A Good Pairing

Expanding its multidisciplinary services in Northern California, engineering firm LACO – based in Santa Rosa, Eureka, and Ukiah – recently acquired surveying firm DobleThomas in a match that increases LACO’s surveying capacity DobleThomas, based in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, joined LACO on July 1. Zweig Group, a full-service AEC consulting firm based in Fayetteville, AR., represented LACO by evaluating a business that compliments their goals and broadens their consulting practice. “Zweig Group is honored to have been on the LACO team for as long as we have, and it is meaningful for us to help firms, firms that we know and believe in, as they grow,” said Jamie Claire Kiser, Zweig Group’s director of consulting. Mike Nelson, president and CEO of LACO, sees plenty of benefits coming out of the acquisition, chief of which is expansion of surveying services and acquisition of top talent. “This is a significant milestone for our growth strategy and will result in 6 additional employees and about 8 percent additional growth in 2018,” Nelson said. The acquisition brings full-service surveying back in-house to LACO. Brad Thomas, president of DobleThomas, will join LACO as a Vice President of Land Surveying. He and the Healdsburg staff will move to LACO’s Santa Rosa office, where the firm has plans to expand into an adjacent building in August. Kevin Doble, a DobleThomas principal who is also mayor of Ukiah, will move to LACO’s new Ukiah office in July, where he will work as a senior project manager. In addition to Thomas and Doble, long-time DobleThomas staff joining LACO arelicensed surveyor Tom Bruns, CAD drafter Geoff King, LSIT field crewman Steve Webb, and field crewman James Cole. About Zweig Group With a mission to elevate the industry, Zweig Group has on-staff experts in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business valuation, ownership transition, marketing, business development, market research, financial management, project management, recruiting and executive search. Zweig Group also provides a comprehensive suite of products including newsletters, industry reports, executive training, business conferences and more covering virtually every aspect of firm management. The firm is headquartered in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and works throughout the U.S and worldwide. For more information, visit https://zweiggroup.com/ or call (800) 466-6275.