Brindley Engineering turns 10! 3 office expansions later, a Gulf Coast presence, new service offerings, a culture worth recognizing, and still going strong…
Like many startups, Brindley Engineering has had a few beginnings, but the one that we are focusing on today is July 2013 when Brindley Engineering opened its doors at 801 Warrenville Road in Lisle, IL and kicked off a project on the North Slope of Alaska. [spoiler alert… since July 2013 Brindley Engineering has grown from 1 to 120+, undergone 3 office expansions and has been recognized numerous times for its culture – most recently Great Place To Work® and Fortune magazine have honored Brindley Engineering as one of 2023’s Best Workplaces in Chicago.]
The Beginning
After 10+ years in the field, founder Tom Brindley saw a growing need to improve reliability and decrease overall infrastructure life cycle costs. Thus, Brindley Engineering was born. The goal was to be leaders in the space and to be known for analyzing, designing, and advising on the challenges of aging, mission-critical infrastructure, for capital and maintenance projects, reliability initiatives, and construction solutions. The secret sauce? Brindley Engineering values people, culture, respect, and commitment. You’ll often hear “BE Together”, which means BE is a diverse team, brought together through common values that create an amazing culture. A culture that values the people, family, flexibility, hard work, leadership, and mutual respect. BE supports each other in an environment where everyone matters.
The Evolution
When the BE team reached 25+ in 2015, they celebrated an office expansion and added additional desks, IT infrastructure, invested in equipment and collaborative workspaces. Shortly thereafter, there was a second expansion when the company reached 50+ employees in 2019. The office boasted more workspaces, collaborative working rooms and a further evolved IT infrastructure.
BE is currently expanding again as the team has grown to over 120+ in 2023. For this office expansion there was an Office Expansion Committee put in place to help BE select the best options of layout, functionality, amenities, aesthetics, etc. The company instilled a group of BE employees to oversee the expansion and ensure the plan flows well and blends stylistically with the current office.
In 2021 BE was Certified a “Great Place to Work”. The prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Brindley Engineering. In 2021, 97% of employees said it’s a great place to work – compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. BE repeated that in 2022 with another Great Places to Work certification. In 2023 BE was named No.33 Fortune Great Places to Work in Chicago. Brindley’s inaugural appearance to this prestigious list is an honor. Earning a spot means that Brindley Engineering has surpassed rigorous benchmarks, establishing itself as one of the best companies to work for headquartered in Chicago.
The Brand
Along the way the team invested in the Brindley Engineering brand. Because they were growing fast and onboarding new customers it was time to formalize the BE brand. This would serve customers, employees, and potential employees equally. The team participated in brand workshops and worked with their existing customers to better understand what they do well and where they can improve. The output of the brand exercise was a new look and feel, new website, and formal company values.
BE Together
BE is a diverse team, brought together through common values that create an amazing culture. A culture that values the people, family, flexibility, hard work, leadership, and mutual respect. BE supports each other in an environment where everyone matters.
Everyone Matters.
BE Creative
We are creative. We are in the field, on-site, so we can create real-time, constructible solutions. We are not paper pushers. We are known for recognizing situations before they become a problem and taking a creative approach to the work. Since we are so close to all maintenance projects, we are a reliable resource to help integrate capital projects into that existing infrastructure. We understand budget constraints and ensure the minimization of lifecycle costs for your equipment within objective constraints– that’s our job. We know clients have zero tolerance for downtime…so do we.
Count on us.
BE Meticulous
We won’t stop until we are 100% confident in our work. There is no such thing as a small mistake. We are experts who take our work and our clients’ challenges personally. Creative solutions without the relentless pursuit of execution perfection do not move the needle – Creative execution is key. We are committed together – from Founder to new college grad – to building the next generation of engineering stewards who will grow and prosper with confidence. We leave no stone unturned.
Every detail counts.
BE Reliable
BE is always on. We know the facts and we respond at a moment’s notice. We are prepared. We’ve thought through everything. We work as an extension of your team and always have skin in the game– we take it personally.
We have your back.
Expanded Engineering Services
The BE team prides themselves on their ability to help clients thrive in any situation they face. BE helps them plan for the unplanned. BE is an integrated choice for capital and maintenance, reliability and construction solutions . Today, Brindley Engineering, still headquartered in Lisle, IL, maintains a continual multidiscipline presence in the US Gulf Coast, with extensive experience internationally in Canada, Aruba, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Oman. Domestically, Brindley Engineering has worked from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Alaska to the Caribbean, and everywhere in between.
Industries Served:
- Oil & Gas Extraction and Pre-Processing (Upstream)
- Pipelines and Terminals (Midstream)
- Petroleum & Gas Refining (Downstream)
- Chemical Plants
- Steel Mills
- Petrochemical Plants
- Power Generation Plants
- Renewable Power Generation
- Pharmaceutical
- Manufacturing
- Water Treatment
Culture is Everything
BE invests in Women, Veterans and a diverse culture. In fact, the most popular Instagram post to date is a video from the BE office where employees say “Happy Friday” in 19 languages. Diversity is part of their DNA and what makes them a Great Places to Work. Employees have written articles on topics including: Pregnancy in the Workplace, Women in Engineering, a the importance of supporting STEM in High School.
And BE looks for passionate people to join their team – not everyone comes from a typical engineering background. Meet 3 of BE’s engineers who came from the Military: Mike Picard, Kevin Kukla, and Keith Cowan.
Celebrating 10 years
Recently the teams celebrated together across the globe. From the Middle East to Corpus Christie to Lisle, Illinois USA the team bonded and celebrate 10 years of growth, improvement, and dedication – to each other, to clients and to the profession of engineering.
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