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(enr.com- 4/23/01)

By Nadine M. Post

(Photo by Michael Goodman, Photo Illustration by Guy Lawrence for ENR)

Branded an incorrigible juvenile delinquent by age 13, Charles H. Thornton Jr.'s father was summarily expelled from school in seventh grade. "He was a hellion," says his structural engineer son, who as a youngster would listen with rapt attention to his father's tales of a youth misspent followed by a slow-but-steady rise to respectability.

The tales were sermons in disguise. "I nicknamed my father ‘Preacher Charlie' because he lectured us a lot" mostly about working hard, staying in school and lending a helping hand, says Thornton, who at age 61 is chairman of The Thornton-Tomasetti Group Inc., New York City. T-T is a multidisciplinary engineer with credits that include the world's tallest building–the 452-meter twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Preacher Charlie did more than just talk. "He would get the kids in our East Bronx neighborhood jobs as union electricians, bricklayers and carpenters," says Thornton. "My father was their role model."

Thornton Sr. died in 1991. Yet his early trials and his comeback–he was an electrician, a bricklayer and ultimately chief inspector in the Bronx for New York City's Dept. of Buildings–are resonating through subsequent generations, thanks to his son's crusade–the nonprofit ACE Mentor Program Inc.

With Thornton leading the way, the New York City-based outreach effort guides inner-city high schoolers toward careers in architecture, construction and engineering. ACE also offers high school seniors college counseling and scholarships. The program is purposely designed to both aid kids and pump fresh blood into a construction industry critically short on talent.

In many ways, Thornton has followed in his father's footsteps. But instead of the Bronx, he has made all of New York City his back yard, and more recently, the nation his neighborhood. Thornton's charitable organization, based on volunteerism, is barely seven years old. Yet "mother ACE" already has spawned eight "baby ACEs" from Connecticut to Chicago to Washington, D.C. By 2005, if Thornton has his way, there will be another 15 or 20 offspring across the nation.

For championing ACE; for being the consummate mentor and role model; for coming to the aid of an industry in brain-drain mode; for taking ACE national, Engineering News-Record has singled out Charles H. Thornton as its 2001 Award of Excellence winner.

"What he's done is incredible," says Alan Traugott, a senior vice president of Flack + Kurtz Inc., a New York City-based consulting engineer. "He's the one who has energized the process, whipped it along," says the former mentor and ACE board member.

David B. Peraza, a T-T vice president and ACE's 1994-98 executive director, says, "Charlie is making a difference in people's lives while addressing a crisis in the industry. It's better than designing the world's tallest building."

Milo E. Riverso, president-CEO of the New York City School Construction Authority and also an ACE board member, adds: "A very select number of professionals reach the give-back phase in their careers. Charlie is one of those people."

ACE is about diversity. Of the 508 students enrolled, about 36% are black; 29% are Hispanic; 18% are non-Hispanic white and 17% are Asian. Of these, 42% are female.

ROLE MODEL Father's Example inspired Thornton's mentoring.(Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR)

To date, ACE has touched 1,738 students and 269 mentors from 205 firms, including AEC firms, owners, real estate firms and colleges. By next month, ACE will have awarded $301,000 in college scholarships. According to a recent ACE survey, 93% of ACE graduates go to college. There are too few college graduates so far to get reliable statistics on how many pursue construction careers. Better data is expected this fall.

Growing ACE is not as dramatic as some construction projects. ACE involves no extraordinary personal danger, and it does not break any records. ACE is a no-frills program built up a brick at a time by a small army of volunteers rich in spirit and commitment.

The program has its problems. Mentors often disappear when they change jobs or relocate, and an average of 33% of the students drop out of the program each year.

Mentors are struggling to cut student attrition. But they are up against competition from after-school jobs, sports, school exams and homework.

Although ACE's ultimate success is not assured, there are hopeful signs everywhere. One ACE graduate, finishing up a degree in architecture at Cornell University, credits ACE with having opened her eyes to the possibility of becoming an architect, in spite of being black and female. Another ACE student in Washington, D.C., walked three hours in the cold to a team meeting because he needed to save the train fare. And immigrant ACE students tell of ACE helping their dreams come true.

The ACE team model was designed around groups of 25 or so students and eight or 10 mentors from four or five firms. All mentors volunteer their time and energies. Their firms provide meeting spACE, materials and even snacks. Meetings are thick with camaraderie.

