TOLEDO, Ohio, January 21, 2025 – SSOE Group (www.ssoe.com), an internationally ranked architecture and engineering firm, announced today the establishment of its new practice groups. These practice groups are integral to the firm’s mission to deliver unparalleled client value that advances the AEC industry, aiming to enhance project delivery through best practices, efficiencies, and training. This approach not only sustains the quality of performance but will also ensure SSOE’s technical expertise is more visible both within and outside of the firm.
Elevating Projects and Enhancing Client Value
In 2022, SSOE implemented its first-ever practice group within the structural discipline. This group was founded and led by Bill Kussro, PE, SE, P.Eng, a licensed civil and structural engineer in all 50 states and several Canadian provinces. Over the past two years, Kussro has worked to improve quality and efficiency by standardizing, streamlining, and enhancing processes for project execution. Kussro’s success with the structural team has led to the launch of nine more discipline-specific practice groups within the firm.
Based on the modeling, mentorship, and ingenuity demonstrated by Kussro and the expanding model within SSOE, he has been promoted to Vice President of Engineering and Design with all practice group leads at the firm reporting to him. Kussro will also oversee SSOE’s continuous improvement team, which has been integrated with the practice groups to enable rapid adoption of new processes. He will maintain his role as chair of the Technical Development Strategy Group at SSOE and champion Lean design initiatives across the organization.
Kussro shared his thoughts on the new role, stating, “I’m honored to lead the Community of Practice here at SSOE and continue our journey towards excellence. Our practice groups are designed to harness the collective expertise of our talented professionals across all disciplines. By standardizing and streamlining our processes and driving innovation, we’ve significantly enhanced our efficiency and quality of work. This initiative not only elevates our internal capabilities and enhances our culture of collaboration, it also ensures we deliver unparalleled value to our clients by taking a targeted and thorough approach to continuous improvement and resource sharing. It’s crucial to foster a culture of continuous improvement across an organization; I’m excited about driving it and focused on our ongoing development.”
Practice Makes Perfect
SSOE’s experienced practice group leads are responsible for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving multidisciplinary work processes. They ensure quality and excellence at an enterprise level by leveraging the collective strength, diversity, and knowledge of their respective groups. This approach optimizes performance, increases efficiency and quality, while fostering growth to meet capacity needs and enhanced collaboration.
To date, SSOE has appointed 10 dynamic practice group leaders to weave innovation and expertise across the firm’s diverse business units:
- Civil – Zac Smith, PE
- Architectural & Interior Design – Heather Judge, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
- Structural – Heath Chesnut, PE
- Mechanical / Fire Protection – Ed Powazki, PE, LEED AP
- Process – Duncan McEwen, PE, P.Eng
- Electrical – P.R. Calkins, PE
- Data / Fire / Security – Evan Baker
- Controls – Ryan Beat, PE
- VDC & Project Design Technology – Mark LaBell
- Project Management – Dana Brumley, PE, PMP
The collaborative nature of SSOE’s practice groups yields significant benefits for clients, such as reducing delays, minimizing cost overruns, and providing thorough risk assessment and mitigation. Because of the focus on knowledge transfer from senior to junior-level employees, these practice groups are a great opportunity for continued development, mentorship, and networking.
Kussro commented, “The high level of concentrated knowledge and proficiency of our practice groups seamlessly integrates with our business units. These groups weave together diverse expertise, fostering a collaborative environment that encourages idea-sharing, leading to effective solutions for complex design and project delivery challenges. In our industry’s competitive talent market, the synergy from this integration enhances our culture and significantly appeals to the next generation of SSOE professionals we aim to attract.”
