Paul VanDuyne is president and CEO of IMEG Corp. CREDIT IMEG
Paul VanDuyne, the president and CEO of IMEG Corp., has been honored with the 2023 Legacy Award from ENR Midwest, a trade publication that bills itself as “the bible of the construction industry.” The ENR (Engineering News-Record) magazine’s award is presented annually to recognize engineering industry veterans who have achieved a lifetime legacy of service […]
Paul VanDuyne, the president and CEO of IMEG Corp., has been honored with the 2023 Legacy Award from ENR Midwest, a trade publication that bills itself as “the bible of the construction industry.” The ENR (Engineering News-Record) magazine’s award is presented annually to recognize engineering industry veterans who have achieved a lifetime legacy of service both to their profession and community. In determining the regional winners, ENR editors consider each nominee’s history of innovation, career highlights, and their engagement with the industry and their community.A profile, entitled “Paul VanDuyne Builds IMEG Into Powerhouse,” appeared in the recent edition of ENR Midwest magazine. Read it on the ENR Midwest website.In announcing the Legacy Award, IMEG said in a news release that Mr. VanDuyne joined the firm in 1976 when it was known as KJWW, based in Rock Island, as its 16th employee. He rose to become president in 2003 and today oversees the national, employee-owned firm of more than 2,100 team members at 75 locations across the U.S. Still headquartered in Rock Island, the firm’s expansion is the result of both organic growth and a continuing number of strategic mergers and acquisitions, the company said.“In the late 1970s, VanDuyne moved halfway across the country and took a part-time job doing drafting work for $5 an hour at KJWW, IMEG’s predecessor company, while studying to be a chiropractor,” the ENR article said. Despite eventually earning a doctorate at Palmer College of Chiropractic, he switched career paths and was drawn back into engineering by an opportunity to build an engineering/design practice in healthcare – and went to work full-time at then KJWW. “Merging his growing interest in health care with his engineering expertise, VanDuyne built KJWW’s health care design practice from scratch, cold calling community hospitals to see if they had any plans for new additions or other works,” the ENR article said. He credited three early hospital projects in Macomb, Galesburg and Princeton, Illinois, with opening the door to the healthcare market. Under his leadership, the firm went on to be a pioneer in geothermal projects, including designing the first and largest lake-coupled geothermal hospital in the nation – Great River Health Medical Center in West Burlington, Iowa. It also designed the then largest LEED Platinum office building in 2010 and more recently, the net zero energy LEED Platinum Denver Water administration building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.Mr. VanDuyne has overseen dozens of acquisitions and mergers in recent years that have grown IMEG into a leading engineering design firm that is ranked No. 71 among ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms. With each acquisition, IMEG maintains the company’s leadership ranks. “These are good companies; we want them to operate like they did and slowly integrate into IMEG,” Mr. VanDuyne told ENR. In the Quad Cities, he also has left his mark by his community involvement. He has served on the boards of several local nonprofit organizations, and currently is vice president of the board of trustees for Palmer College as well as co-chair, along with his wife, Donna, of the college’s current fundraising campaign. The couple, who met while at Palmer, kickstarted the campaign with a $2.5 million donation that led to the construction of a new $23 million student housing complex.
