News Release September 21, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

Black & Veatch recognized for engineering and construction business excellence

HOUSTONA global team-based, data-driven, change-management program initiated in 2003 by Black & Veatch, which provides an effective platform for innovation, leadership development, and value creation, was named recipient of the 2015 Award for Excellence by the Rice Global Engineering & Construction (E&C) Forum (RGF). Jose Pires, Black & Veatch Vice President and Director and the global leader of its Business Excellence (BEx) Program, accepted the RGF award this evening in a ceremony at the VIP Banquet opening the RGF’s 18th annual fall conference.

One of the largest employee-owned engineering and construction companies in the U.S. with more than 100 offices worldwide and projects in more than 100 countries, Black & Veatch provided extensive evidence of improvements and innovations achieved in numerous mission-critical processes through the BEx program. Key differentiating and innovative success factors for the BEx program include:

  • Disciplined approach to accelerate change and innovation that improves project execution and business operations to create value for the company, business partners, and clients globally.
  • Focus on E&C innovation through simplification where innovation projects relentlessly pursue and eliminate unnecessary complexity and bureaucracy from design to construction, across all business operations.
  • Collaborative leadership and career development opportunities for entrepreneurial professionals who are trained to lead with passion, discipline, and resilience.
  • A decade long track record of successful improvement and innovation execution coupled with growing professional and leadership engagement on a global basis.

“The Rice Global E&C Forum is pleased to recognize Black & Veatch’s Business Excellence program as the 2015 recipient of our Engineering and Construction Excellence award,” said Martin Van Sickels, RGF Executive Director. “Accelerating change and innovation is a core issue for all engineering and construction firms, and the BEx program also created value by improving the efficiency of project execution globally, which is another important business objective.”

“Black & Veatch is honored to be recognized by the Rice Global Forum for the achievements of our professionals through the Business Excellence program,” Pires said. “We launched BEx with 20 professionals in 2003 to accelerate change and innovation in our Energy business. Today, more than 2,200 Black & Veatch professionals worldwide engage in BEx improvements and innovations in energy, water and telecommunications. With strong leadership support, BEx plays a key role in pursuing strategic and operational improvement opportunities we encounter all over the world, resulting in an eight-fold increase in tangible, validated benefits for our company, business partners and global E&C clients.”

About the RGF’s Award for Excellence:

  • The Award for Excellence was established in 2011 by the Rice Global E&C Forum to acknowledge an individual, group or organization for a significant event or outstanding performance in an Engineering and Construction industry-related activity. The award is presented once a year at the RGF fall conference.
  • Any E&C company may nominate a candidate for the award, but all nominations must be formally submitted by a sponsoring RGF board member using the official nomination form. Non-Forum companies must submit nominations through an RGF board member.
  • Categories for recognition include a notable business improvement or development, unique technical solution or innovation, project execution excellence, global growth, and young engineers programs. However, nominators may create new categories if they can provide compelling reasons.
  • Members of the Award for Excellence committee evaluate nominees based upon key criteria, including: the contribution to sustaining or improving the E&C industry; for addressing an industry-wide issue or highly challenging problem; for receiving broad industry recognition for taking a major step forward; and for generating ongoing social benefits in the community.

About Black & Veatch: Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in energy, water, telecommunications and government services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in more than 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations, and program management. Our revenues in 2014 were US$3 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and in social media.

For more information about the Business Excellence Program at Black & Veatch, please contact Jose Pires, Vice President of Business Excellence by e-message at piresj@bv.com,

Black & Veatch media contact: George Minter, Director Media Relations & Communications, 913-458-8001,email: minterga@bv,com.

About the Rice Global Engineering & Construction Forum: The Rice Global E&C Forum is a voluntary academic-industry organization dedicated to stimulating original thinking, discussion, and resolution of the major economic, political, strategic and technological challenges and opportunities faced by global engineering and construction companies.

For more information about the RGF, please contact: Martin Van Sickels, RGF executive director, at 281-370-0374 or martinvs@sbcglobal.net; Alan English, RGF Board of Directors chair, at 832-379-7888 or alan.english@ihi-ec.com; or A. D. Koen, RGF media advisor, at 713-812-1623 or adkoen@comcast.net.


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