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Conference call: Al Barkouli, part 2 Chairman and CEO of David Evans and Associates, Inc. (Hot Firm #93 for 2016), a 1,000-person engineering firm based in Portland, Oregon. HEALTH, VITALITY, AND PROSPERITY. GROWTH IS AN INDICATOR OF
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
B arkouli joined DEA in 1988 as an engineer-in- training. He advanced to project manager, en- gineering discipline director, and office manager of the firm’s flagship office in Portland. He served as COO and president before being named chairman and CEO. “Having entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit means we look for opportunities and acknowledge risks,” Barkouli says. “For entrepreneurs, the risk of failing comes with the territory. Failing is an op- portunity to learn. What we don’t like is not try- ing.” A CONVERSATION WITH AL BARKOULI. The Zweig Letter: Diversifying the portfolio is never a bad thing. What are themost recent steps you’ve taken to broaden your revenue streams? Al Barkouli: In the recession of 2007-2008, we re- organized from a purely geographic organization to a matrix organization. Now, we have business units that serve our four markets – transportation, energy/power, land development, and water and
environment. We serve them from four geograph- ic regions: Oregon, Puget Sound, California, and Mountain West. The reorganization has helped us see where we can diversify in the Western U.S. We’ve assessed where we are strong and where we need to be stronger. In the last three years, we’ve merged with firms in California and in the Puget Sound region to strengthen our land development services. We re- cently merged with a small electrical firm with of- fices in Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico to bolster our power engineering capabilities. We continue to look at strengthening our water, environmental, and energy services in California, Oregon, and Washington. We’re also looking at ex- pansion in other geographies such as Idaho and Utah. TZL: The list of responsibilities for project man- agers is seemingly endless. How do you keep your PMs from burning out? And if they crash, how do you get them back out on the road, so to speak?
Al Barkouli, Chairman, & CEO, David Evans and As- sociates, Inc.
THE ZWEIG LETTER Ap
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