Company Profile
Benesch
Company Overview
Value Focused. Community Minded. Quality Driven.
Benesch is a professional service firm, founded as a structural and civil engineering firm with 850+ Employees across 45 Locations in 20 States. Our services are: Aviation, Bridges, Buildings, Environmental, Geotechnical, Landscape architecture, Municipal, Planning, Railroad, Roadway, Site Development, Value Engineering.
At Benesch, we want to build careers. We strive to provide stable employment, reward exceptional performance, foster professional development and pursue projects that challenge our staff in myriad ways. We know we’re only as good as the people we have, and we truly believe our employees are the company’s greatest asset.
Benesch is dedicated to providing opportunities for growth in ways that are meaningful to you and your career. We believe that your talent and skills are an excellent match for our Core Values and, as a new member of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to take on challenging projects and plan your own professional path.
Company History
n 1946, after serving in World War II, Alfred Benesch founded the structural and civil
engineering firm Alfred Benesch & Associates in Chicago. In 1947, the firm hired its first
employee, Harold R Sandberg. For more than 75 years, the firm has grown and prospered.
Engineering News Record places it among the Top 500 Design Firms.
Benesch’s first project was a women’s dormitory at the University of Illinois at Urbana -
Champaign followed by many others: schools, factories, hospitals, apartments, offices and
public buildings.
In the early 1950’s, the firm expanded its expertise to include railroad and highway bridge
design and construction management. The firm also changed from a partnership to the
corporation, Alfred Benesch & Company. The firm flourished from work on the Illinois and
Indiana toll road systems.
In 1971, Mr. Benesch retired and Harold Sandberg became President. In 1975 the firm
added value engineering (VE), first on internal projects, but soon performing VE as a
separate service. In 1986 Benesch achieved its first merger with Tony Gee & Quandel in
Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
Over the years, orderly changes in administration were made by promotion from within.
The company’s policies and practices ensure that this will continue. Mr. Sandberg retired
from Benesch in the Spring of 2008 after 62 years of dedicated service.
In 2009, another leadership transition occurred. John Carrato became President and
CEO, assuming the role that Michael Goodkind had served in since 1989. Jack Kweder
took on the role of Chief Operations Officer, assuming Muthiah Kasi’s position. At the
time of transition, Benesch offered services from offices in five states: Illinois, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In 2010, another chapter in Benesch’s history was written in the merger with HWS Consulting
Group of Lincoln, Nebraska. The merger added three states to the Benesch offices and
expanded services into geotechnical and hazardous waste, as well as expanded the firm’s
rail capabilities.
n 2011, Benesch expanded into the Southeast region, as a result of merging with Clinard
Engineering Associates, LLC, in Nashville, TN. As of this merger, Benesch had offices in
nine states.
In 2012, Benesch merged with Denver-based LONCO, Inc, and Purcell Associates in
Connecticut and Massachusetts, expanding our capabilities in civil/site and structural
building services and increasing our staff to 475.
In 2013, Benesch expanded our Great Plains Region as a result of a merger with Delich
Roth & Goodwille (DRG), adding two new offices in Bonner Springs, KS and Kansas City,
MO and increasing our staff to 500.
n 2014, Benesch expanded our Southeast Region in number and markets as a result of
our merger with Site Solutions of North Carolina. We added landscape architecture and
land development.
In 2015, Benesch merged with Tucker Young, Jackson, Tull, Inc. (TJYT) - a 50-person civil
and environmental engineering firm with offices in Detroit, MI and Baltimore, MD, adding
water/watstewater and aviation to Michigan services.
In 2017, Benesch merged with Ghyabi & Associates — a 17-person transportation planning
and engineering firm, specializing in roadway, traffic and public involvement. We added
three offices in Florida: Jacksonville, Ormond Beach and Orlando.
In 2018 Benesch merged with Toole Engineers — a 16-person transportation planning
and engineering firm, specializing in land development, municipal infrastructure, water
resources and higher education in Augusta, GA.
Benesch continued to grow through organic growth as well as, opening offices in Atlanta,
GA; Raleigh, NC; Houston, TX and Wichita, KS in 2019. In 2020 Benesch opened offices in
Rosewell, CA., Topeka, KS and Fort Worth, TX.
In September 2020, John Carrato stepped down as President and CEO, and Jack Kweder
stepped down as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Kevin Fitzpatrick assumed the role of
President and CEO and Randy Kaster became COO, representing a transition to our sixth
generation of leadership.
In November 2020, Benesch expanded our Tennessee Division through a merger with S+H
Group, LLC – a 7-person engineering firm in Nashville specializing in land development,
utility design, capital improvement planning, geotechnical engineering, and construction
administration.
In December 2021 Benesch acquired Tindale Oliver – an 80-person firm with employees
based in Tampa, FL, Ft. Lauderdale, FL and Baltimore, MD. This acquisition provides the
opportunity to expand planning capabilities both in the Southeast Region and across the
country.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Value Focused. Community Minded. Quality Driven.
Benesch Now Ranked #101 by Engineering News-Record
Benefits
Work/Life Balance:
We know work/life balance means different things to different people. That’s why we strive to be flexible and support the unique needs of all our employees. Benesch offers alternative work schedules, flexible hours, workfrom?home options, banked time, generous Paid Time Benefits (PTB) that increase over the course of your career, and several paid holidays.
Retirement:
Benesch makes a 5% profit?sharing contribution to your 401(k) plan, regardless of whether you contribute to the plan or not. If you do contribute, we match 80% of your contribution up to a maximum company contribution of 4%. That means Benesch can contribute up to 9% of your gross compensation to the plan on your behalf, subject to IRS and plan testing requirements.
Learning & Development:
When it comes to your professional development, Benesch invests in you—in multiple ways.
• We reimburse tuition job?related courses.
• We provide ongoing professional development through internal resources such as Red Vector, LinkedIn
Learning, technical team meetings and our knowledge sharing trainings and blog.
• Individual training and career development plans created with your manager.
• We fund training, committee work, professional organization memberships and licenses/certifications.
We believe in the value professional organizations not only give to our employees to be leaders in our industry, but the value that our employees can give back to the community by being active members.
Leadership Development:
At Benesch, your learning opportunities are not limited to technical areas. Management and leadership development exists at all levels of the company via personal leadership courses, supervisor/manager training and programs for team leaders, in addition to executive coaching and leadership development for group, division and executive leaders. We know that employees like you drive our success, and we make sure to invest in your development and career.
Engagement:
Opportunity abounds for those who want to contribute beyond the scope of their regular job duties to make Benesch a great place to work. We have a focused employee engagement program with teams that support efforts in the following areas:
• The Work-Life Team explores and implements programs that positively affect an employee’s ability to be
productive in their workplace.
• The Rewards & Recognition Team is committed to making Benesch a better place to work by generating
a culture of genuine appreciation at the company.
• The Corporate Social Responsibility Team runs the company’s matching gift program, coordinates
community service opportunities, provides student scholarships, and more.
• The Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Team is dedicated to identifying ways to accelerate positive change at
Benesch and support an increasingly diverse workforce.