunities to reward stockholders. Keeping it in the hands of people with an entrepreneurial spirit and a focus on long-term value creation is my goal. Discounting stock or finding money to “bonus” so people can “afford” to buy it seems to rely on rather dubious logic. TZL: When did you have the most fun

YEAR FOUNDED: 1973 HEADQUARTERS: Mansfield, CT OFFICES: ❚ ❚ Mansfield, CT ❚ ❚ East Hartford in CT ❚ ❚ Nashua, NH NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 83 SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Highway and traffic engineering ❚ ❚ Structural engineering ❚ ❚ Land surveying and imaging ❚ ❚ Project management ❚ ❚ Planning and development ❚ ❚ Environmental science ❚ ❚ Accelerated bridge construction ❚ ❚ Civil engineering ❚ ❚ Construction services COOL NEWS: This project team just learned they won the 2019 Silver Award Engineering Excellence from the ACEC/MA Chapter for an approximate $175 million project – the Springfield Viaduct Improvement in Springfield, MA. CME provided the structural design for this project which involves deck replacement and widening of approximately one mile of elevated highway through the City. CME also provided assistance to MassDOT during construction.

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uary 25, 2019, ISSUE 1285

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