TEAMWORK IN CHICAGO Thornton keeps all eyes focussed on Construction.(Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR)

Many mentor-firm principals serve on ACE's board of directors. ACE has only three paid consultants–executive directors in New York City; Stamford, Conn., and Newark, N.J.

Thornton has set ACE's tone as one that is informal yet serious, organized but flexible. He runs ACE the way he runs his office, which has grown from 50 to 450 people since 1977.

"The amazing thing about Charlie, aside from his engineering ability, is the way he connects with people," says Aine M. Brazil, a T-T managing principal.

Others agree, saying Thornton has a way of drawing out the best in people and encouraging them to prosper.

Thornton developed his management style some 30 years ago. While working for Lev Zetlin Associates, he had the opportunity to open up a satellite office in Manhattan to run a joint venture that produced a design for an American Airlines hangar.

Thornton's own experiences continued to develop his interest in mentoring. During a 1957 summer job on the 60-story Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters, he met his first engineer role model. Eugene Fullam, who died two years ago, was only 29 at the time, yet he was in charge of constructing one of the deepest foundations in Manhattan, says Thornton. "It dawned on me that you don't have to be 50 before you succeed," he says. "I wanted to be like Gene."

ACE teams meet biweekly and are purposely designed around many disciplines to expose youngsters to the industry's interlocking puzzle pieces. Teams generally meet from 4 to 6 p.m. Early in the year, they often tour mentor firms and visit their jobsites. By January or February, teams have settled on a project to work on. Favorites include museums, sports facilities, marinas, dream houses and parks containing roads, bridges and buildings. Teams prepare drawings, scale models, Websites, construction schedules and more, which they present to each other in May.

The intention is to mimic the work of real construction teams. Most projects are virtual, although there are exceptions. At ACE Stamford, the Southfield Village team is paralleling the village's redevelopment.

Chicago's Team 3 deliberately selected a real project. The mentors are using team time to design and plan construction of an affordable, accessible house, which will be built by a nonprofit housing developer.

Under the ACE model, one hour of the mentor's session time is donated by the mentor firm and the other is on the mentor's own time, says John Woodman, ACE New York executive director since 1998.

There also is preparation time. ACE New York's Team 9 leader, Jia D. Li, an engineer with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, says she spends a solid hour in preparation, not counting an "immeasurable amount of thinking."

PASSION FOR SAILING Thornton often mixes business with pleasure on his 41-ft sailboat.

School districts are another leg of the ACE stool. Thornton holds Chicago up as a model. The Office of Education to Careers, run by Creg E. Williams, was involved from the beginning to help map out student recruitment strategies and offer advice.

Thornton spends a lot of energy seeking out new ACE champions. He's got his sales pitch down. He typically begins by declaring, "With ACE, everybody wins."

Mentor firms win. "Principals can network, gain access to owners, get exposure, and build good will," says Thornton, and they get "free" staff development for their mentors, who also recruit ACE kids to work at their firms.

Mentors win because ACE "teaches" critical workplACE skills, such as public speaking and teamwork, by throwing mentors into what Thornton calls a controlled lion's den. "Mentors are the construction industry's guidance counselors," he says.

Li agrees. "Leadership skills I walk away with are crucial in my professional life," she says, "while the satisfaction of being a part of a larger-than-life volunteer program that will ultimately benefit my profession undoubtedly strengthens my [confidence and pride]."

Colleges win, especially engineering schools, where Enrollment has plummeted since 1990. "We recruit on average three ACE students a year," says Walter P. Saukin, civil engineering chairperson at Manhattan College.

ACE graduates can be the jackpot winners. The program expands horizons, clears up misimpressions and makes indelible impressions. Troy Brahaspat, a high school senior, wanted to be a chemical engineer. But ACE taught him "how cool it is to design the loads and the structures," he says. He currently is considering a double college major of chemical and structural engineering. Shari Peters had never heard of a construction manager. Now she wants to be one.

PREACHER. On April 4, Thornton "preached" to a couple of ACE teams at the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesman in Manhattan. Thornton is a member, as was his father, who attended the society's trade institute and served as its president in 1968. "After you go to college, stay in touch with your mentors," advised Thornton. "The first year is tough, and it can help to call a mentor and ask for help."

