Introduction
Willy Stewart, founder and CEO of Stewart Engineering, joins Jack Ossa on The Power of Design Podcast to talk about leadership, culture and purpose in an engineering firm. Willy has led the firm for 25 years, taking it from a small team of structural engineers to a company of about 220 people with practices in civil engineering, landscape architecture, geotechnical services and construction services.
Jack introduces him as a role model, a fellow first-generation immigrant from Colombia, and the conversation moves from Willy's path to North Carolina to how he built systems, a brand and a culture that could carry the firm as it grew.
About the Episode
Willy grew up in Barranquilla, Colombia, and went to an American school whose teachers had ties to Western Carolina University. He studied there, then at NC State, where he earned degrees in civil and structural engineering. After three years in Miami he returned to North Carolina in 1987, worked for a small structural consulting firm designing schools, banks and churches, and started his own firm in 1994.
He explains how an architect's request for civil engineering led him to say yes and figure it out, and how that pattern repeated for bridges, surveying, construction services, sports and municipal planning. He separates chance, fortune and luck: luck, in his view, is what you do with the opportunities that arrive. He also describes a three-year coaching relationship that taught him to run systems for people, finance, IT, HR and marketing, and the management consulting he did afterward.
The second half covers engagement across generations, the shift from collaboration to real integration of design and construction, how Stewart thinks about its brand, and why diversity and inclusion require intentional action.
Key Takeaways
- Culture is the work: Willy says how people treat each other matters as much as the work, and he hires people who share the firm's values.
- Say yes, then prepare: growth came from saying yes to adjacent work that clients trusted him to deliver and then hiring and training for it.
- Learn the business side: engineers are taught the craft, not the human side, so Willy sought a coach and put systems in place around people, accounting, IT, HR and marketing.
- Most leadership problems are people problems: after consulting with about 30 companies, he found that engaging people in the culture was the common challenge.
- Engagement pays off: he points to research showing that engaged teams tend to be more productive and satisfied, with fewer defects and safety issues.
- Brand is a feeling: it covers every small signal, from the front desk to the condition of a truck, and it should evolve with the company.
- Diversity needs intention: it will not happen on its own; Stewart reviewed pay, trained staff and made it a strategic goal.
Highlights from the Conversation
I want people to come to work at Stewart on the balls of their feet.
Willy Stewart
Brand is the gut feeling that someone has about your services and your products.
Willy Stewart
Seems to me that being lucky is when opportunity meets your preparation to really take advantage of that opportunity.
Jack Ossa
Topics Discussed
- Building a people-first culture and the THREAD values
- Growing an engineering firm into multiple practice areas
- Learning to be a CEO through coaching and systems
- Employee engagement and work-life balance across generations
- Integrated delivery, 3D modeling and technology in design and construction
- Brand, consistency and how clients perceive a firm
- Diversity, equity and inclusion in an engineering company
- Immigrant entrepreneurship and giving back to the community
Why This Conversation Matters
Willy's story is useful for engineers, architects and owners who want to grow a professional services firm without losing its culture. His view of brand as a consistent feeling, not just a logo, mirrors how we approach branding for technical firms, such as the identity we created for MSW Engineers, and his point about integration between disciplines connects to the way we coordinate architecture work with engineers. Our work for Genesis Construction shows how a construction company can express its values visually.
About the Guest
Willy Stewart is the founder and CEO of Stewart Engineering, a multidisciplinary firm in North Carolina. He holds degrees in civil and structural engineering from NC State, started the firm in 1994 and has led it for 25 years. Born in Colombia, he is a first-generation immigrant who also did management consulting and speaks about culture and engagement. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
