Diverse Business Spotlight: Dawood Engineering

The company
For 30 years, Dawood Engineering has planned, designed and built sustainable environments. As a multi-discipline engineering and technology firm with operations throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, and a trusted advisor to the utility industry, Dawood’s success is built on a foundation of six core values: deliver valuable, high-quality work, be agile and innovative, build deep and lasting client relationships, attract talent, be safe always, and give back.

The history
Dawood was introduced to Nicor Gas at an Illinois Utility Business Diversity Council (IUBDC) event in 2019. As the partnership grew over the years, Dawood was soon able to expand as one of Nicor Gas’ primary providers and a Tier 2 provider. Soon thereafter, the company began to open offices and provide staff in the Southern Company footprint, which provided Dawood the opportunities it needed to diversify its business and showcase its expertise to other operating companies within Southern Company and other utility companies across the country.

“Over the years, we began to understand and refine our understanding of where the best opportunities are for our specific skill set and the value we can bring to Nicor Gas and Southern Company Gas,” says Bony Dawood, president and CEO.

As a recent graduate of the Supplier Diversity Business Development Mentor/Protégé Program, Dawood developed many relationships during the 18-month program that has proved to be mutually beneficial. In just over two years, Dawood has moved from an initial assignment to becoming one of Southern Company’s largest private clients. Additionally, the company has been provided pilot projects for innovative ideas their staff has developed to further strengthen the potential value added by organizations like Dawood. “We have been steadily hiring staff to meet the needs of opportunities provided by Nicor Gas and are excited about the future.”

Dawood earned recognition for work they collaborated on with Southern Company Gas, including a recent national award at an Esri® User Conference for their innovative use of geographic information system (GIS) tools on a project with Nicor Gas’ land group.

The impact

“Even though we are celebrating 30 years in business, we are working in a very traditional field and compete against companies significantly larger, with greater resources and legacy history serving Nicor Gas, which is challenging. The diversity and inclusion culture within Nicor Gas allows us to uncover new opportunities to serve, which is a growth and development opportunity for our staff,” says Dawood.

Southern Company Gas’ commitment to embracing and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as a corporate value gave Dawood a new focus to expand their DE&I initiatives by creating a diversity committee to educate their employees and provide
scholarships to encourage more diversity in engineering fields. “The challenge of any diverse organization is to be an innovative value provider and to be relevant to a large organization such as Nicor Gas,” says Dawood.