GHD's growth strategy: Focus on talent, acquisitions, and market expansion

Earlier this year, GHD acquired Miami-based ADA Engineering with a renewed focus on Florida's infrastructure market. The Sunshine state is among the fastest growing states in the country by raw population, meaning it needs the infrastructure to maintain that growth. Learn how GHD aims to be part of that infrastructure future in this brief interview with Ian Fraser, GHD's latest board chair.

Bob Crossen: What about ADA Engineering was appealing from a business sense for this acquisition?

Ian Fraser: ADA Engineering had established client relationships, local expertise and a strong team in a market where having boots on the ground matters. Their 40-plus years of Florida experience combined with GHD's global capabilities positions us to better serve both public and private sector clients across the state.

BC: How will GHD integrate ADA’s municipal expertise while maintaining its legacy and local relationships?

IF: ADA’s team is now part of GHD so our local clients in Florida can continue to work with the people they know and trust. There will be no change to the local expertise and relationships. At the same time, we are really focused on making the integration of the ADA team a success, bringing our new colleagues into our global service lines, and encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration around the US and the world. We want our new colleagues to have all the advantages that come with being part of a global company while maintaining the passion and commitment that made them so successful locally.

BC: Why do you see Florida as a growth opportunity in the U.S.? What about the region makes for good business today and for the future?

IF: Florida is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S., with population growth driving substantial infrastructure investment needs across transportation, water, energy and urban development. The state faces critical infrastructure challenges related to climate adaptation, sea level rise and storm resilience – areas where GHD has deep global expertise. In short, Florida's continued population and economic growth, coupled with aging infrastructure and climate pressures, create sustained demand for the engineering, environmental and advisory services we provide.

BC: While we focus on the municipal water and wastewater markets, how does this acquisition advance GHD’s business units in other markets such as energy and transportation?

IF: Our most immediate focus is on the services that have made ADA successful: water and wastewater, solid waste and transportation. However, thanks to ADA’s strong local presence and experience we can now offer a much wider range of services to Florida clients, drawing on the capabilities that GHD has across the U.S. and globally. 

BC: This is the second acquisition in as many years. Why has this become such an active part of your business strategy in the past couple years?

IF: We continue to look for more acquisition opportunities in the U.S., which is GHD’s highest growth market. Acquisitions complement our continued organic growth and give us access to clients and markets that may otherwise be hard to reach. We're particularly interested in partnering with mid-sized firms in the water, transportation and energy sectors as we continue our expansion in the Southeast and other high-growth U.S. markets. 

BC: Workforce talent recruitment and retention have been a primary challenge for a few years now. How are you approaching talent recruitment and retention, especially given the size of GHD’s global presence?

IF: As an employee-owned company, we have a distinctive business model that enables our employees to build and grow their stake in the company over time. We believe being an employee-shareholder is a differentiator for GHD and creates an incentive for retention. Approximately a quarter of our global workforce are shareholders – ours is a business where ownership is widely held and not restricted to a small group of people. As Chair, one of my priorities is making sure that investing in the company remains an attractive prospect for our younger and up-and-coming leaders. We hope that this model of ownership is also appealing to smaller or medium-sized businesses that are either seeking their next stage of growth or are looking at succession planning. For firms like ADA, joining GHD means their team members can become employee-owners in a global company while maintaining the entrepreneurial culture they value.