Smith + Andersen launches employee share ownership plan

The Smith + Andersen Group has invited its staff to participate in the consulting engineering firm’s first-ever employee share ownership plan (ESOP).

Founded by Ian F. Smith and John Andersen in Toronto in 1965, the privately owned company began as a mechanical consulting engineering practice and expanded to cover nine engineering and design disciplines as a national firm, with offices in Vancouver, Kelowna, B.C., Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Ont., Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. In 2011, it launched Footprint, a dedicated sustainability consulting practice.

The firm currently employs more than 600 people. The ESOP provides an opportunity for eligible staff members to invest directly in the firm’s collective national operations, allowing them to become owners in the business, including nine Smith + Andersen offices and seven Footprint offices.

“We believe it takes both investment ownership and work contribution to make a company successful,” says managing principal Kevin Farbridge, “and ownership can and, ideally, should be available for all. The ESOP will be a foundation for individual career success, team building and collective prosperity.”

“The launch of the ESOP felt like another natural step for our company,” says principal Douglas Smith. “Our work ethic, which began with my father when he started the firm, is still what keeps us moving forward.”