Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch

Company type	Employee-Owned
Industry	Engineering, procurement and construction, and consulting
Founded	Kansas City, Missouri (1915)
Headquarters	Overland Park, Kansas
Areas served	Power, water, private telecommunications, oil and gas, mining, government, data centers
Key people	Mario Azar, Chairman and CEO Steve Meck, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Michael Williams, Chief Financial Officer Steve Uhlmansiek, Vice President and Chief of Staff Mike Adams, Chief Digital Technology Officer Patrick Hogan, Chief Client Officer Andrea Bernica, Chief People Officer Jennifer Divito, President, Black & Veatch Operations Narsingh Chaudhary, President, Fuels & Natural Resources Mike Orth, President, Governments & Communities Jim Doull, Executive Vice President, Power Providers Jim Moos, President, Technology, Commercial & Industrial Charlie Sanchez, President, Strategic Advisory & Lifecycle Resiliency Services Narsingh Chaudhary, Interim President, Asia Pacific and India Oscar Falcon, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Latin America Youssef Merjaneh, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Services	Asset management, consulting, data analytics, EPC and design build, operations, physical and cybersecurity, program and construction management, sustainability
Revenue	$4.735 billion (2023)
Number of employees	More than 12,000 (2024)

Black & Veatch (BV) is a global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Founded in 1915 in Kansas City, Missouri it is now headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. It specializes in infrastructure development in energy, liquefied natural gas, water, renewable energy including solar, private telecommunications, government, mining, data centers, cybersecurity, advisory services, electrified transportation and smart cities. ^[1]

In 2022, BV was the 10th largest 100% employee-owned company in the United States. ^[2] In 2023, the company reported total revenue of $4.735 billion. ^[3] According to Engineering-News Record (ENR) magazine, Black & Veatch is the 14th-largest design firm in the United States based on revenue for design services performed in 2023. ^[4] In its annual ENR 500 rankings, the magazine also reports that BV is the nation's 3rd largest provider of design services to the Power market, 8th largest in Water and 10th largest in Telecommunications.

BV has more than 100 offices worldwide and has completed projects in more than 100 countries on six continents. ^[5]

History

Black & Veatch was formed in 1915 when Ernest Bateman (E.B.) Black dissolved his partnership with J.S. Worley and created a new firm with Nathan Thomas Veatch. Black and Veatch met while attending the University of Kansas.

Company timeline

• 1915 Ernest Bateman Black and Nathan Thomas Veatch form a partnership called Black & Veatch with 12 employees on the payroll. [6]
• 1940 The War Department requests that Black & Veatch rebuild Camp Robinson in Little Rock, Arkansas. Other camp projects include Camp Chaffee in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Camp Hale in Pando, Colorado, and other military installations in the Midwest. ^[7]
• 1948 Work begins for the Atomic Energy Commission at Los Alamos, New Mexico. ^[7]
• 1950 N.T. Veatch is appointed by President Harry Truman to the President's Water Pollution Control Advisory Board. ^[8]
• 1963 Black & Veatch International is formed. ^[7]
• 1964 Black & Veatch opens its first regional office in Denver, CO to design a 100 million gallon per day water treatment plant by the Denver Water Board of Colorado. ^[9]
• 1967 Black & Veatch wins a contract to produce a 60-megawatt power generating unit for Yanhee Electricity Authority of Thailand, now known as EGAT, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. ^[9]
• 1976 Black & Veatch opens new building at 11401 Lamar Avenue in Overland Park, Kansas. ^[7]
• 1985 Black & Veatch acquires Pritchard Corporation. ^[9]
• 1988 Black & Veatch power division introduces a new computer-aided engineering and project management system called POWRTRAK to be more time efficient and capture new business. ^[9]
• 1993 Black & Veatch forms UK-based partnership with UK business Tarmac following the latter's acquisition of the privatised UK government agency PSA Projects in 1992. ^[10] This was initially called TBV Consult; after the partnership was discontinued, it was renamed Tarmac Professional Services in 1998, ^[11] and became part of Carillion in 1999. ^[12]
• 1995 Black & Veatch merges with Binnie & Partners. ^[13]
• 1996 Black & Veatch acquires Paterson Candy Ltd., a UK-based water treatment process contractor and expands building at 11401 Lamar Avenue. ^[9]
• 1999 Black & Veatch changes company structure from general partnership to an employee-owned corporation. ^[14]
• 2005 Black & Veatch acquires RJ Rudden Associates, Lukens Energy Group, and Fortegra, ^[15] a move that doubles the size of its management consulting business. ^[9]
• 2006 Black & Veatch acquires the water business of MJ Gleeson in the UK, more than doubling the size of its existing UK water operations. ^[16]
• 2008 Black & Veatch is selected by Eskom to provide project management and engineering services for a 4,800 megawatt power generation facility in South Africa. ^[17]
• 2009 Black & Veatch repurchases 11401 Lamar Avenue office building in Overland Park, Kansas, and establishes the location as the company's World Headquarters. ^[18]
• 2010 Black & Veatch acquires Enspiria Solutions Inc. to expand its scope of smart-grid services. ^[19]
• 2013 Steve Edwards assumes role as Black & Veatch Chairman, President, and CEO. ^[9]
• 2015 Black & Veatch celebrates its 100th anniversary. ^[9]
• 2017 Black & Veatch forms Diode Ventures, LLC, "to provide clients with a full-service solution to develop and manage their infrastructure assets" with Black & Veatch’s Global Chief Technology Officer, Brad Hardin, as president. ^[20]
• 2018 Black & Veatch and the University of Missouri release a report on the Missouri Hyperloop ^[21]
• 2020 Black & Veatch announces it is ceasing participation in new coal-based design and construction projects in an attempt to focus on more renewable energy work. ^[22]
• 2021 The Europe and Asian water businesses of Black & Veatch are acquired by RSK Group and renamed Binnies. ^[23]
• 2022 Mario Azar succeeds the retiring Steve Edwards as Chairman & CEO ^[24]
• 2023 Black & Veatch acquires Texas-based electrical contractor and storm restoration expert Bird Electric Enterprises, LLC, adding 600 employees in the process. ^[25]
• 2024 Black & Veatch establishes a global Operational Technology (OT) cybersecurity practice to protect critical infrastructure assets from hackers and cybercriminals ^[26]

