Chief administrative officer at UES (Orlando, FL), a privately held, rapidly growing engineering and consulting firm and No. 1 Hot Firm four years in a row.
By Liisa Andreassen
Correspondent
Lacy Kiser is the newly-appointed chief administrative officer (CAO) at UES, the No. 1 winner for the fourth year in a row of Zweig Group’s Hot Firm Award. We wanted to know more about what’s happening at this sizzling firm, so we reached out to Kiser to get the scoop.
Expanding service lines and offerings. “It’s been a big year for UES and being recognized as the 2024 Hot Firm winner is a testament to the strong, growth-oriented leadership and exemplary work done by our nearly 4,000 UES team members. We’ve focused on strengthening our offerings in our three core service lines: environmental and earth sciences, sustainable infrastructure solutions, and geophysical technologies,” Kiser says.
UES has worked on expanding its environmental service line to include ecological practices like ecosystem identification and mapping, protected tree inventories, and wetland permitting. It’s also expanded its team of natural resources experts to help clients assess, manage, and mitigate the environmental impacts of their projects and ensure sustainable use of natural resources.
To develop its geophysical technologies service line, it’s established a virtual design consulting team that uses advanced techniques such as 3D building information modeling (BIM). This provides cost-effective, non-destructive alternatives for comprehensive subsurface analysis of buildings and roadways and saves clients significant time and money when compared to older, traditional methods.
The company is also continuing to grow service offerings that support sustainable infrastructure solutions across the country. Right now, its Milestone Inspection Program in Florida is in high gear working with condominium clients who must have structural integrity assessments conducted by year-end per a new law enacted by the governor to ensure building safety for older condominiums.
Additionally, UES has placed significant focus on further developing its National Account Program. It’s added account managers with expertise in specific industries to work with clients who have expansive geographical footprints and are looking for a service provider who can support their development projects across the U.S.
“This helps us to grow organically by using our nationwide network of experts and certified laboratories to support these clients and uncover new business opportunities,” he explains.
Recruiting for success. At UES, there are job opportunities at all levels, from entry-level to expert.
“We’ve found that many job seekers choose to join UES because of our commitment to career development and providing the tools necessary for people to reach their long-term goals,” Kiser says.
For example, UES offers:
- UES University, an online learning platform that provides access to thousands of online courses ranging from technical skills to leadership development training.
- On-the-job training.
- Paid certification testing to increase skills and pay.
- Service line councils, a nationwide network of experts in multiple fields that share best practices and project resources.
“We’ve discovered that many new employees, including those who have just joined us through an acquisition, like joining UES because their professional network grows overnight as they immediately have access to over 4,000 Team UES experts,” Kiser says. “We also give our employees the opportunity to relocate and work at another UES branch location. That’s often appealing too.”
Last year, UES conducted an all-employee survey that garnered direct feedback from its more than 4,000 team members. The data helped the company determine areas where immediate, impactful improvements were needed. For example, some team members wanted more information from their field leaders and to hear directly from the executive leaders. In response, UES began having virtual town hall meetings multiple times during the year. It also created additional communications materials and talking points for leaders in the field to use when meeting with their teams to help share consistent information across the company.
In addition to formal training opportunities and access to an extensive network of experts in the AEC space, Kiser finds that people are most excited about the projects they get to work on. Many of these projects will help to improve the long-term sustainability of the nation’s infrastructure – and not just roadways and bridges – but also building sustainable power solutions such as power plants, renewable energy systems including solar, winds, and hydropower.
Kiser says that its organic growth and active acquisition strategy have helped them to focus on expansion in high-growth markets in the South, Midwest, and West and that by building a portfolio of best-in-class legacy companies that can represent shared values while bolstering expertise in fast-growing sectors is a key to success.
“In the past year, we rebranded from ‘Universal Engineering Sciences’ to ‘UES’ to better represent a more cohesive visual identity for legacy companies. The new brand reflects our commitment to our clients, employees, shareholders, and the communities where we work,” Kiser says.
Right now, the company’s top goal is to continue focusing on its clients and providing solutions for their ongoing engineering, environmental, and materials testing needs.
“Our team members are dedicated to demonstrating our core values of safety, teamwork, responsiveness, integrity, value, and excellence (STRIVE), and by keeping our clients’ needs and project requirements top of mind, we work to establish a trusting partnership,” he says.
Internally, UES continues to invest in technology and tools to help its teams provide top-quality service to customers and drive efficiency and innovation within the business. It’s also onboarding newly-acquired companies.
“And of course, we remain committed to recruiting top talent to contribute to projects we currently have in the pipeline and in markets where we are expanding,” he adds.
