Henry C. Beck III ("Peter") (born 1955) is an American Texas-born businessman, who served as CEO [1] of The Beck Group [2] - an architecture, engineering, and construction firm based out of Dallas, with offices in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Denver, Tampa, Fla, Mexico City and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - for 20 years and currently serves as the board's Executive Chairman. [1] [3]
Beck is the third child of Henry C. Beck Jr., noted Dallas philanthropist and former CEO of The Beck Group (then named HCB Construction), and Patricia Beck (née Davis), daughter of former Republic National Bank (formerly First Republic Bank Corporation) chairman, Wirt Davis. [4] Beck was born and raised in Dallas, TX and lived [5] in what became known as "The Beck House", [6] designed [7] by famed architect Philip Johnson - the only home Johnson ever designed in Dallas. [8] [9] Writes Frank Welch in the book Phillip Johnson and Texas, "Young Peter Beck, [due to Johnson's penchant for designing arches] called his mother and father 'Mr. and Mrs. Arch'. [5] " Beck maintained a close relationship with his father throughout his life; when asked by D Magazine in 2008 whom he considered to be his mentor, Beck answered: "My father, no question. He was a very special man and not only a great role model for me but for many others." [1] A few years before Beck Jr.'s death, Beck III and his sister Spindrift Al Swaidi envisioned and commissioned Downtown Dallas' Henry C. Beck Jr. Park in honor of their father. [10] Beck attended high school at Phillips Andover, graduating in 1973. [11] He did his undergrad studies at Princeton University, [1] graduating with a degree in civil engineering [12] in 1977. Beck then went on to receive a Master's degree from Stanford Business School. [3]
Beck became CEO of The Beck Group in 1992, the company's 4th such chief. [13] In 2002, under Beck's leadership, The Beck Group was named one of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. [1] [14] With regard to his business philosophy, Beck has said that, "Our company has benefited from leaving the last dollar on the table for the other guy. This allows you to develop a good reputation working with customers. What you want to do is delight the customer. And if that costs money sometimes, then it costs money. As an underlying philosophy, that's critical to our culture." [15] And when asked by Smart Business Magazine what traits he considered most important to being a successful leader, Beck replied, "Listening well and having empathy. Having an understanding of the predicament, the opportunities and aspirations of your people, your customers, your peer companies, your joint venture partners. It's about understanding other people." [15]
Writes Nancy B. Solomon in the book, Architecture: Celebrating The Past, Designing The Future, "In the mid-1990s, {Beck Group} president Peter Beck concluded that pure construction had become an economic dead end {...}. His company's future, he believed, lay in providing seamlessly integrated design, construction and development services. So, in 1996, Beck purchased the rights to a British Software program, and The Beck Group rewrote the program and renamed it DESTINI." [16] Beck later refined the product over the course of the next 10 years and named it DProfiler. Said Beck, "There was no such tool on the market {at the time} for the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) industry." No such program had been invented before, and it changed the world of architecture, engineering, and construction forever. [15] DProfiler allows The Beck Group (and any AEC company who purchases the product) to offer its clients integrated product delivery using 3D modeling and quality calculations with cost estimating linked to the firms' own database. [16]
Via the development of DProfiler, Beck began to realize something. Said Beck, "We saw that this was just a small microcosm of the overall issue about the industry, and that there was no incentive for anybody to produce a tool that would marry the cost of a project with the design of the project,” Beck says. “We had people that were motivated to produce the design, and there were great technologies to do that; and there were great technologies to estimate [building costs]. But there wasn't any integration between the two.” [17] Beck knew that this integration was essential and, thus, made the decision in 1999 to merge with Urban Architecture of Dallas. [15] The merger allowed The Beck Group to become a full-service firm consisting of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction. Beck's vision in merging with Urban Architecture and growing his company to what it is now has played a huge role in shaping the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in the Southern United States and the United States as a whole. [18]
During Beck's tenure as CEO and Executive Chairman of The Beck Group, the company designed and built multiple projects, including:
In the late 1980s, Beck was appointed by the governor of Texas to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, a role he filled for 6 years. [20]
He also previously won the 1999 Chairman's Award [21] from the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, where he went on to sit as chairman. He further sat as chairman of The Dallas Foundation and served on the Stanford Business School Trust as well. [3]
Beck currently serves on the board of trustees of the Southwestern Medical Foundation, The Salvation Army's DFW Metroplex Command Advisory Board and the Design Futures Council. He also serves on the Leadership Council [12] of Commit!, an organization helping to drive student achievement throughout Dallas County. [22] As of 2014, he was listed in DFW Most Powerful's 1000 Definitive Movers and Shaker's list. [23]
Dallas is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman and Rockwall counties. With a 2020 census population of 1,304,379, it is the ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and the third-largest in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. Located in the North Texas region, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea.