Ukraine arm: BTRIC

See also: Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory

In 2008, the Defense Threat 123 Agency (DTRA) awarded BV the first of its Biological Threat Reduction Integrating Contracts (BTRIC). The five-year IDIQ contract has a collective ceiling of $4 billion among the five selected contractors. DTRA awarded BV, as Integrating Contractor, the first BTRIC in Ukraine in 2008, which "is a vital part" of the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) and Biological Threat Reduction (BTR) program of the DTRA. The Implementing (Executive) Agents were three in number: the Ukraine Ministry of Health, Ukraine Academy of Agrarian Sciences and Ukraine State Committee for Veterinary Medicine. ^[27]

In 2010, BV commissioned Ukraine's first Bio-Safety Level 3 laboratory. This was the first BSL-3 laboratory commissioned for the DTRA. ^[28] Constructed by Black & Veatch under the "to renovate a decades-old facility into a state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory that will become the nexus of Ukraine’s biosurveillance network... Ukrainian personnel in molecular diagnostics, biosafety, operations and maintenance, and laboratory management techniques" were trained over three years from 2010 to "provide Ukrainian scientists with the necessary resources to manage the BSL-3 laboratory and the Ukrainian biosurveillance system." ^[29]

Some social media users have attempted to link Black & Veatch to conspiracy theories related to the war in Ukraine and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic ^[30] through this biosurveillance facility development ^[31] and the dates of various executed agreements. Per the Associated Press, "The government initially signed an agreement in late 2019 with a contractor, Black & Veatch, as part of biological threat reduction work in Ukraine, according to officials and documents. After the pandemic began, Black & Veatch hired another firm, Labyrinth Gold Health, to provide expertise for Ukraine’s COVID-19 response. The description of the work in a federal database was updated, but the original agreement date remained." ^[32]

References

1. What We Do.
2. "The Employee Ownership 100: America's Largest Majority Employee-Owned Companies | NCEO". www.nceo.org. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
3. https://cdn.bfldr.com/E1EVDN8O/at/6qmn4zcr8z5jtcqnfjqvbvkr/24_SustainabilityReport.pdf
4. "ENR 2024 Top 500 Design Firms Preview | Engineering News-Record". www.enr.com. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
5. Worldwide Locations. Black & Veatch, 27 February 2017.
6. "History | Black & Veatch". www.bv.com. Retrieved 2023-08-12.
7. FundingUniverse.com.
8. Oral History Interview with Nathan Thomas (Tom) Veatch. Harry S. Truman Library
9. Black & Veatch History. Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine Black & Veatch, 28 Feb. 2017
10. "Tarmac buys PSA Projects". Independent. 1 October 1992. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
11. History "original". TPS Consult. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2018.from the "original". TPS Consult. Archived from the original on 18 November 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
12. "Tarmac to split in two". BBC News. 16 March 1999. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
13. "Black & Veatch and Binnie consortium | Water Desalination Report". Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2010-10-26. "Black & Veatch and Binnie consortium." Water Desalination Report. May 11, 1995.
14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2010-10-26. Chief Executive Magazine, September/October 2010 issue
15. "Black & Veatch Acquires Fortegra". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-10-26. "Black & Veatch acquires Fortegra." Water & Wastewater, October 11, 2005.
16. "B&V Acquires MJ Gleeson's Water Business". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-10-26. Water & Wastewater, November 2, 2006
17. Kansas City Business Journal, May 8, 2008
18. Black & Veatch completes purchase of world HQ building. Kansas City Business Journal. July 6, 2009.
19. Kansas City Business Journal.
20. https://www.diodeventures.com/about-diode
21. "Missouri's Blue Ribbon Panel on Hyperloop releases its report (Video)". Kansas City Business Journal. 28 October 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
22. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/black-veatch-leaving-coal-projects-in-the-dust/588379/
23. "RSK acquisition marks the return of Binnies". The Construction Index. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
24. https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2022/04/15/black-veatch-mario-azar-chairman-ceo-edwards.html
25. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/black-veatch-acquires-texas-electrical-contractor-bird-electric-construction/649779/
26. https://www.enr.com/articles/58354-black-and-veatch-establishes-global-cybersecurity-practice
27. "BTRIC Ukraine". Black & Veatch Holding Company.
28. "DTRA selects Black & Veatch to work in Ukraine". United Press International. 9 October 2012.
29. "State-of-the-Art Diagnostics Laboratory Helps Make the World Safer". Black & Veatch Holding Company. n.d.
30. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/06/ukraine-biolab-conspiracy-theory-quickly-went-viral-it-took-weeks-pinpoint-source/
31. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/02/24/us-biolabs-ukraine-russia/
32. https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-defense-contract-covid-2019-labyrinth-541416771695