Build Relationships, Have Courage, and Really Listen I N 2016, AFTER JUST FIVE YEARS in practice, Katherine Latham, A.M.ASCE, founded her own engineering consulting firm, Talman Consultants LLC, a certified women’s business enterprise and disadvantaged business enterprise based in Chicago that specializes in telecommunications and utility infrastructure management. She is responsible for business operations, client relationships, and project management oversight and has found success by taking the time to develop and actively manage relationships—with clients, cowork- ers, and peers. When and why did you decide to start your own engineering firm? I opened the business in June 2016, with the idea that engineering firms should be equal parts technical expertise, hard work, and strong relationships. I noticed that design is often done in a silo, with one engineer at a computer. When you work that way, you don’t learn what it really takes to get a project complete or what a client really wants. I knew from firsthand experience that building and maintaining solid relationships with utilities and city representatives are often the most impor- tant things in keeping projects on sched- ule and on budget. When I started my own firm, I was able to take ownership of projects from start to completion. Projects go more smoothly and are less frustrating for everyone when you take ownership of them. How did you know that you were ready to start your own company and that the market was ready for a new player? I have wanted to own my own business since college. It was never a question of if, but when. Over time, as I became more experienced, I saw that there was an untapped market for focusing on collaboration and coordination at all levels. Not many people excel at that. But it comes naturally to me. Also, early in my career I had the opportunity to work on some high-profile projects in Chicago, and I developed good relationships with city representatives at all levels, from commissioners on down. And I realized that I had a lot of contacts that not everyone has. And because I am an action-oriented project manager, I had developed a repu- tation as someone who is dependable and committed and who can get things done. Those relationships and that rep- utation helped me start successfully. I also had a lot of good mentors, one of whom is now my partner, Jim [James D. Norton, P.E. , M.ASCE]. We worked together a lot, and he had big-picture knowledge of where the market was going. I had the relationship-building skills. So our points of view are very complementary. What are the chief engineering skills and abilities that you developed in your previous positions that enabled you to do this? I would say mostly project management skills, and the biggest one of those is communication. I was surprised at how much that skill is sometimes truly lack- ing in our industry. I would also say un- derstanding others and their needs and objectives; I would call it empathy. It’s the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. What personal characteristics do you believe entrepreneurs like yourself need to be successful? Courage! I’m in a male-dominated industry; there is no doubt about that. So being comfortable as the only female in the room is key. I still sometimes attend meetings where it is just assumed that one of the women in attendance will be taking notes, or despite my title and role, questions and comments will be reflexively directed to male members of the team. So I had to be able to overcome that stereotype. It takes determination. How did your education—formal or informal—help you prepare for this? I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for my degree in civil engineering. It is a phenomenal insti- tution. You walk out with very strong technical knowledge and the reputation that having a degree from that school carries. Having a degree from U of I gave me an immediate leg up. People respected that, and it helped accelerate my career. [ 18 ] Civil Engineering MARCH 2018 . N EXT S TEP . Advice from Young Engineers Moving Forward in Their Careers Katherine Latham, A.M.ASCE COMPANY Talman Consultants LLC CURRENT TITLE Founder and Managing Partner PREVIOUS TITLE Project Manager (HBK Engineering LLC) COPYRIGHT © 2018 AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.