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JULY 2021 NEWSLETTER |
FROM THE CORNER OFFICE
John Sartor, PE
President and CEO, PS&S
Coming Through on the Other Side
Dear Friend of PS&S,
At the height of the COVID pandemic, I said to our leadership team and employee base at PS&S and D.W. Smith that we had to do everything in our power not just to “survive” but to “thrive” – and come through stronger on the other side of our national public health emergency. That was an ambitious statement, I know, because we were in unchartered territory as a country and an economy. But I also knew PS&S had a track record to extend.
As you may know, PS&S was founded in early 1962. Since that time, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, there have been seven recessions in the United States – and 2020/the COVID pandemic – made eight. Our firm has weathered all those recessions and I am pleased to say 2020 was a good year for PS&S despite the many headwinds.
With the worst of the pandemic now behind us, I am writing to thank you for your support over the last 15 months and to let you know about a new internal initiative at PS&S – a plan for continued – indeed accelerated growth for our firm.
As a multidisciplinary consulting firm, we have several avenues for organic growth: by geography, by sector and by discipline – and, in many cases, these paths converge and overlap. It’s important to understand that we are not saying we want to grow just for the sake of growing. We aren’t putting dots on a map of the U.S. and looking at market data and saying, we need an office there. On the contrary, we want to grow with you – our existing clients – and new clients where they are growing. Yes, we’re proud to be “hyper local” in our New Jersey markets, but over the last several years, we have demonstrated that we will invest in being where the client is – whether that’s New York, Florida, North Carolina or Texas.
A plan without leadership, of course, is just a plan. To that end, in May, we named Andrew Malek to the position of Chief Growth Officer of PS&S, which is “a first” for us. This summer, Andrew will work with me, our Management Committee and other senior managers to prepare and finalize a draft of our plan.
In closing, thank you for your belief PS&S and here’s to the many projects we could do together in the future.
Sincerely,
John Sartor
President and CEO, PS&S
We recently asked our PS&S colleagues in different disciplines and geographies what is new in their areas with respect to overall growth. Here’s what they had to say:
GROWTH IN A&E DIVISION
Ted Osborne, RA, PP, AIA
Executive Vice President, PS&S
Ted Osborne, Executive Vice President of Architecture & Engineering (A&E), joined PS&S three years ago. In that relatively short amount of time, he has played a big role in the growth strategy, overseeing a wide variety of projects in areas across United States as the company expands.
Under Ted’s direction, PS&S is developing a master plan for an existing PS&S client in the Research Triangle in North Carolina with plans to open a new PS&S office in the area in the fall. Similarly, to serve an existing client, Ted says the opening of the PS&S office in Doylestown, PA, has resulted in new contracts with some of the pharmaceutical, life sciences and biotech companies headquartered in the area. PS&S is also involved in a project in the Midwest for an existing client in the pharmaceutical space as well.
Ted says the A&E division is also involved in multiple affordable housing and market-rate housing projects in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. With housing, of course, comes the need for infrastructure, which has led to work in public utilities and sewage treatment plants, as well as other capital improvement projects for PS&S.
As legislation has changed in New Jersey, new opportunities in cannabis have sprung up and PS&S is working on developing centers for growing cannabis growing as that new industry takes off. In the meantime, thanks to Ted for all he is doing to fuel growth for the A&E team.
GROWTH IN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION WORK
Jordan C. Beahm
Project Manager/Construction Manager
Jordan Beahm, Project Manager/Construction Inspector, who joined PS&S with the purchase of DW Smith Associates, LLC, reports he is seeing growth in Community Association work.
DW Smith had cultivated a long list of customers over 15 years in working with homeowner and condominium associations. While the firm had many capabilities, Jordan says the combination with PS&S in late 2019 has helped expand certain services to clients that would have needed to be outsourced in the past. For example, Jordan says being able to now offer PS&S’ architectural capabilities to existing clients brings more cohesiveness to a project.
Jordan believes the future for growth in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is directly tied to having the office in Doylestown. He says the local presence has helped to solidify PS&S in the region, which he expects will lead to more Community Association work.
GROWTH IN TEXAS
Pictured above from left to right: Mike Lester, Gulf Coast Survey Manager and Chaz Everman, Gulf Coast Survey Director
Texas is big, but Chaz Everman, Gulf Coast Survey Director, and Mike Lester, Gulf Coast Survey Manager, are helping to cultivate new clients that crisscross the Lone Star state.
Chaz says opening a new office in Houston during the pandemic was certainly challenging. A year later, however, they employ a full-time crew and five office personnel, fielding work in commercial and industrial real estate, as well as in the oil and gas industry.
The increase in surveying services in Texas originally came through PS&S’ acquisition of DW Smith, but the growth over the past year has been purely organic. The team has been able to establish a client base that has resulted in consistent work along with new proposals in the pipeline. Chaz says the goal for the first year was to establish PS&S in Houston and the goal for this coming year is to expand further in areas such as Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and West Texas.
Positioning Mike in West Texas was a strategic decision with the primary goal of diversifying the client base within the energy and real estate sectors in Texas. Mike says the energy sector in Midland was hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Today, the area is opening-up and he says PS&S is already a part of that comeback with a solid rise in demand for surveying services.
The goal of increasing PS&S’ efforts in Texas has been simple – cover as much of the state as possible and, so far, that strategy is working. Thanks Chaz and Mike for leading our efforts and growing the business over the past year!
