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TRANSACTIONS WESTWOOD ACQUIRES TEXAS-BASED PACHECO KOCH Westwood Professional Services, Inc., a national multi-discipline, engineering firm, announced today that it has acquired Texas-based Pacheco Koch Consulting Engineers, LLC. Pacheco Koch is a full-service engineering, surveying, and planning/landscape architecture firm widely recognized and preferred for high-quality work in both public infrastructure and private development throughout Texas. The Pacheco Koch acquisition is central to Westwood’s long-term strategy to expand into new regions and grow its existing markets and services. It brings Westwood approximately 250 new team members and five additional offices, located in Dallas, Fort Worth, Celina, Austin, and Houston, to Westwood’s existing Texas locations in Plano and San Antonio. “The professional expertise and reputation that comes with the Pacheco Koch brand is a great boost to Westwood’s land initiatives. Pacheco Koch and Westwood complement each other. Our cultures and values are a great fit,” says Westwood’s COO, Bryan P. Powell, PE. “This acquisition mutually expands the unique professional services we offer in and outside of Texas, and the end result is a team of top professionals unmatched in the region.” By purchasing Pacheco Koch, Westwood
expects to enhance its service capabilities to clients across Texas, Powell says, “The public infrastructure and private development talent we gain will help us to better serve our clients, and our new team and clients from Pacheco Koch gain new services such as environmental, renewables, and drone technologies, to name a few.” Pacheco Koch was founded in 1990 and has since provided engineering, surveying, and landscape architecture solutions for public infrastructure and private development projects. Pacheco Koch has received several awards for being a Best Place toWork, and Founder, Mark A. Pacheco, PE, RPLS, takes pride in the team he and his Founding partner, James A. Koch, Jr., PE, RPLS have built. Pacheco says, “Our team has developed a long-standing reputation of providing high-quality service with an emphasis on client care and satisfaction, which is a direct reflection of our team. We put our people first and know that we all benefit by supporting them and their success. The high-quality work we’ve done across the state of Texas for the past 30 plus years is proof of that.” Pacheco sees joining the Westwood team as a unique opportunity to continue their success “by being able to provide a wider range of services to our clients while, at the same time, offering more avenues for growth for our team.”
Westwood’s Vice President, Randall P. Pogue, PE oversees strategy and operations for the firm’s Land Division South Region. Having started his career with Pacheco Koch, Pogue has great respect for both Mark Pacheco and Jim Koch and the business they built. When the acquisition opportunity presented itself, Pogue felt it was too great to pass up. He says, “Integration is a challenging undertaking, but it’s worth the opportunities for growth waiting on the other side. The expertise combined by both companies will create synergies to advance our teams, while continuing to provide high-quality services for our clients. This is an exciting time for all of us.” Pogue’s company, Pogue Engineering, was acquired byWestwood in 2015. Pacheco Koch will operate as, Pacheco Koch, a Westwood company, for 12-24 months and continue to serve clients from their current locations. Westwood is a leading and award winning, full-service, multi-discipline professional civil engineering firm specializing in public infrastructure, private development, wind, solar, and power delivery projects. Westwood was established in 1972 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through a focus on its people, culture, and clients, Westwood has quickly expanded to serve clients across the nation from multiple U.S. offices.
so that the best benefits of a physical environment can still be experienced. I think that remote work may be fine for someone who’s been at a company several years and already has an established network. In addition, some positions are uniquely suited to remote work – coding for example. But even those coders need leadership, which happens best through in-person interaction. TI: Could there be an entirely remote scenario – yet to be developed – that adapts and thrives? JL: It could happen, but leaders still have to solve for knowledge transfer, relationship-building, trust, innovation, and succession planning. If a company thrives 100 percent remotely, take a look at the careful leadership and thoughtful planning they’ll do to make it happen. They are not simply saying “look at how much money we’re saving on real estate.” The innovators who figure out how to make hybrid work succeed in the long-term will have a strategy led by the C-suite and real solutions to the challenges.
JOE LOZOWSKI, from page 7
generation of innovators who collaborated – in person – to bring their now global companies to fruition. Mark Zuckerberg moved to Silicon Valley and worked in a house with other coders to get Facebook off the ground. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak collaborated in a garage, and Elon Musk slept on the assembly plant floor in solidarity with his workers. I don’t think these scenarios can be replicated in an all-digital world. “Impromptu interactions help you know one another on a personal level, and they can help move work forward in ways you never expected.” TI: Do you feel always being in-person is the answer? JL: No; that’s equally untenable. In fact, my own company is flexible, and we allowed people to work remotely, even before the pandemic. What I’m advocating for is intentionality and serious consideration from leadership on striking a balance
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THE ZWEIG LETTER FEBRUARY 28, 2022, ISSUE 1430
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