Engineer Continues to Thrive Under Klemencic's Baton
Structural engineer Ron Klemencic remembers May 2, 2011, as the “most devastating day” of his career. On that Monday, his mentor, partner, coach, adviser, friend and “big boss,” Jon Magnusson, walked into his office and announced, briefly—and with no possibility of negotiation—that he was planning to hand the engineering practice’s “baton” to Klemencic by Jan. 1, 2013.
The junior partner, then president of Magnusson Klemencic Associates Structural + Civil Engineers, did not show his shock to Magnusson, who had been leading the firm since 1988 and who had hired Klemencic in 1992. “I was caught off guard. I was scared. I went home and curled up in a ball, sobbing like a baby,” says Klemencic, MKA’s chairman and CEO. “It was the most difficult time for me on a lot of levels,” says Klemencic, but he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and figured out how to become the big boss.