PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2018

time
CAPSULE MAGAZINE
MCKIM & CREED FIRST 40 YEARS
Mission: TO PROVIDE THE MOST RESPONSIVE AND
DEPENDABLE SERVICE ALL THE TIME.

Vision:
TO BE A WORLD-CLASS CONSULTANCY
OF PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE DEFINE AND
ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS AND DREAMS.

Core RESPECT FOR PEOPLE INTEGRITY

Values: MANAGEMENT BY FACT

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
OWNERSHIP
SAFETY
SUSTAINABILITY
table of contents

4 OUR STORY

5 EXPANDING SERVICES

7 DEVELOPING MISSION AND VISION

8 REBRANDING OUR LOOK

9 PEOPLE ARE THE DIFFERENTIATOR

10 GEOGRAPHIC EXPANSION

11 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

12 TODAY
FROM GRIT TO GREAT

OUR
STORY
June 1, 2018—Forty years ago today, Herb McKim and Mike Creed established
McKim & Creed. They set up shop in a downtown Wilmington, North Carolina
office that offered the cheapest rent they could find. They built a drafting table
from old doors and a desk from particle board. They shared a telephone.

They’d never made a cold call, never managed a staff, never prepared financial
statements. They were young and a little naïve. But most importantly, they were
passionate. Passionate about being the best engineers they could be. Passionate
about providing the most responsive and dependable service all the time.
Passionate about providing a company where people could build successful
careers.

THEY WERE MCKIM & CREED.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 4

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 5
 19 8 0 s

Expanding Services

O
riginally, McKim & Creed focused only
on structural engineering, serving
primarily as consultants to architectural
firms. But in the early 1980s, Herb and
Mike made a crucial decision—to grow
a business with diversified offerings.
Their goal was to minimize the vicious feast-or-
famine cycle that most small engineering and
architecture “practices” seemed to experience.

In 1982, the company added civil engineering

and surveying services. Two years later we
expanded into the water/wastewater market.
Our first mechanical, electrical and plumbing
(MEP) engineers joined us in 1985.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 6

 DEVELOPING MISSION AND VISION

THINKING
FOR
NEXT

40
THE

YEARS

I
N 1985, Herb completed his MBA at the Cameron Business School at the University
of North Carolina Wilmington. During his years of graduate school, McKim & Creed
benefited from some of the leading thinkers in the business world. Herb introduced
us to strategic planning, and we formulated our first mission and vision statements.
Interestingly, our very first mission and vision statements and core values contained
much of the same verbiage in use today.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 7

Rebranding our
Look TO C E L E B R AT E O U R 10 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y, M C K I M & C R E E D
R E B R A N D E D O U R LO O K A N D R E TO O L E D O U R B U S I N E S S
S T R AT E G Y.

1997 AND DESIGNED BY MORVIL DESIGN GROUP, WILMINGTON, NC

THE STYLIZED PYRAMID THAT BECAME A PART OF MCKIM & CREED’S BRAND IN 1988 REPRESENTS
STRENGTH, ENDURANCE, CREATIVITY, PRECISION AND QUALITY.

IT WAS THE GENESIS OF OUR PURPLE AND GRAY PYRAMID LOGO. AND THAT WAS WHEN HERB AND MIKE MADE THE DECISION TO MINIMIZE
ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTING AND GROW THE WATER/WASTEWATER AND INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS SECTORS.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 8

People are the
Differentiator
M
ike completed his business training at
UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan School of Busi-
ness in 1989. While his original motive
was to better understand the vagaries of
balance sheets and income statements,
he left with a profound sense that peo-
ple are the most critical differentiator in the world
of business. That belief became a part of McKim &
Creed’s DNA.

By 1990,
McKim & Creed’s staff size had surpassed 100.
Both Herb and Mike were working to grow the busi-
ness while others performed the engineering, sur-
veying and day-to-day project management.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 9

 GEOGRAPHIC
E XPANSION

STRATEGIC PLANNING

While engaging in strategic planning in 1993, the company established a goal

for geographical expansion—to be completed in five years—that stretched
from Virginia to Florida. In February 1994, we were contacted by Briley Wild and
Associates about expanding to Florida. Ultimately, that acquisition led to McKim &
Creed’s first foray outside North Carolina. We consider the expansion into Florida
and the talent we acquired—not to mention the client base—to be one of our most
important business moves.

From 2001 to 2003, McKim & Creed worked with an organizational development
consultant who helped begin the process of getting the right people into the right
positions. While this produced a huge upheaval of staff changes, it also positioned
us to enjoy a period of considerable growth—from $22 million in 2003 to $64
million in 2007.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 10

External
Influences
I
n 2009, our first external directors—industry experts who were not McKim & Creed employ-
ees—joined our board of directors. And in late 2013, Herb and Mike led the board in search
of a new CEO, also from outside the company. After many months of interviews and weekly
conference calls with our search consultants, in late 2014 John T. Lucey was named as the first
McKim & Creed CEO whose name wasn’t McKim or Creed.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 11

today

H
erb and Mike are immensely proud of the company that McKim & Creed is
today. Through the years, we have been blessed with long-term leaders who
have contributed to our successes, helped us sail through rough seas, and
kept us grounded and true to our roots. At the same time, we have been
fortunate enough to attract young professionals to our staff, whose energy,
enthusiasm and innovation keep McKim & Creed dynamic, technologically
sophisticated and community-focused.

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 12

MCKIM & CREED | 40 YEARS 13
THANK YOU ALL FOR
HELPING MCKIM & CREED
BECOME WHO WE ARE TODAY.
TOGETHER, WE HAVE
EXCEEDED
ALL EXPECTATIONS
PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2018