Thornton talked about many things that day, including his youth. "My father made us work in construction as teenagers," Thornton told the kids. "He figured if he kept us on tough jobs we'd stay in school."

RIGGING THE CORE Thornton demonstrates framing at Philadelphia charter school.(Photo by Nadine M. Post for ENR)

The strategy worked. In 1961, after he got his bachelor's degree from Manhattan College, Thornton went straight to New York University for his master's degree and started working parT-Time for lza. By 1966, he had his doctorate in civil engineering and mechanics.

Unlike his own father, who as the youngest of five sons was orphaned by age three and raised by maiden aunts, Thornton and his older brother Bill and younger brother Robert had a pretty "normal" life, says his mother, Evelyn.

"I always thought my parents were Ward and June Cleaver," says Thornton, referring to the television sitcom couple. "My parents never fought," he maintains. "We did everything together."

He remembers that there were always "a couple thousand bricks in the back yard" for building things, and the first "toy" he remembers was a wheelbarrow.

Though no hellion himself, young Thornton had a mischievous side. "When I was 12, my friend and I stole lanterns from a construction site. My father gave me a tongue lashing and made me take the lanterns back. I said, ‘Please beat me.' Owning up to the theft was harder."

As a kid, Thornton also was full of beans. "I guess I got bored easily," he says. "If I were eight years old today, some doctor would say, ‘Put Charlie on Ritalin.'"

Living near Long Island Sound gave him an outlet. "Bill and I kayaked under the Whitestone Bridge when I was 10," he says. Though neither had a life jacket, they both survived. Bill is chief engineer for fabricator Cives Steel Co., based in Roswell, Ga.

Thornton always had drive and ambition, but why ACE? "There was a void," he says. "I like filling voids."

Understandable. But where does he find time for ACE on top of work and other activities? It's simple, Thornton says. Like a Mixmaster, he blends his activities. For him, work is play and vice versa. He's a natural piggybacker, a networker, a delegator, a manager and an opportunist in the best sense. "I'm scheming all the time and I work all the time," Thornton says.

This fall, for example, after more than two years of planning and construction, Thornton moved from Stamford, Conn., into his dream house in Easton, Md., with his wife Carolyn and their 14-year-old daughter Becky. He still finds time to see his three adult children and seven grandchildren. And he never misses a treasured annual trip to the Caribbean with friends that he calls the "Male Bonding Sail," which he has grown from a single charter to a fleet of seven boats and 34 "guys."

In a typical week, Thornton puts in five hours on ACE and his other favored outreach project, the New York City-based Salvadori Center. The center teaches inner-city middle schoolers and their teachers about the built environment through math and science (ENR 10/30/00 p. 59). The remainder of Thornton's work week is spent on the firm's business–about 20 hours on marketing and business development; 20 hours on design work and 20 on T-T's expansion.

Since his relocation, each month he spends a short week in New York City; about a week in T-T's Washington, D.C., office; and the rest of his time doing whatever comes up, including speaking, teaching and occasional expert witness work.

Like an Energizer battery, Thornton just keeps going. Even when tragedy strikes, as it did in 1978 when his first wife, Patricia, died, he deals with it and moves on. "I don't dwell on things I can't change," he says.

T-T's president, Richard L. Tomasetti, Thornton's business partner for 33 years, says, "Charlie's greatest strength is his vision and the way he applies it."

LEARNING TO LEAD. It's easy to assume Thornton was a natural born leader. Not so, he says. As a young professional, he forced himself to take a college teaching job to get over his near-crippling shyness.

Tomasetti says Thornton's worst trait is that he is "sometimes" impetuous. Thornton has heard that one before. He fires back that Tomasetti can "deliberate" to distraction, and says: "I truly believe you are ahead of the game if you make 10 decisions and you're right six times than if you make three decisions and you are right three times." Thornton also reacts if he feels he's been double-crossed. "Charlie doesn't suffer fools gladly," says Brazil.

But Thornton is most commonly known for being frank, talented, loyal, dedicated, fun-loving and still mischievous after all these years. "Charlie is a real human being for the simple reason that he is a man who can be appreciative of Machiavelli and Mother Teresa at the same time," says Mohsin Ahmed, the firm's managing principal in Newark. Not only that, "he can act on both simultaneously," Ahmed adds.

For ACE's sake, Thornton is also an avid communicator. "He thinks all it takes is a few phone calls from him and, boom, you have an ACE chapter," says Peraza.

