Membership Spotlight
Hargrove Engineers + Constructors President Ralph Hargrove started his business 20 years ago in an un-air conditioned attic in his Mobile home. Over the past two decades, this Business Council of Alabama member has grown from its start-up to one of the largest engineering firms in Alabama with 10 offices and 950 employees nationwide, including 332 at the Mobile headquarters.
The company provides specialized engineering, procurement, project and construction management, and technical services to pulp and paper, chemical, pharmaceutical, refining, power, oil and gas, manufacturing and government and infrastructure industries.
In April the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce named Hargrove as the chamber’s Outstanding Entrepreneur for 2015 and last week honored him at a luncheon.
“Ralph’s mission is to ensure that leadership is developed and encouraged at every level of the company,” Mobile Area Chamber Board Chairman Frank Lott III said during the chamber’s Mobile Area Small Business Week Luncheon.
Lott said Hargrove’s push to cultivate excellence in leadership, coupled with the company’s philanthropic efforts, “played a big part in the committee’s decision to honor him.”
The Outstanding Entrepreneur award was created last year to recognize and celebrate an individual who represents the characteristics of successful entrepreneurship including creativity, initiative, dynamic growth and sound management, the Chamber said.
Hargrove also has received numerous national and industry awards including recognition by “Inc. Magazine” as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the nation and induction into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.
In 2012 Hargrove established the Hargrove Foundation to support education, arts and culture, sports activities, and health and health services within the communities it serves. Hargrove has been recognized by Business Alabama as one of the Best Companies to Work For.
Two years earlier, Hargrove Engineers + Constructors received the Mobile Area Chamber’s Corporate Community Service Award for its efforts supporting numerous nonprofit and educational organizations.
– Dana Beyerle