Coffman Announces New Federal Initiative and Leadership, and New CEO

Letters from our Leadership.

When Dave Coffman established Coffman many years ago, he set out to build a firm that had stability based on an exceptional culture, great people, and diversity in our services and geography. From the very beginning, based on this philosophy, we have made adjustments to our business to meet client needs and to maintain sustainable growth, and thirty nine years later, our longevity and success continues to be significant.

2017 was another fantastic year for Coffman and one of our best years’ to date. We finished with increased revenue growth, solid profitability, strong backlog, growth in depth of services and geography, and business metrics in the top 20% of engineering companies. While we had a tremendous year, we believe that in the consulting business, sustainable growth is necessary to maintain our stability and remain relevant.

Today we are announcing a new company wide initiative to further our expansion into the federal market. This includes Department of Defense (DoD) work, which we have excelled at for many years. We will use DoD as an entry point to leverage our services in new federal markets such as the extensive work required to address our national aging infrastructure. We anticipate that federal work will continue to be one of our most significant markets.

The magnitude of this federal initiative will require my full time effort, so I am changing my responsibilities from CEO to Sr. Vice President in order to focus on this work. We have proven that this market sector enhances the diversity of our client and market base, and consistently provides desirable project opportunities for our offices. I want to focus our successful experiences, expertise, and lessons learned to make a concerted effort in expanding our footprint in federal contracting.

Dave Ruff, who is currently the President, will assume the role as CEO and President. He has the proven leadership skills to guide us to an even better company than we are today. Dave is not only my business partner but a personal friend and role model who I look to for guidance. There is no one better suited for this role and he has my 110% support.

Dave Gardner
Sr. Vice President
Federal Programs

To embark on a strategy with this potential for growth takes strong leadership and market specific experience. Dave Gardner has this experience and has stepped up to take on this challenge. He has been involved in the federal sector his entire career starting out as an engineer at NAVFAC and later at Coffman leading the successful execution of DoD work throughout Alaska and the Pacific Rim. He will now be responsible for our federal focus on the national level working with all of our offices.

As Dave shifts his focus to this strategic initiative, I would like to recognize his impact on this company. As CEO,  he carried the baton handed to him from our founder, and he perpetuated the success of Coffman during the most critical phase of any company — the transition from founder leadership to second generation leadership. Looking back over the past three years, we have had nearly 40% growth in revenue and profit, established offices in new geographic locations, and maintained the strong office model.

I have the utmost respect for Dave for his past leadership achievements. And now, his willingness to pass the baton to me so he can concentrate on this strategic position is a testament to his humble nature. I have big shoes to fill.

I am honored to have the opportunity to lead this company as we embark on a new chapter. We have incredible team. Together there is nothing that we can’t achieve, most important of which is protecting and improving upon our great culture so we can continue to serve our clients with excellence.

Together, we will steward this company in honor of those who have come before us and mindful of the next generation.

I am excited about us: our team, our future, our purpose.

Dave Ruff
CEO/President