Not so. Peraza should know. As ACE's executive director, he did most of the follow-up work after Thornton's phone calls. Peraza also developed all the ACE documents–a kit of materials that contains samples of every kind of form conceivably needed for every ACE activity. There are come-on letters to schools, to parents, to potential sponsors and more. There are application forms. There is guidance about how to hold a college information night. Peraza is currently working on ACE's Website, expected to be operational this summer.

The trigger for ACE was a conversation Thornton had about 10 years ago with Joseph F. Lestingi, then Manhattan College's dean of engineering. "Joe told me about a prediction that engineering school enrollment would fall by half as a consequence of the economic recession and the collapse of the defense industry." An alarm went off in Thornton's head. He saw a void.

FOUNDERS. Lestingi gathered a group to work with the Boy Scouts of America to form a division for science and engineering. The Scout connection didn't work out, but the same group then formed ACE. The founding fathers are Thornton; Lestingi; Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.'s chairman emeritus, S. Steve Greenfield; the late Port Authority chief engineer Ray Monti; consulting engineer Valentine Lehr; and John Magliano, president of consulting engineer Syska and Hennessy.

After four years, baby ACEs started sprouting: ACE Stamford in 1998, ACE Newark in1999, ACE Garden City, L.I., ACE Geneva, Ill., and ACE Washington D.C., in 2000, ACE New Haven, Conn., and ACE Philadelphia in 2001.

It did not happen by accident. Thornton had a plan, and it fit in well with the expansion plans for Thornton-Tomasetti. Thornton hitched ACE's expansion to T-T's rising star. In the early '90s, Thornton and Tomasetti had decided to grow the firm outside of New York (see p. 40). One of Thornton's goals is to start an ACE chapter in every city where the firm has an office.

ACE's five-year plan calls for adding three to five chapters annually. The list begins with Albany, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Atlanta for this fall; Denver, Dallas, Camden, N.J., San Francisco and Miami for next year.

But the plan is just that. ACE can happen just about any where, any time. All it takes is a champion. Take ACE Geneva. Ronald A. Ahlman, executive director of the Fox Valley General Contractors Association in Geneva, cold-called Thornton last spring, after reading about ACE. By the fall, Ahlman had signed up 28 kids from the Elgin Public School District and had enlisted six mentor firms and two colleges.

ACE Geneva fell like manna from the sky. But that doesn't happen often, so Thornton is always on the prowl for new opportunities for ACE. Last fall, while wandering in Philadelphia, he came upon the Architecture and Design Charter High School, known as chad (ENR 10/30/00 p. 80). He went inside and talked to principal Greg Amiriantz. It was a meeting of kindred spirits. Soon, ACE Philadelphia was born in partnership with chad.Thornton acknowledges the danger of sitting next to him at events. Nigel Parkinson, a black contractor from Washington, D.C., did that two years ago at an ENR forum. "I put the hit on him, and he became the champion of ACE Washington," says Thornton.

HELPING HANDS. The program requires lots of help. Much of it comes from the 84 board members. The board spends time legitimizing ACE, a 501C3 not-for-profit corporation. It recently approved an affiliation agreement between the founding ACE and its offspring, which sets minimum standards in return for support. Attention has now turned to insurance issues and to a joint tax filing.

ACE's 2000 to 2001 income is $80,000 from grants and $72,000 from fund-raisers. Expenses are $49,500 for its paid executive directors and $53,500 in scholarship payments. "ACE is about volunteering," says Thornton. "We don't need lots of money, except for scholarships."

For those, ACE has six financial sponsors, including the Wilton, Conn.-based Smart Family Foundation Inc., which has given $50,000 for two years running. And, on April 4, ACE inked an agreement with the Construction Information Group of The McGraw-Hill Cos., publisher of ENR, for a total of $40,000 in scholarships and other nonmonetary support.

There are 16 organizations that endorse ACE, including the Associated General Contractors, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the New York and Philadelphia chapters of the American Institute of Architects.

Thornton is looking for more scholarship money. This year, each high school senior who completes ACE can get at least $1,000. "It's not much, but it helps kids get other money," says Thornton.

At the end of one mentoring session, Thornton mentioned his 41-ft-long sailboat Elegant Solution. One student asked, "Does this mean if I become a structural engineer, I can have a boat like yours?"

