Interview
Ten Minutes With HDR's New CEO John Henderson
John Henderson takes the baton from Eric Keen as CEO of design firm HDR.
Photo courtesy of HDR
Design firm HDR announced Jan. 2 that John Henderson is its new CEO—succeeding Eric L. Keen, who held the role since 2017 and continues as company chairman. Formerly COO, he brings nearly three decades of experience in operations, engineering, military construction, infrastructure investment, water resources management and environmental programs. Before joining the Omaha-based firm in 2021, Henderson served in command and staff positions in the U.S. Army and the Army Corps of Engineers and as assistant secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Energy. He has a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and served as a National Security Studies Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Henderson becomes the ninth CEO in the 107-year history of the company, which now has 12,000 global employees.
ENR Transportation Editor Aileen Cho chatted with Henderson about his new role. The interview has been edited and condensed.
ENR: When did you join HDR? How did you get here?
Henderson: Eric [Keen] and I worked hard on what we characterize as a "no drama" transition. It was just time to pass the baton. Eric has been a really good mentor for me and the entire organization.
I've only been here 3 years. I’m still considered an outsider in a company where people have spent their full careers. I was a client before then, working in the federal government and came up through the Army engineer ranks. I started in the profession working on road crews and survey crews for South Dakota Dept. of Transportation, seeing the benefits engineering brought to communities—making roads safer, improving the transportation network. I saw the inherent good in the work we were doing.
ROTC took me to the Army after college. I did six tours in the Asia-Pacific region and five assignments with the Army Corps, including three combat tours in the Middle East. Being Corps Omaha district commander was my last assignment. After retiring in 2017, I was appointed assistant secretary of the Air Force, overseeing 180 installations around world. I resigned in 2021, returned to Omaha and restarted a conversation with Eric. I was company chief administrative officer for the first two years.
ENR: What new initiatives are you looking at for HDR and what will stay the same?
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Our strategic plan is driving our initiatives this year. We're looking at how to enhance meaningful experiences for employees to make sure they have a home and career path. We're working with historic backlogs and workloads, and we have to make sure we continue to provide exceptional project delivery. Everyone is stretched thin. Like other firms, we're incorporating advanced technologies into services for the client-facing part—and the back part as well—in trying to become more efficient. As for things we don’t change, it's the 107 years that made us successful—the culture, the technical expertise, the employee ownership model.
ENR: What do you see trending in transportation?
More collaborative business models in transportation but even more in architecture, and a little in the water business. Progressive design-build, integrated project delivery—we continue to advocate for that. Public-sector clients are a little slower to embrace it, but we've seen tremendous success using these models.
Across the board, there is a demand for resilience work, especially coastal. We're putting together a team of nationally recognized technical experts to help clients. I’d say those are the big trends.
ENR: Where are areas of growth, geographically or market-wise?
With a global footprint and [federal IIJA and IRA] funding, the U.S. stands out. The Southeast shows strong growth; also Southern California and Texas. There's a lot of great work in the water business and technology markets, like data centers, are showing tremendous growth across the board. We're looking at more renewable energy projects and electric-vehicle infrastructure.
We love Omaha and the Midwest, but I had the opportunity to experience HDR culture as a client in different parts of the world. I’d say that it’s just an understanding of how different the business climate is in other countries—even Canada, the UK, or Australia.
Regulations, labor laws, taxes—all those things. We have to be accepting and not afraid to go in and put together a business strategy in a different environment. We just have to prepare to mitigate the risk that comes with it. Big tech clients are building data centers all over the world. We must have the flexibility and capability to move with them and support them.