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, also known as DFW Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas.
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchored by the major cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. It is the economic and cultural hub of North Texas. Residents of the area also refer to it as DFW, or the Metroplex. The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area's population was 7,637,387 according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 census, making it the most populous metropolitan area in both Texas and the Southern United States, the fourth-largest in the U.S., and the tenth-largest in the Americas. In 2016, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex had the highest annual population growth in the United States.
The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center is a concert hall located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). Ranked one of the world's greatest orchestra halls, it was designed by architect I.M. Pei and acoustician Russell Johnson's Artec Consultants, Inc. The structural engineers for this project was Leslie E. Robertson Associates, and opened in September 1989.
HOK, formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and legally HOK Group, Inc., is an American design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm, founded in 1955.
Rio Airways was a regional passenger airline headquartered in Killeen, Texas, United States, and was operational from 1967 to 1987.
HNTB Corporation is an American infrastructure design firm. Founded in 1914 in Kansas City, Missouri, HNTB began with the partnership made by Ernest Emmanuel Howard with the firm Waddell & Harrington, founded in 1907.
AECOM is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm.
The Beck Group is a company that provides architecture, construction, real estate development, and sustainable design and consulting, as well as finance and technology services. The company is based in Dallas, Texas and also has offices in Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Tampa. The Beck Group serves a diverse range of industries, including corporate, healthcare, entertainment, religious, and education. They also provide services based on the use of their software product, DESTINI.
Haskell is an architecture, engineering, construction and consulting firm headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded by Preston Haskell in 1965. James O'Leary succeeded Steve Halverson as CEO in August, 2018.
Rafael Michael Anchía has been since 2005 a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives for the Dallas-based 103rd District. In addition to his representative work, Anchia is an attorney with the law firm Haynes & Boone LLP and co-founder and Managing Director of Civitas Capital Group. He had previously served on the board of the Dallas Independent School District.
Marc Robert Stanley is an American trial lawyer, political activist, Jewish community leader, and philanthropist who has served as the United States Ambassador to Argentina since 2022.
CDI Corporation is a privately held US company providing engineering, procurement, construction management and staffing services to clients in a range of industries including energy, chemical, semiconductor and battery manufacturing. As of 2022, the company employed more than 450 employees. The company is headquartered in Houston, TX.
Klyde Warren Park is a 5.2-acre (2.1 ha) public park in Downtown Dallas, Texas. The park is over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and opened in 2012. It is named for Klyde Warren, the young son of billionaire Kelcy Warren who donated $10 million to the development of the park.
Ray C. Davis is an American businessman. He served as the co-chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman for Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and chairman of Energy Transfer Equity (ETE). He is co-owner and co-chairman of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
West 7th is a shopping, dining and entertainment destination in the West Seventh Street District of Fort Worth, Texas near Montgomery Plaza. West 7th encompasses nearly five city blocks of boutique shopping, dining and entertainment options. The West 7th Development is also home to The Lofts at West 7th.
Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill is an American restaurant and live music bar in Dallas, Texas started by entrepreneur Richard Rawlings, who is also the star of Discovery Channel reality television show Fast N' Loud.
WhoFest is a recurring Doctor Who-focused science fiction convention held in the Dallas, Texas, area. First held in November 2013 as a one-off celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, WhoFest is now held annually each April.
Fred Perpall is an American business executive. He is best known as the first black person to be nominated as president-elect of the United States Golf Association.