"Absolutely!" was the answer, delivered with Thornton's classic optimism. "Everything is possible!"

Picking the Brain of the Master Mentor

It was billed as an informal dinner at Berghoff's, a Chicago institution, with ACE Chairman Charles Thornton, Chicago ACE Executive Director Carol T. Moy, and several Chicago team leaders. In true Thornton fashion, it became much more than that–a dialogue with the mentor's mentor; a forum to air concerns and hopes for ACE.

An excerpt follows:

Thornton: "Here's some advice I give to all mentors. The students are like your clients. They don't have a clue what you do. When you mentor and teach, you get a feeling of whether you are connecting or not. High school kids will glaze over, phase you out, if you're not interesting. Many clients will do the same."

John A. Baluci: "We had 25 on our team, now we're down to eight or nine, with a core of six or seven. With six or seven, I have a personal relationship but I felt really bad about the dropouts, before I realized I shouldn't take it personally."

Thornton: "You're always going to lose some. Next year and the year after, you will get a higher level of applicants from the schools. That will allow you to be more selective and find truly motivated students."

Patrick J. McGowan: "Charlie, what does the prospect of a scholarship do to attrition?"

Thornton: "It helps. The first year in New York, we announced the scholarship winner three weeks before the May final presentations. We then had more attrition before the end. Now we announce scholarship winners right before the final presentations.

One of the problems is that we don't have a multiple-year curriculum. Often, those who return for a second year become junior mentors. They help keep newcomers involved."

Frank M. Hashimoto: For the first few meetings, we had to sit down in advance and create a vision. You have to plan everything you are going to say."

Thornton: "In a conference room setting, there is often one mentor talking and no one listening. It's always important to keep the kids active in the sessions."

McGowan: "For our team, we broke into smaller groups to expose students to the different disciplines. To get that exposure at 17 or 18...it's more than I got in college."

Thornton: "By the way, we are tracking the college graduates. A huge percentage of ACE kids do go into construction."

Moy: "I told everyone that the first year is the hardest. You will be flying by the seat of your pants, and we can't guarantee success. But we've learned a lot by evaluating things every step of the way."

New York Team Leader's Secrets of Success

Jia Li, new york ACE team 9 leader, is a dynamo and her team benefits from it. "I love Jia and Rocco," says Jesicka Alexander, about Li and fellow mentor Rocco Cetera. "They do so much work. They're the best mentors."

Li knows how to motivate. For a recent trip to Hoberman Associates, a design studio, Li had blocked out time for the students to present their team project–a museum on a pier. Afterward, she turned to the Hoberman staff and said: "I have to brag about my team. Everyone won a scholarship." Then, she turned to the kids and said: "I won't let you know how much each of you got until after final presentations."

Here are Li's team-leader tips:

1) Hold a strategy-kickoff meeting with mentors before meeting with students. Use some of the time to have each mentor propose a project topic.

2) Use name tags at first. Establish distribution lists for correspondence and notices.

3) Apprise students of expectations and ACE's benefits. Stress the importance of attendance for scholarships.

4) Don't let meetings become amorphous. If there is a stalemate, let each student present an idea. Stress teamwork and never single out a student exclusively.

5) Give students a say in selecting their project topic.

6) Have one or two mentors stay after meetings to field questions from shy students or others.

7) Have students write a short "feedback" memo after each session. Use it to structure the next meeting.

8) Hold sessions at every mentor's office. It will give each the opportunity to show off in-house talent and expertise.

9) Don't be discouraged by occasional low attendance. Send out a letter to ask why.

10) Don't be afraid to praise those students who make an extra effort. This will encourage others to do the same.

Starting a Baby ACE is No Simple Job

"ACE provides the framework and resources, but you still have to figure it out on your own," says Carol T. Moy, director of marketing and communications for Thornton-Tomasetti's Chicago office and executive director of ACE Chicago.

For ACE startups, Moy advises beginning the planning phase six to eight months ahead of the target kick-off date.

During planning, she says, hold one or two "informational" sessions for prospective mentors and school representatives. "One of the hardest parts," says Moy, "is convincing people ACE is real."

Charlie Thornton's involvement in starting up an ACE chapter is critical, stresses Moy, because he has the name and the clout to recruit mentor firms. "A phone call from Charlie is often all it takes to get the ball rolling," says Moy. "Once it is rolling, however, there is much follow-up to do."

