Formerly of Plano, Richardson-based Hill & Wilkinson relocated its offices recently and is going green with the move as the finish-out achieved LEED-gold status.
The firm signed a long-term lease to occupy approximately 27,000 sq ft in the 190 Tech Park building located at 2703 Telecom Parkway. More than 100 employees were involved in the move.
The firm formed in 1968 is privately held by two principal shareholders with a succession plan for president Doug Talley and CEO Paul Driscoll to gradually take over the company.
Ensuring longevity of the firm has been important to its leadership, and one of the ways Hill & Wilkinson has done that is to keep good employees on the job and give group managers autonomy to make decisions, Driscoll tells Texas Construction.
“The group managers head independent business units and are responsible for their own niches,” Talley says. “They range from health care, institutional and manufacturing, to high tech, retail, office and more.”
Driscoll adds that the firm’s diversified line of work has kept projects steady even as the construction market has declined.
“When one market is up, another is down,” Talley says. “We’re steady and don’t see any wild swings in our volume. There is another benefit of diversification as well. There is the challenge of the ebbs and flows of the market, but the other is creating opportunities for our superstars. We believe in creating an entrepreneurial atmosphere for those able to achieve success in their own careers. They run those groups like they are their own business. This empowers them to go out, find work, win work and put it in place.”
Additionally, he says, they didn’t want these employees to reach a point in their careers where they couldn’t go any farther up the ladder and risk losing them.
“We retain our superstars,” he says. “They’re partners with ownership in the company,” Driscoll adds.
div id="articleExtras"