GHD Group


GHD Group Pty Ltd is an employee-owned multinational technical professional services firm providing advisory, architecture and design, buildings, digital, energy and resources, environmental, geosciences, project management, transportation and water services.
GHD employs more than 10,000 people—engineers, architects, planners, scientists, project managers and economists— operating in over 200 offices across five continents serving clients in water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation markets. GHD has delivered projects in over 135 countries.

History

GHD was founded as a private practice in Melbourne in 1928 by Alan Gordon Gutteridge who operated as a consulting engineer with focuses on water and sewerage. The partnership of Gerald Haskins and Geoffrey Innes Davey joined with Gutteridge's practice in 1939, establishing the formal partnership of Gutteridge Haskins & Davey. During the 1950s and 60s GHD grew to more than 400 employees while expanding into transportation, manufacturing plants, building and civil works, energy, mining and dams. A notable project of the 1960s was the extension of potable water and sewage infrastructure across Tasmania. GHD expanded globally in the 1970s with a joint venture in Malaysia.
During the 1990s GHD expanded its services into architecture, environmental and business consulting while expanding its presence in Southeast Asia. During the 2000s GHD continued to grow through a series of mergers and acquisitions in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, China, Chile and Malaysia. By 2013 GHD had grown to more than 1000 employees in North America.
In 2014, GHD merged with Canadian firm Conestoga-Rovers & Associates in one of the largest private stock transactions in the engineering and environmental consulting industry, creating a combined company of 8,500 employees. At the time of the merger Conestoga-Rovers had about 3,000 employees mostly in North America and the United Kingdom, while GHD had 5,500 employees across five continents. The combined company became the sixth-largest employee-owned engineering consultancy in the world, with $1.5 billion in combined revenue. Also in 2014, GHD acquired the brand and business of Australian architecture firm Woodhead, later renamed GHD Woodhead.
In 2018 GHD opened a new North American headquarters facility in Waterloo, Ontario. At that time, the company said that the North American region accounted for over half of GHD's global revenue.

Market sectors

In 2018 GHD was ranked 16th in Financial Review’s annual top 500 private companies in Australia list and 29th in Engineering News-Record’s annual Top 150 Global Design Firms. The International Water Association named awarded GHD's Birmingham Resilience Project the bronze medal for Exceptional Project Execution and Delivery at its 2018 Innovation Awards. The American Council of Engineering Companies of California honored GHD for Comprehensive Large-Scale Habitat Restoration for the wetland mitigation work the firm did with for the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority. GHD’s Ellerslie Acoustic Barrier project for the New Zealand Transport Agency received the Excellence in Concrete for the Community award from Concrete3. The Australian Institute of Project Management recognized GHD for the firm's Pesticide Container Management in the Pacific. GHD received an Award of Merit, Environmental from Engineering News-Record for the firm's involvement in the closure of a Puerto Rico Dump and the construction of Eloy S. Inos Peace Park.
GHD Woodhead received the Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture and a national award for sustainable architecture from the Australian Institute of Architects for the design of the Barwon Water HQ in Geelong, Australia.
GHD has been appointed as the Fund Coordinator for the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund, an initiative of the Australian Government to improve the health, gender equality and wellbeing of Asian and Pacific communities through socially-inclusive and sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programs.

Mergers and acquisitions

US