Thornton and ACE Executive Director John Woodman went to Chicago twice during the planning phase. Thornton was there for the informational sessions, and was instrumental in getting the support of Paul Vallas, Chicago's superintendent of schools. Woodman came for a May session and for the September kickoff meeting.

For Moy, a tough job was developing the matrix to form the teams. Moy advises joining firms familiar with each other. In Chicago, she had 16 mentor firms. Initially, she formed two of the four teams around the mentors' real projects, a 50-story office tower and the Millennium Park music and dance theater. "It's good public relations for the building, and the mentors know each other," says Moy, who adds she was disappointed because "we didn't get every member of the job's team to mentor."

Once mentors were set, Moy went back to Creg E. Williams' Education-to-Careers officers to get the students.

The student application process started in early September. In addition to the primary application form, which asks for basic information about the student, the coursework, the grade and grade point average, a health and emergency contact form is important, says Moy. Also, applicants are asked for a teacher recommendation.

"In contrast to New York City, we didn't require a $5 fee," says Moy. That was based on the recommendation of the schools.

ACE Chicago recruited from more than 15 high schools and received 120 applications by the third week in September. "We didn't turn any applicants down, on the advice of the Chicago Public Schools," says Moy.

By the second week in October, ACE Chicago was ready for its first registration night.

Moy describes the myriad details needing attention during a startup season–from finding a venue for registration night to organizing the night's activities.

But she says organizing the students is only half of the work. The mentors need guidance as well. "It's trial and error for them," she says.

During the school year, things calm down a bit but there are scholarship applications to process and events to plan, such as college night. This year, Leah Ray, an academic advisor from the University of Illinois at Chicago, came to talk about different architecture programs.

There is still more on Moy's "to-do" list, including assembling an ACE Chicago board of directors.

Transition Time for Thornton-Tomasetti Group

It's both ownership transition and expansion time at the Thornton-Tomasetti Group. In seven years, "we took a 140-person structural engineer and turned it into a 450-person multidisciplinary firm," says T-T President Richard L. Tomasetti.

In 1977, when Charles H. Thornton and Tomasetti bought Lev Zetlin Associates, T-T's predecessor firm, they decided to eliminate the two branch offices because inter-office communication was so difficult (ENR 5/1/86 p. 26). "Charlie and I swore we would never have a branch office again," says Tomasetti.

By the early 1990s, times had changed and so did the partners' business strategy. In 1993, the firm acquired cbm, a 20-person structural engineer in Chicago. Eight other branch offices followed–in Trumbull, Conn.; Dallas; Tustin, Calif.; Newark, N.J.; Boston; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Washington, D.C.; and Philadelphia.

There are more offices in the wings. T-T has targeted Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and Shanghai. Thornton says he is looking for 15-person sole proprietorships. "We wait for the right opportunity, the right firm to come along," says Thornton, before making an acquisition.

One rationale for T-T's expansion is to give its next generation increased responsibility. "You've got to get people out from under," says Thornton, "and give them a chance to grow."

That's also the main rationale for the firm's ownership transition plan, which it started implementing a couple of years ago. "We had these superstars, 25 to 30 years old," says Thornton, "and we didn't want to lose them."

When Thornton and Tomasetti bought lza, they each owned 50%. Currently, the other managing principals share about 62% of the stock. Tomasetti owns 20%; Thornton 18%. Those percentages will decrease each year as Thornton, 61, and Tomasetti, almost 59, approach retirement.

Now that the ownership transition plan is under way, the managing principals are crafting a management transition plan–one that works for a group rather than a partnership. "We are easing into it so we don't have any traumatic change in the company," says Aine M. Brazil, a managing principal in New York City.

"We recognize that as a company, we need to have the ability to make decisions in a timely manner," Brazil continues. That doesn't always happen with many chiefs.

A new board of directors is helping to pave the way. But the precise roles of the board members versus the managing principals have yet to be established.

The firm continues to grow. T-T projects its net revenue at $60 million this year, up from $50 million in 2000 and $15.3 million in 1993. Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers' structural work accounts for 60% of revenue; lza Technology's investigations–25%; and lza Associates prime e-a work for 15%.

Thornton wants to stop T-T's expansion when the ranks hit 800, a number he considers optimum. Adding 350 employees should keep him busy for several years to come.

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