In The News

There's more to creating a great company culture than just offering employees free soda — or even free beer. Thirty Kansas City companies have discovered the right formula for making employees happy to come to work each day, including Burns & McDonnell, a finalist for the ninth straight year.

Making it to 100 is something for any business. Burns & McDonnell blew right through that milestone 16 years ago and then turned on the after-burners.

Coming in second among midsized companies was the local office of Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc. The company has about 152 local employees. "Burns & McDonnell is a top workplace because of its employee-ownership culture," said company vice president Breck R. Washam.

Missouri politicians — including Gov. Jay Nixon and Kansas City Mayor Sly James — were joined by Burns & McDonnell employees in the engineering firm's parking lot Thursday for a ceremonial groundbreaking of the company's headquarters expansion.

An expansion of Burns & McDonnell's corporate headquarters brought together Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, Mayor Sly James and Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders to celebrate Thursday. The design-build firm is doubling its size, building 450,000 square feet of office space.

Leaders of Burns & McDonnell and local dignitaries gathered Thursday morning to celebrate the beginning of construction on the company's $139.5 million headquarters expansion. CEO Greg Graves led the ceremony, which was held in a tent near the site of the expansion at 9400 Wornall Road.

Burns & McDonnell experienced dramatic growth in Texas and Louisiana in 2013. The full-service engineering and construction firm saw its regional revenue jump nearly fourfold to $252.3 million from 2012. Leadership in service, ownership and project diversity helped Burns & McDonnell become ENR Texas & Louisiana's 2014 Design Firm of the Year.

The Fast 50 — the Kansas City Business Journal's list of the fastest-growing area companies — includes some small, relatively new tech companies. But it also includes enterprises whose inclusion in this fast crowd is surprising precisely because there's nothing small or new about them, such as Burns & McDonnell.

Earlier this spring, Kansas City's TIF Commission signed off on a plan by Burns & McDonnell for an expansion of its headquarters. The goal will be accommodating 2,100 new employees it expects to hire over the next decade as it continues to climb the ranks of the country's largest engineering firms.

Twenty-five women from across the spectrum of industries in Kansas City have proven that they are true leaders in the business community. The Kansas City Business Journal recently announced the 2014 class of Women Who Mean Business, including Burns & McDonnell Chief Administrative Officer Melissa Wood.