Company Profile
Company Overview
We’re consultants in energy, public works and land development, and we’re an array of technical disciplines. Our practical expertise spans civil engineering, construction management and inspection, land survey, planning and project management, landscape architecture and public involvement for both public and private sector clients.
… We’re builders of lasting relationships. That means, we think of our clients as human beings, not projects. We provide a bridge between the public and private sectors. We open doors for our clients into communities. Our desire for your success is the cornerstone of our working relationship with you.
… We’re makers of strong communities. We lead by doing right, whether we’re helping you to put together a complex mixed-use masterplan development, or to provide power to a remote rural outpost, or to improve the facilities of your city.
Company History
When a long-established west coast civil engineering firm decided to leave Washington State and focus on their existing San Francisco Bay Area business, a dynamic splinter group within its ranks just didn’t want to go. Don MacKay and Richard Sposito saw the potential of the Pacific Northwest, so in 1974 they bought out the Vancouver branch office of MacKay & Somps, and bid their parent company a friendly goodbye.
The timing – in the middle of what was then the worst recession since World War 2 – was courageous. But the new company kept its eye firmly focused on its main area of business, civil engineering, and this was the engine that drove MacKay Sposito through two recessions and the long high of the Nineties. We grew in size, we expanded our sphere of expertise, and we became firmly established as a company whose technical expertise, leadership skill and commitment to clients could be trusted absolutely.
The recession of the early 21st century brought a whole new level of challenge. For the first time in 30 years MacKay Sposito faced the real possibility of failure. We took a long, hard look at our operations and skillsets, we reassessed our options … and we recognized several brand new fields where we could play. By the end of the first decade of this century the economy was still limping, but we were taking rapid strides into the energy industry and our land surveying team was taking ground in several niche markets.
Today we employ over 100 dedicated professionals. We have offices in Vancouver, Kennewick and Federal Way, Washington, in Hillsboro, Oregon, and in Soda Springs, Idaho. We serve clients as far afield as Alaska, Montana, Wyoming and California. But it’s not just about physical growth – we’re much more than that. We still have a solid foundation in the old-fashioned values of dedication, leadership, honesty and relationship, and our work is still built around a strong core of professional and technical skill. We look to the future with