Ridolfi
Specialty: Environmental and civil engineering with an emphasis in habitat restoration and natural resource studies; waste management; environmental cleanup; energy efficiency and renewable energy
Management: Colin Wagoner, CEO; Bruno Ridolfi, principal engineer; Tom Bowden, senior geologist; Bill Beckley, senior environmental scientist
Founded: 1990
Headquarters: Seattle
2009 revenues: $2.5 million
Projected 2010 revenues: $3 million
Current projects: Yakama Nation Hanford response activities; Makah NALEMP; Makah Transfer Station; Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe Brownfields Assessment; St. Michael Village Energy Planning
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While many firms have had a tough time drumming up work over the past year, Seattle-based Ridolfi has faced a different challenge: trying to manage all the new work that has come in without overworking employees.
CEO Colin Wagoner said the company’s backlog started a year ago and looks to be continuing into 2011. Each of the company’s six areas of service — including environmental cleanup, regulatory support and habitat restoration — have been equally busy. Some of the backlog has been supported by federal funding; one big project is driven heavily by the stimulus.
“This has been probably our steadiest year, month to month, in a long time,” he said. “I’m really excited about where we’re heading.”
Getting lucky
Ridolfi’s work is concentrated in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Wagoner said work has been spread equally geographically.
The company’s success is due to a number of factors including strong client relationships and hard-working employees. Wagoner said another important factor is Ridolfi’s clients, which are not development-driven or development-related, but often tribes and regulatory agencies.
“I think that’s kept us insulated from the worst of the recession,” he said. “It wasn’t some big strategic plan. It’s just some level by the luck of the draw.”
Getting into energy
About three years ago, Ridolfi moved into a new market: energy work. The company helps clients think about where they are now and where they could be in relation to renewables and energy efficiency. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy recently came out with a grant program for states, cities and tribes. Ridolfi has worked with several clients to pursue these opportunities. Wagoner said he thinks energy work will continue to be a growing field.
Hiring, not firing
Ridolfi is hiring and did not have any layoffs during the recession. The company, which has 19 employees, recently brought on someone with a natural sciences and environmental engineering background. A new civil engineer will start work in September. Wagoner said Ridolfi will probably have enough work to support a couple new hires over the next year.
Wagoner said he is very careful about the people he hires. The ideal new hire, he said, will fit the company’s culture but also “push us older fogies into thinking outside of the box.” People with new ideas help better the company as a whole, he said, and help everyone expand their skill sets.
Ridolfi recently signed a new 10-year lease on its office on Western Avenue between Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market. Wagoner said he’s looking forward to “sprucing up the digs” and to “a really successful, prosperous end of 2010 and into 2011.”