In my first quarterly message of the year, I am pleased to share that 2015 was another record year for GAI, both financially and in terms of client and employee satisfaction. We expanded our geographic reach and services, reshaped our organizational structure, saw positive gains in our Employee Stock Ownership Program and stock value, and realized new opportunities with global partners. Most importantly, our clients have remained loyal and extremely satisfied with GAI’s performance. I could not be more pleased with the efforts our employees have made to position GAI where it is today.
At the beginning of last year, I shared details of our 3-year Strategic Plan, which carries our visionary reach to 2017 and beyond. We are now one year into this Plan and are working steadily to meet or exceed our goals. Our momentum from 2015 is carrying over nicely into 2016, and we are making great strides across all of our 3-year Strategic Plan Initiatives. In this message, I’d like to shine the spotlight on two very important initiatives from that plan: develop our people and focus on growth.
Initiative—Develop Our People
“An engaged staff is focused on clients’ needs and is supportive of the firm’s goals.”
This year, GAI rolled out two new career initiatives that will change the landscape of our professional development programs at GAI. The first initiative is to open our MBA program to all GAI employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited college or university, with our fourth MBA class starting in September 2016. The second initiative is to increase our Tuition Reimbursement Program budget by 40% to allow more employees to receive GAI’s financial assistance for college classes.
Initiative—Focus on Growth
“Adding new strategic services and offices (nationally and internationally) broadens our market reach, better supports our world-class clients, and provides more career opportunities for our staff.”
In 2016, to further align our business operations with our clients’ needs, we are opening offices in Houston, TX, Chicago, IL, and Tampa, FL. We are also launching a subsidiary company, Systems Planning Corporation (SPC), a GAI Company. SPC will provide staff augmentation services for our clients. Our SPC staff have a wide range of skills and are already supporting clients on site at many power stations. SPC’s highly-experienced industry leaders and support staff allow us to deploy the right teams for our clients’ time-sensitive project needs, as well as provide access to GAI’s full-service engineering and consulting services.
GAI is a strong, healthy, and growing firm. By investing in initiatives that support our growth during good times, we bring long-term benefits to the company. I look forward to sharing more updates and good news about GAI in future blog posts. Lastly, if you do not already subscribe, sign up here to receive periodic email updates about GAI and industry news.
GAI Chairman and CEO Gary DeJidas, PE, MBA began his career with GAI as a civil engineer in the Pittsburgh office in 1972. Gary was elected Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and President/CEO of GAI in 2003; Gary transitioned to CEO and Chairman in 2017 as part of the company’s succession planning process.
