40 Years of Dudek

In our first 40 years, Dudek has grown from a two-person Southern California engineering firm to a 600-person national multidisciplinary environmental and engineering firm. With projects in 44 states, Dudek is ranked as one of the Top 130 U.S. Environmental Firms (Engineering News-Record, 2019).

Here’s to our big 4-0! We are just getting started.

Learn more about us!

Reflections from our Leaders

Frank Dudek, Chairman of the Board

“From the first 40 years as founder and leader at Dudek, I have three basic takeaways. First, experiencing tremendous satisfaction in helping build a successful, sustainable, and growing consulting firm throughout California—and now well beyond. Second, achieving an early goal I set for myself: to assemble such a diverse and competent management and professional staff that it renders its founder non-essential to the continued success of the firm. And third, accomplishing this with a simple management philosophy: to provide unwavering trust and support, along with meaningful rewards and opportunity for ownership, with minimal bureaucracy.”

Joe Monaco, President and CEO

“I joined Dudek 20 years ago, mid-way through our firm’s journey thus far. What I remember most clearly from those early days is a feeling of opportunity—but also, that we had a lot of work ahead of us to reach our aspirational goals! I never would have imagined back then that we would have achieved so much today: a nationwide presence, successful ownership and leadership transitions, a robust corporate culture that reflects our strong core values, and financial growth to a record and milestone level of $100M in gross revenue.

Reflecting on our 40th anniversary, my feeling of opportunity has only grown and now encompasses the retrospective and the prospective. We have seen great success by identifying and leveraging opportunities throughout the years. By doing so, we continue to create more and better opportunities to work on interesting projects, to develop our careers, to be an industry leader, and to have fun doing it.”

Dudek through the Decades

Dudek History

1980

Mar 1980

Dudek Founded

Dudek opens its doors in downtown Encinitas, California as a small civil engineering consulting practice working for municipal wastewater agencies and private land developers in San Diego County.

1985

Jun 1985

Construction Management Practice Started

The firm launches its construction management practice focused on Southern California developments and infrastructure.

1986

Oct 1986

District Management Practice Launched

The District Management practice is launched, widening the scope of services offered to our water district clients.

1990

Sep 1990

Environmental Practice Started

The Environmental practice is launched to help clients navigate projects through California’s complex environmental regulatory permitting and documentation processes.

1992

May 1992

Hydrogeology/Hazardous Waste Practice Launched

Dudek’s hydrogeology practice is launched to tackle projects requiring the extraction and treatment of contaminated groundwater/soils and recharge of water/treated wastewater.

1995

May 1995

Central Coast Expansion

Dudek opens its first regional office in Santa Barbara, expanding into California’s Central Coast, with a focus on local development and permitting.

1996

Jul 1996

Orange County Office Opening

Office is established in Orange, California, expanding our geographic reach for water district and city clients.

1997

Jan 1997

Staff Grows to 50

50 Dudekians work in 3 offices across California.

Jun 1997

Inland Empire Expansion

Dudek moves into Palm Desert, California to focus on civil engineering and habitat conservation planning throughout the vast and diverse Coachella Valley.

2000

Jan 2000

Staff Expands to 100

100 Dudekians work in 3 offices across California.

2003

Dec 2003

ESOP Created

The firm creates an ESOP to protect and further develop employee ownership.

2004

Jun 2004

HRS Founded

HRS (Habitat Restoration Sciences), our habitat restoration construction subsidiary is founded, branching out from and complementing our habitat restoration design practice.

2006

Nov 2006

Northern California Expansion

Dudek moves into Northern California with an office in Auburn focused on preserving and planning for the Sierra foothills and surrounding regions.

2007

Jan 2007

Staff Grows to 200

200 Dudekians work in 5 offices across California.

2010

Nov 2010

Sacramento Office Opening

Sacramento office opens adding planning and environmental regulatory experts proximate to our state agency clients.

2013

Jan 2013

Bay Area Expansion

The firm opens two Bay Area offices in Larkspur and San Francisco to service a diverse set of clients spread geographically around the Bay.

Oct 2013

LA Metro Area Expansion

Dudek establishes Pasadena office, positioning the firm to service Los Angeles County clients on large infrastructure and planning projects.

Dec 2013

Staff Expands to 300

300 Dudekians work in 8 offices across California.

2016

Feb 2016

Pacific Expansion

The firm goes west, expanding into Hawai’i to establish our UAS (drone survey) practice.

Mar 2016

Santa Cruz Office Opening

Dudek widens its Central Coast presence with the opening of an office in Santa Cruz focused on local agency and statewide education system clients.

Aug 2016

Northwest Expansion

Dudek adds a Portland office to serve as a base for the multifaceted needs of our Pacific Northwest clients.

2017

Mar 2017

Oakland Office Opening

Dudek’s Bay Area presence continues to evolve to suit the needs of city and agency clients around the bay, consolidating into a single office in downtown Oakland, California.

Dec 2017

Staff Grows to 400

400 Dudekians work in 12 offices in California, Oregon, and Hawaiʻi.

2018

Dec 2018

Staff Expands to 500

500 Dudekians work in 12 offices across the western United States.

2019

Aug 2019

Feb 2020

Virginia Office Opening

Dudek establishes an office in downtown Norfolk, Virginia to serve our ever expanding energy clients as they work to meet new and growing renewable portfolio standards.

Mar 2020

The Present

Dudek serves clients in every resource and infrastructure-related sector
Our team consists of 15 major practice groups
Our 600+ employees work in 16 offices nationwide
Our projects span more than 40 states