CENTENNIAL — In only three years, Kim Burquest has grown her company, AdamWorks, from three employees to 25.
About half of the employees are engineers. They’re the ones who design and figure out how to manufacture composite structures used in aerospace, defense, transportation and renewable energy.
The company makes items such as “pods” that fit under unmanned aerial vehicles to hold hush-hush intelligence equipment; retractable side fairings for tractor-trailers; and parts for aircraft, rockets and wind turbines.
In October, AdamWorks — which has about $6.3 million in annual revenue — was awarded a subcontract by Lockheed Martin as part of its four-year agreement to supply the Finnish Air Force with an airborne surveillance system and associated ground system.
Burquest, president of AdamWorks, isn’t an engineer, and that doesn’t bother her.
“I hire the right people,” Burquest said. “I’m always looking to hire the smartest person in the room.”
Burquest earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and then an MBA. She spent time working in human resources.
“But I didn’t feel like I was making much of a difference,” Burquest said.
An opportunity to join Rick Adam, who founded the experimental airplane company Adam Aircraft, came up, and Burquest grabbed on.
“Everybody here is building things. It’s tangible; it’s rewarding,” Burquest said as she showed a visitor around the 12,000-square- foot facility near Centennial Airport.
She acquired knowledge by listening and letting the engineers handle the details, and not being intimidated. If she didn’t know, she said, she asked.
“Once you get into it, it isn’t that hard,” Burquest said. “It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude, but I didn’t want to be later in my career and wish I had given it a try.”
