FHI Newsletter

From the Prez...

Spring greetings!!! As I write this it’s cold and rainy, but we know warmer days are ahead.

As Susan VanBenschoten, our COO, communicated in a previous column, we recently completed a strategic planning process to chart our course into the future. A key challenge of our strategic planning process last year was creating a vision that we can use as a touchstone to help guide our decisions. Our vision describes what we at FHI want to do and what we want to be, as follows:

FHI Vision:

FHI practices innovative planning to shape better communities. Better communities are lively and robust, well integrated, and support sustainable development. We constantly seek new ideas and fresh ways to approach old problems in collaboration with our clients. We strive for synergy as we integrate environmental stewardship, mobility, public involvement, and land use strategies into planning. In partnership with our clients, we realize challenging goals while enriching the places and spaces that make home.

We are a company of innovative, multidisciplinary, and environmentally conscious planners, engineers, and scientists dedicated to improving the structure, function, connectivity, and overall quality of communities. We encourage strategic thinking, professional growth, and camaraderie, while embracing a flexible and supportive work environment. Our professional integrity, communication skills, energy, extraordinary client service, and superior product quality lead to a thriving business.

To me, a very exciting aspect of this vision is that it was developed by a subcommittee of our ownership group, and I was not intimately involved. Yet this vision reflects exactly what I hope and wish for FHI. I couldn’t have said it better!! Our staff is passionate about wanting to create better communities, ones that are more sustainable and more livable, and we want to do it with integrity, working collaboratively with others who share our vision in a supportive work environment. I am very proud of what our vision says about our staff and what it communicates to our clients and teaming partners.

A key aspect of our strategic plan is ensuring that we do what is necessary to “live the vision”. That’s the real challenge here.…..but I’ll save that column for another day.

On a related note, one of our strategic planning initiatives is to continue our ownership transition process to provide a smooth journey for FHI from single owner to broad ownership. To that end, I am excited to report that on St. Patrick’s Day, we entered a new era at FHI. This was no small event for us, and we are pleased and proud to be launching ourselves on a slightly new trajectory.

The happy photos below were taken on March 17th when we welcomed six new owners into the FHI ownership group. FHI now has a total of 14 shareholders!!! We have indeed come a long way since we first embarked on our ownership transition process in 2006.

Why is this a new era?? As of March 17th, I am no longer FHI’s majority shareholder. This is a huge step for FHI, for the ownership group, and, of course, for me personally. I founded FHI in 1987 and for our first 20 years I was FHI’s president and only shareholder. Since 2006, many staff have accepted the offer to become owners of FHI, though until this month I remained as FHI’s majority shareholder. Now, our ownership model has moved into another new phase. (Are we still a DBE? You bet! Notice all the women in the photo who comprise well over half of our ownership group).

I am proud of the degree of confidence that our staff has invested in themselves as owners of FHI and of the seamless way we have moved this process successfully forward over the past four years.

As we welcome spring’s longer, warmer days and promise of new growth, at FHI we will be focusing on continuing to live our vision. As always, our mission remains to provide the best possible service to you, our clients, without whom we would not exist.

Ruth

FHI's newest shareholders clockwise from bottom left: Leslie Black, Debbie Hoffman, Mary Manning, Mike Morehouse, David Laiuppa, and Marcy Miller

FHI's full ownership group as of March 17, 2010. Inset photo - Ken Livingston, who was unable to attend. Bottom row, l - r: Leslie Black, Ruth Fitzgerald, Carla Tillery, Paul Stanton. Second row: Debbie Hoffman, Marcy Miller. Third row: Susan VanBenschoten, Jill Barrett, David Laiuppa. Top row: Mary Manning, Linda Perelli-Wright, Carol Gould, Mike Morehouse.


• Transportation Planning • Environmental Planning • Cultural Resource Services • • Public Involvement • Community & Site Planning • GIS/Technical •

In this Issue: From the Prez... Helping Kids Stay Safe...and Fit! Airport Projects Soar Sustainable Transit Facility Design The Interstate 81 Dilemma FHI Staff Notes	From the Prez... Spring greetings!!! As I write this it’s cold and rainy, but we know warmer days are ahead. As Susan VanBenschoten, our COO, communicated in a previous column, we recently completed a strategic planning process to chart our course into the future. A key challenge of our strategic planning process last year was creating a vision that we can use as a touchstone to help guide our decisions. Our vision describes what we at FHI want to do and what we want to be, as follows: FHI Vision: FHI practices innovative planning to shape better communities. Better communities are lively and robust, well integrated, and support sustainable development. We constantly seek new ideas and fresh ways to approach old problems in collaboration with our clients. We strive for synergy as we integrate environmental stewardship, mobility, public involvement, and land use strategies into planning. In partnership with our clients, we realize challenging goals while enriching the places and spaces that make home. We are a company of innovative, multidisciplinary, and environmentally conscious planners, engineers, and scientists dedicated to improving the structure, function, connectivity, and overall quality of communities. We encourage strategic thinking, professional growth, and camaraderie, while embracing a flexible and supportive work environment. Our professional integrity, communication skills, energy, extraordinary client service, and superior product quality lead to a thriving business. To me, a very exciting aspect of this vision is that it was developed by a subcommittee of our ownership group, and I was not intimately involved. Yet this vision reflects exactly what I hope and wish for FHI. I couldn’t have said it better!! Our staff is passionate about wanting to create better communities, ones that are more sustainable and more livable, and we want to do it with integrity, working collaboratively with others who share our vision in a supportive work environment. I am very proud of what our vision says about our staff and what it communicates to our clients and teaming partners. A key aspect of our strategic plan is ensuring that we do what is necessary to “live the vision”. That’s the real challenge here.…..but I’ll save that column for another day. On a related note, one of our strategic planning initiatives is to continue our ownership transition process to provide a smooth journey for FHI from single owner to broad ownership. To that end, I am excited to report that on St. Patrick’s Day, we entered a new era at FHI. This was no small event for us, and we are pleased and proud to be launching ourselves on a slightly new trajectory. The happy photos below were taken on March 17th when we welcomed six new owners into the FHI ownership group. FHI now has a total of 14 shareholders!!! We have indeed come a long way since we first embarked on our ownership transition process in 2006. Why is this a new era?? As of March 17th, I am no longer FHI’s majority shareholder. This is a huge step for FHI, for the ownership group, and, of course, for me personally. I founded FHI in 1987 and for our first 20 years I was FHI’s president and only shareholder. Since 2006, many staff have accepted the offer to become owners of FHI, though until this month I remained as FHI’s majority shareholder. Now, our ownership model has moved into another new phase. (Are we still a DBE? You bet! Notice all the women in the photo who comprise well over half of our ownership group). I am proud of the degree of confidence that our staff has invested in themselves as owners of FHI and of the seamless way we have moved this process successfully forward over the past four years. As we welcome spring’s longer, warmer days and promise of new growth, at FHI we will be focusing on continuing to live our vision. As always, our mission remains to provide the best possible service to you, our clients, without whom we would not exist. Ruth FHI's newest shareholders clockwise from bottom left: Leslie Black, Debbie Hoffman, Mary Manning, Mike Morehouse, David Laiuppa, and Marcy Miller FHI's full ownership group as of March 17, 2010. Inset photo - Ken Livingston, who was unable to attend. Bottom row, l - r: Leslie Black, Ruth Fitzgerald, Carla Tillery, Paul Stanton. Second row: Debbie Hoffman, Marcy Miller. Third row: Susan VanBenschoten, Jill Barrett, David Laiuppa. Top row: Mary Manning, Linda Perelli-Wright, Carol Gould, Mike Morehouse.