Following the firm’s annual shareholder meeting in April, Wright-Pierce announced a new President and CEO as well as new leadership team members. Paul Birkel has been named as the new President and CEO, succeeding John Braccio. This transition continues the implementation of Wright-Pierce’s well established ownership transition plan.
Former President and CEO John Braccio will remain with the firm as the Chairman of the Board and Strategic Advisor. New President and CEO Paul Birkel has been with Wright-Pierce for over three decades, most recently as Executive Vice President and Wastewater Practice Group Leader, and has been transitioning into his new role for the past five years. “I started my career at Wright-Pierce in 1990 and have experienced four CEO transitions during that time, this one included. Our plan is to remain a legacy firm for our employees and our focus on succession planning and ownership transition affords us this luxury. While each new CEO brings different initiatives and ideas to the table, I plan to focus on our people, our processes, and maintaining technical excellence in our work products as we grow and expand into new geographic areas.” Wright-Pierce maintains one of its differentiators as a firm is that it is owned, operated, and led by its practitioners – this allows the leadership team to stay deeply connected to the engineering work being performed.
This transition also appoints new leadership in the firm’s Wastewater Practice Group including Tim Vadney as the group’s lead and Steve Hallowell and Chris Pierce as regional group leaders for Southern New England/New York and Southeast areas, respectively. Vadney, Hallowell, and Pierce have all been with Wright-Pierce for two decades or more.
Additional leadership transitions include appointment of Mike Curry (Portsmouth, NH) as New Hampshire Wastewater Group Leader; Dennis Dievert (Middletown, CT) as Western Massachusetts/Connecticut Wastewater Group Leader; Kevin Hickey (Clifton Park, NY) as New York Wastewater Group Leader; Ryan Wadsworth (Portland, ME) as Wastewater Process Engineering Manager, Northeast; and Bartt Booz (Maitland, FL) as Wastewater Process Engineering Manager, Southeast.
Wright-Pierce is growing from within as well as looking to add new team members. Visit the careers page on the firm’s website to learn about open career opportunities.
View the video below to hear John and Paul talk further about this transition.