Bechtel

We will be the engineer-constructor of choice for customers, employees, and key suppliers in every industry we serve by: delivering exceptional value to our customers, earning a fair return on our delivered value, and working closely with our customers, key suppliers, and communities to help improve the standard of living and quality of life. Bechtel Group, Inc. is one of the leading construction and engineering firms in the world, building everything from roads and bridges, to dams and pipelines, to power plants, and even entire cities. One industry analyst has noted that Bechtel's more than 19,000 projects over the course of a century have reshaped more of the earth's landscape than virtually any other human effort in history. As a private and predominantly family-controlled company, Bechtel has long been averse to publicity, an attitude which has sometimes been problematic in light of the firm's numerous links to prominent U.S. government officials. In 1884 when he was 12 years old, Warren A. Bechtel moved with his family from a farm in Illinois to the frontier area of Peabody, Kansas. After graduating from high school, Bechtel ventured unsuccessfully into a music career. When "The Ladies Band" failed, Bechtel's father wired return fare to the stranded slide trombonist. The disappointed musician went back to work on the family farm. Some years later, poor farming conditions left Bechtel virtually without any possessions other than a team of 14 healthy mules. When the Chicago Rock Island and Peoria Railway Company pushed westward in 1889, Bechtel gathered up his mule team and worked his way across the continent grading railbed for frontier train lines. Bechtel eventually sold his mule team, but he continued working for the rail industry in a variety of manual-labor positions. He managed to accumulate a small fortune and formed the W. A. Bechtel Company with his three sons and his brother. The young company began many new ventures, including construction of the Northern California Highway and the Bowman Dam, which was at the time the second largest rock-fill dam in the world. By the time the company was incorporated in 1925, Bechtel was the largest construction firm in the western United States. When a six-company consortium received the $49 million contract for construction of the Hoover Dam, Warren Bechtel became president of the group. Work on the enormous dam lasted from 1931 to 1936. Warren Bechtel did not live to see the project completed, however; he died suddenly in 1933 at age 61. Stephen Bechtel, one of the founder's three sons, took over the presidency in 1935. He had previously been a vice-president. The young executive directed the company to new financial and industrial heights, supervising completion of the Hoover Dam as well as work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, a hydrogeneration plant, and the Mene Grande Pipeline in Venezuela. Bechtel's operations continued to expand in the years following the war. The 1,100-mile Trans-Arabian Pipeline, completed in 1947, is regarded as the first major structure of its kind. The South Korean Power Project effectively doubled that nation's energy output. In 1951 the pioneering company developed the first electricity-generating nuclear power plant, in Arco, Idaho. Later the company built a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant there. By the end of the 1950s Bechtel had construction and engineering projects on six continents and was ready to take advantage of the emerging market for nuclear power. In 1960 Stephen Bechtel became chairman of the board, and Stephen, Jr., a Stanford Business School graduate and grandson of the founder, stepped into the chief executive officer post. A 1978 estimate suggested that the two men controlled at least 40 percent of company stock. In the likely event of the younger Stephen one day inheriting his father's wealth, it was estimated that he could become the richest person in the United States. The other 60 percent of Bechtel stock wa