Autodesk recently agreed to acquire Innovyze, a water infrastructure modeling, simulation, and predictive analysis technology company, for $1 billion in cash. Innovyze was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of MWH Global Inc., by Paul Boulos, then an MWH engineer. MWH was later acquired by design firm Stantec. EQT Partners bought Innovyze from Stantec for $270 million in 2017, the owner that later sold it to Autodesk. ENR recently caught up with Boulos, founder and until recently CEO of Digital Water Works Inc., to talk about the acquisition, continuing challenges of managing water infrastructure and encouraging innovation in engineering.
ENR: Congrats on the company you founded back in 1996, Innovyze, being sold for $1 billion to Autodesk. You said this was a great example of why engineering firms should invest in intrapreneurship and invent new companies to solve the problems their projects and work processes present. Can you elaborate on that?