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ON THE MOVE LEA & BRAZE ENGINEERING PROMOTES ALEX ABAYA TO PRINCIPAL Lea & Braze Engineering has announced that Alex Abaya has been promoted to a firm partner and principal. Abaya joined Lea & Braze Engineering straight out of college. As a construction survey manager at Lea & Braze Engineering for more than 14 years, he has completed thousands of residential, commercial and mixed-use projects. Abaya has grown his professional life at Lea & Braze Engineering and has been promoted to co-owner and principal of Lea & Braze Engineering. Throughout his time at Lea&BrazeEngineering, Abaya has contributed to the growth of the firm. He has provided introduction to land survey training seminars for multiple local jurisdiction building department planners and inspectors including the city of Palo Alto, the
city of Menlo Park and the city of Mountain View. Abaya is also a mentor to interns and entry-level staff. He provides company training for new survey technology, survey equipment, survey methodology, and FEMA flood hazard topics. He attends Cal State University Fresno Geomatics conference every year for ongoing professional development, keeping abreast of new technology, and promoting surveying and civil engineering as a career to college students. Abaya, comes from a family of land surveyors. Both his grandfather and father were land surveyors in the Philippines. He constantly strives not only to advance technology in the industry, but the growth of the profession. “As principal, I look forward to fostering new talent and bringing innovative capabilities to Lea & Braze Engineering,” says Abaya.
Lea & Braze Engineering, Inc. is a consulting, civil engineering, and surveying firm that has been active in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento region for more than 35 years, working as team members on construction and development projects of various sizes. The firm has grown into one of Northern California’s leading and respected firms with passionate engineers and surveyors that strive to be experts in our field and cultivate a positive work environment with a reputation for high-quality design and surveying services. Lea & Braze Engineering’s areas of expertise include high end custom homes, commercial development, K-12 and higher education, public and private entities, and mixed-used projects. Lea and Braze has offices throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento Region with more than 70 employees.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 11
those firms that can consistently keep their turnover rates down perform better than those that don’t. It just makes sense. Low turnover looks better to clients and increases the efficiency of everything. To have low turnover, firms need a real sense of purpose. They have to pay their people well. They need to invest in the tools and training their people want and need. And especially today, they need to be flexible in terms of accommodation of varying work schedules and locations (for a wide variety of reasons). These things are essential if you want to keep your people in your employ. And low turnover makes you money in multiple ways! 6)They are optimistic and confident. How can you teach someone to be this way? I don’t know. But I do know that those principals who have real confidence and are optimistic about their futures and the future of their firms do better than those who are negative pessimists. All you have to do to witness this firsthand is go to our ElevateAEC Conference (held on November 3-5 in Denver this year). There you will meet the kinds of people I am talking about. The financial performance of their firms reflects the optimism and confidence of their leaders. Making money isn’t so bad. Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back. As the old motivational poster many of us had more than 40 years ago said, “I have been rich, and I have been poor. Rich is better!” MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
4)They are specialized. Specialization rules in the AEC business when it comes to making money. It doesn’t mean you can do only one thing. Obviously the larger you get, the more specializations you can have. But one thing I know is clients don’t want generalists. They want design professionals who are experienced in the type of work they need done for other client organizations similar to theirs. IF you are truly specialized, you should be better at what you do, and you should be able to do it more efficiently than another firm that is doing something different for different types of clients every day. Rarely, if ever, have I seen being a generalist pay off in terms of firm success in this business. “If you had more than 40 years of opportunity to observe incredibly successful design professionals as I have, you would know there are some major differences in how they do things.” 5)They know how to keep their people. Everyone is talking about the upcoming “great resignation” we are supposed to soon be facing. I don’t believe that the crazy percentages of people who are supposed to quit in the next year will necessarily apply to firms in our business, but I do believe
ABOUT THE 2021 ELEVATEAEC CONFERENCES The ElevateAEC Conference & ElevateHER Symposium, one of the most successful industry conferences of 2020, has something for everyone in 2021. This year, the mission of Elevating the Industry will continue both virtually and in-person. ❚ ❚ ElevateAEC Conference & ElevateHER Symposium – Virtual Experience. Zweig Group’s annual ElevateAEC Conference & ElevateHER Symposium will be a four-week virtual experience with more than 40 speakers and 30 credit hours of learning, networking, and celebrating – all in an unlimited virtual environment. This year, Zweig Group is excited to present an evolved and more interactive virtual platform where many can gather to elevate themselves, their firms, and the industry, all from the comfort of their home or office. From project manager to CEO, there is something for everyone. ❚ ❚ ElevateAEC Conference & Awards Gala – In-Person Experience. With careful consideration regarding the latest guidance from the CDC, the 2021 ElevateAEC Conference & Awards Gala is restoring the full agenda for the annual in-person conference in Denver this November. This includes bringing back the iconic black-tie Awards Gala celebrating the 2021 winners of the Hot Firm list, Best Firms To Work For, Marketing Excellence, Rising Stars, Top New Ventures and the Jerry Allen Courage In Leadership Awards.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 13, 2021, ISSUE 1408
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