Corporate
Background/History
In 1946, Strand Associates, Inc., began its legacy as a sanitary engineering firm founded in Madison, Wisconsin, by Clayton Ward and John A. Strand with fewer than 10 engineers. The firm was known as Ward and Strand. The firm name changed to John A. Strand and then to Strand Associates, Inc.® After many years of successful work, the firm built a reputation for engineering excellence with quality personnel. Out of this hard work, Strand Associates, Inc.®, evolved.
In 1984, our current Chairman and CEO, Theodore Richards, P.E., assumed the reins of the firm. The expansion of the firm started right away in 1985 with the opening of the Illinois office, first in Naperville and, then, relocating to Joliet in 1987.
Our Louisville, Kentucky, location was added in 1993, and following in 1995, by the addition of an office in Lexington, Kentucky. Our Kentucky offices provide multi-disciplinary consulting engineering services.
In 2002, we expanded our Midwest presence by acquiring offices in Columbus, Indiana, and Lancaster, Ohio. These offices have grown to provide water, wastewater, transportation, industrial, municipal, and civil engineering services.
In 2004, we opened an office in Indianapolis, Indiana. This office better enables us to serve the eight-county area surrounding Indianapolis. The focus of this office is municipal, water, wastewater, transportation, and industrial disciplines.
A local presence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was added with the opening of an office in 2005. The focus of this office is wastewater, water, transportation, and municipal engineering. 
Also in 2005, we opened a new office in Cincinnati, Ohio. This office focuses on environmental engineering with an emphasis in wet-weather issues. This office serves the Cincinnati, southern Ohio, and northern Kentucky areas.
Philip E. Budde, P.E., previously our Executive Vice President was named President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2006. Jeffrey L. Kronser, P.E., assumed the Executive Vice President position. Theodore Richards, P.E., continues as our Chairman and CEO.
In 2007, our Lancaster, Ohio, office moved to Columbus, Ohio, allowing us to better serve our Ohio clients.
In 2008, we added an office in Phoenix, Arizona. This office provides general civil engineering (municipal, site design, drainage design, surveying, and potable water and wastewater engineering) to private and public sector clients throughout the state.
Combined, we have approximately 350 professional, technical, and administrative personnel.
State-of-the-Art Facilities and Technology
To better serve our clients, we continually upgrade the technology at each of our offices and train our staff to use the latest tools available.
Our offices are comparably equipped with videoconferencing equipment. Videoconferencing allows face-to-face communications between our clients and our experts around the nation. With ready access, we can collaborate our expertise without the added expenses of time and travel. Savings on time and travel result in more constructive design hours devoted to projects.
Our Leica ScanStation HDS System is state-of-the-art in topographic equipment. This particular instrument is the first of its kind to combine the four fundamental conventional total station features into one scanner. In addition to cost saving benefits, this equipment also provides added values to our clients by providing a higher level of accuracy, faster results, improved quality, greater details and lesser ambiguity, safer and less invasive data capture, point cloud safeguards for project management, 3-D imaging and the ability to obtain extra data quickly and without revisiting the site.
Retention Rates
We have a relatively low turnover rate because during the recruiting process, we emphasize finding a match between the personality of the candidate and our culture. Experience indicates that those who have a genuine interest in helping others to meet their engineering needs, and work well individually and in teams, thrive in our organization. In addition, we look to hire staff for the long-term and not just to meet short-term fluctuations in workload.
