NWI Times Interview with Bob Valdes

This article was originally published September 21, 2008 by the Times of Northwest Indiana and reprinted with permission from the editor.
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Valdes Engineering Company:
Focusing on quality control

Controlled, managed growth is secret to engineering firm’s success

While most companies are ecstatic about the opportunity to experience growth, Valdes Engineering Company (VEC) has at times turned down work that would have brought growth to the business. All part of the plan, according to owners and president Robert Valdes.

“We manage our growth very carefully,” Valdes said. “We have to control the quality of our work, which means we also have to control the quantity of our work. At times, that has meant passing on job offers. But it is in the best interest of our customers when we do that.”

VEC sets the standard for excellence in engineering serving regional, national and global corporations with on-time, on-budget projects. VEC is a local Chicago-based engineering consulting firm, specializing in the petrochemical, refining, coal gasification, power, chemical, alternative energy, and manufacturing industries.

“We are a very typical consulting engineering firm,” Valdes said. “We focus on project management, project engineering and exceptional design services.”

The corporate office is in Lombard, Illinois. A brand-new office is opening soon in Griffith, Indiana. The company broke ground for the new, $3 million, 25,000-square-foot satellite office at Ridge Road and Broad Street, in March.

Most of the new positions will be at the Griffith location.

The new building is designed to house 100-110 employees with the vast majority engineers, engineering technicians and other support staff, who will work on projects based in Northwest Indiana. Valdes said that they hope for 100-110 technical positions to be filled within the Griffith location eventually.
The family owned engineering firm performs project management, engineering and design services. It was founded by Valdes in 1993. His wife, Donna, is the comptroller. Although the firm’s specialty is process engineering, it employs about 200 engineers schooled in every facet of the profession.

“We’ve been thinking about Indiana for many years,” said Valdes, a civil engineer, who graduated from the University of Illinois. “It’s actually a better fit for the work we do than the commercial and residential area we’re in here. The bulk of the work force will be Indiana people because of logistics.”

Having an office in the region, where it already does significant business “will allow us to spread our wings and allow us to reach more industrial clients in the area,” he said.

The consulting engineering firm currently performs engineering work for BP’s Whiting Refinery projects and numerous other Northwest Indiana clients.

Valdes Engineering Company is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).
“We are a partner with BP in regards to corporate culture and workforce diversity,” Valdes said. “We are a product of BP’s plan to diversify their suppliers. Under their leadership, we not only became a certified MBE, but we also have looked to our suppliers for the same type of diversity as BP did with us.”




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Valdes Engineering Company (VEC) sets the standard for excellence in engineering serving regional, national and global corporations with on-time, on-budget projects. VEC is a Chicago-based engineering consulting firm, specializing in the petrochemical, refining, coal gasification, power, chemical, alternative energy, and manufacturing industries.