McKim & Creed Announces New CEO

The board of directors of McKim & Creed Inc. have announced that John T. Lucey Jr., P.E., has been named the company’s next president and CEO, effective Nov. 1.

Lucey was previously the executive vice president of engineering and business development at Heckmann Water Resources (now Nuverra Environmental Solutions), an oil/gas water management company that is also one of the largest environmental solutions firms in the United States.

Lucey will succeed Michael W. Creed, Ph.D., P.E., who will continue serving as McKim & Creed’s chairman of the board. Herbert P. McKim Jr., P.E., PLS, will remain on the board of directors and will continue full-time work assisting with major client retention, business development and special projects.
 
“John [Lucey Jr.] is a proven leader and industry veteran who brings a strong engineering and technology background and impressive communication and management skills. I am excited about the future of McKim & Creed and am pleased to have the opportunity to continue serving our employees, clients and shareholders as chairman of the board,” said Creed.
Added McKim, “John Lucey was selected from several very qualified candidates because of his experience leading a similarly sized firm through a successful period of growth, because of his experience in synergistic markets that we can enter, and most importantly, because of his leadership ability, his business skills, and his cultural fit with McKim & Creed.”

“McKim & Creed is one of the most innovative and respected companies in the engineering and geomatics industry, and I am honored to have been chosen to lead the organization,” said Lucey. “I look forward to working with the great team at McKim & Creed and to build from its strong foundation an organization that grows consistently by providing value to our customers with high-quality, innovative solutions.”

Lucey began his career in 1977 with Chester Engineers, where he rose through various levels of management to become president of the company in 1995. He oversaw the acquisition of Chester by U.S. Filter in 1997 and helped grow the 300-person, $55-million firm to more than 500 employees with $200 million in annual revenues. After U.S. Filter was sold to Veolia, Lucey became a key member of the management team, assuming responsibility for developing and managing Veolia’s North American Technology Center.

From 2005 until 2011, Lucey worked with HDR Engineering, where he led the industrial water and wastewater practice group that provided services for the ethanol, power, mining, oil/gas and fertilizer industries. Under his leadership, the group grew from $5 million in annual revenues to $75 million in five years. In 2011, Lucey joined Heckmann Water Resources (now Nuverra Environmental Solutions), where he played a major role in securing business and managing business with two of the largest customers of the company, and initiated a water treatment partnership with a major service provider.

McKim & Creed, Inc. was established in 1978 in Wilmington, N.C., as a two-person structural engineering firm. Since that time, the company has grown to more than 350 employees in 19 offices throughout the South, including Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas. Today, the employee-owned firm offers civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services, as well as airborne and mobile LiDAR, subsurface utility engineering, hydrographic and conventional surveying services for the water, energy, transportation, land development, building and federal government markets.