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TRANSACT IONS THORNTON TOMASETTI ACQUIRES SWALLOW ACOUSTIC CONSULTANTS Thornton Tomasetti has entered into an agreement to acquire Swallow Acoustic Consultants Limited , a specialist in acoustics, noise, and vibration control engineering based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The addition of Swallow will bolster Thornton Tomasetti’s Structural Engineering and Forensics practices as well as its Canadian presence. The deal is scheduled to close in early 2017. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in the early 1990s by John Swallow, SACL offers a broad range of services in acoustics design and forensics and noise and vibration analysis and control. These include architectural acoustics; environmental, industrial, and mechanical noise control; acoustic and vibration testing; expert witness testimony; technical writing and standards; construction vibration assessment; and vibration control.

In addition to its Mississauga headquarters, the 13-person firm has an office in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Swallow will become a principal at Thornton Tomasetti, while Ramin Behboudi and Michael Wesolowsky will join as associate principals. SACL is one of a small number of firms worldwide that designs tuned mass dampers, a device used to help stabilize buildings against wind sway and other kinds of motion. Its TMD work includes tall buildings and long-span structures, such as sports facilities and bridges. SACL’s tuned mass damper capabilities will dovetail with Thornton Tomasetti’s efforts in the field, which includes the development of a fluid harmonic disruptor based on NASA technology. Starting with Manhattan’s LaGuardia School for the Arts in 1988, Thornton Tomasetti has collaborated on many projects with SACL. These include Chifley Tower in Sydney,

Australia, Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, and most recently, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, which opened this past April. SACL has worked in some 20 countries and has a considerable presence in central and eastern Canada. This will give Thornton Tomasetti a larger footprint in Canada, having opened its first office in the country, in Toronto, earlier this year. “For nearly 30 years, Swallow has been our go-to partner for vibration issues. Through our close collaboration on many diverse projects, we have built a strong working relationship based on mutual respect and a shared commitment to professional excellence. This combination of our complementary services will help us build upon our leadership position and provide better value to our clients.” said Thomas Scarangello, chairman and CEO, Thornton Tomasetti.

WILL SCHNIER, from page 11

who appeared to not understand that every sentence should start with “yes” instead of “no.” Overboard with her! Finally, another office leader who didn’t want to share the sandbox with his colleagues and who couldn’t help but include the words “me” and “I” in every thought he shared. He now sleeps with the fishes! “We needed to eliminate a very limited number of negative people from our organization, and we needed to take care of our culture and protect our team members who are working so hard to make our clients more successful.” Far from hurting us, these three key departures have had dramatic results for our firm. We’re as strong as we’ve ever been. Everybody is enthused about what we’re accomplishing and understands our plan to take over the world of engineering. We’re coming off of our best year in the history of the firm. And more importantly, our culture has been protected. Today, everybody knows that the surest way to be removed from our BIG RED boat is to be negative. And that makes everything more positive. Consider this thought from Les Brown: “Don’t waste another minute dealing with a toxic, negative, energy- draining person. Some people are wired for negativity. They love being argumentative, combative, and abusive. Run for your life as quickly as possible.” Ask yourself, who do you need to throw overboard in order to make your boat travel faster? What are you waiting for? WILL SCHNIER is CEO of BIG RED DOG Engineering & Consulting. He can be reached at will.schnier@bigreddog.com.

leaders retreat. This is an annual event for us and it’s our first chance to really dissect, affirm, question, and trash portions of the initial draft of our business plan for the following year. We had a handful of action items following our retreat to complete prior to the end of the calendar year and really get us ready for a strong 2017. I’m proud to report that we accomplished all of our action items with time to spare. One of our first action items was to determine who’s in our boat and who needs to be thrown overboard. The objective was two-fold: We needed to eliminate a very limited number of negative people from our organization, and we needed to take care of our culture and protect our team members who are working so hard to make our clients more successful. Our outstanding team members do not need to be dragged down by negative people or people who cannot perform up to the standards of the company. There is an apt quote from the great business philosopher Tony Gaskins: “Negative people need drama like it was oxygen.” What happened as a result of this action item? Really great things! Huuuuge things even, in a nod to the newest leader of the free world. We intentionally parted ways with three of our senior leaders who were sapping the company of its energy and entrepreneurial spirit. First up was an office leader who had a host of unhappy clients, neglected colleagues, and zero desire to put the effort in to address either camp. Time to walk the plank! Second up was a key member of our administrative team “One of our first action items was to determine who’s in our boat and who needs to be thrown overboard.”

THE ZWEIG LETTER February 13, 2017, ISSUE 1187

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