Your company has a presence in 34 developed countries and revenues of $1 billion, yet MWH is relatively unknown to the public. Why?
A: A lot of our clients are city and local governments. Our job is to work behind the scenes. When we build water-treatment plants, we vegetate them, we hide them. Almost the worst thing you can do is get in the papers. Utility directors aren’t heroes when they are in the paper. Our clients say, “Keep us out of trouble, and when we are hot, come in and be our No. 1 consultant.”
Also, we are not a U.S. company doing international business. We are a global company, we have indigenous operations around the world staffed primarily by local people. We dilute our image.
Q: Two of your competitors, Bechtel Group and Flour Corp., got federal contracts to work on early-phase reconstruction of New Orleans without competitive bidding. Does that concern you?
A: We are in a state of crisis and emergency, and we don’t really get too wound up about the competitive status of the marketplace in this environment. We would be more concerned in a normal environment if we felt we had a competitive disadvantage by political influence. In a state of emergency, I think you can’t have enough engineering firms.
Q: You have long-standing contracts with New Orleans and a number of other towns hit by Katrina. What are you doing in that area now, and what will you do in the future?
A: Right now, we have 150 people on the ground working in New Orleans, and we are attempting to get all the debris out of the storm-drain system.
In the longer term, there are almost 7 million miles of sewers that we will eventually have to inspect, fix and put back in. Then it will be, how do you return water to the city?
After we get the treatment plants back in operation, we will have to figure out what are the long-term fixes, both in wastewater and drinking-water systems.
Q: Is this the most complicated project MWH has ever been involved in?
A: No. It is not complex in terms of the jobs that have to be done. The phasing of recovery efforts is complex.
We probably are the market- share leader for program management in the utility business in the developed world. We schedule hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs. That is a core skill of the company.
Q: You are a West Point graduate who led airborne troops in Vietnam. Have those experiences helped you in the corporate world?
A: West Point is really good at putting everybody under a tremendous amount of pressure and making them perform, and that is what you need in war. War is boredom mixed with terror. Combat conditions are challenging.
I was 23 and had 180 people reporting to me, and it was a growth experience. In both the peacetime Army and the wartime Army, you really learn a lot about human dynamics, leadership, human motivation, psychology. It is very good preparation for anything else. Everything is downhill from there in terms of being able to deal with crisis.
Q: You collect signatures of famous people. Which are the ones that mean the most to you?
A: I have letter Winston Churchill wrote to The New York Times after it published a cartoon critical of him. And I have an officer’s commission Abraham Lincoln signed in the Civil War. I have always been fascinated by signatures. A signature is the last residual thing that we have of a person.
Q: What person in history has most influenced you?
A: Ulysses Grant was an exceptional character, in terms of tenacity. The country was exhausted, we had lost many people and he knew that to finish the job, he would have to lose many more. He had the courage and tenacity to drive through and get it done. He was not very well-equipped to be president, though. Some people are pretty good at taking the hill, and some people are pretty good at writing the Marshall Plan.
Q: What are your leadership qualities, and how have they helped you?
A: I tend to be more a big- view person, more of a futurist and strategist. I am an unusual character in the company because engineers are generally problem-solvers, and they are generally detail people. If you have characteristics that are different than the pool, you stand out. I think that has helped me in my progression to the job I have.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Tom McGhee.
