Employee Ownership
30 Years of Employee Ownership
In 1996, HDR employees made a choice. Instead of allowing others to decide the company's future, they invested in it themselves. It was a decision built on trust, not certainty, and it created an opportunity that continues today.
HDR is a 100% employee-owned company, where thousands of employee-owners share responsibility for where we're going and what we build together. Ownership shapes how we serve clients, support communities, and create meaningful careers. It fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and long-term thinking because the future of HDR belongs to all of us.
We Celebrate These Numbers
National Center for Employee Ownership 2025 U.S. Rankings
- No. 1, Largest architecture/engineering 100% employee-owned
- No. 4, Largest 100% employee-owned
- No. 5, Largest employee-owned
Ranked One of America's Best Private Companies
We were ranked among the top 500 U.S. privately owned companies by TIME in 2026.
Why Employee Ownership?
What drove HDR's decision to become employee-owned, and how does that affect how HDR operates to this day? Vice Chairman and former CEO Eric Keen, former Senior Vice President Tom Sanders, and our Program Management Director Erin Slayton discuss this on the American Council of Engineering Companies' Engineering Influence podcast.
HDR's broad-based Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) can translate to numerous benefits, from the technical expertise we employ to the employee-centric, client-focused culture that drives it. Every individual understands that their choices can influence the success of the entire organization. That dynamic is explored in this article for Engineering Inc.
From H.H. Henningson's first project in 1917 to the global professional services firm we are today, HDR has driven strong and sustained growth through relentless attention to meeting client needs and working together as one. This Omaha World-Herald article explores how employee ownership makes a difference in how we come together to solve problems.
"Being an employee-owner of HDR makes me act with a sense of responsibility to myself and others, while performing our best to meet our clients’ expectations within a scope of work, project schedule and quality of deliverables that make the design constructable."
"Working for an employee-owned company is the best employment decision I've ever made. Employees have an opportunity to share in the success they helped create, and it changes behavior since we all may have a stake in the results."
"As someone who likes to break down barriers and interact with people across all levels and geographies in an organization, a broadly held, employee-owned firm like HDR, is the perfect place for me to call home."
"When employees are invested as owners, it becomes more than a job, and the commitment to success is crucial to the sustainability of the company for the future. Employees can shape the culture of the company for the better."
"Employee ownership makes us a better company because you are not working for someone else, you are working for yourself and those around you. This drives a culture of genuine support from across the globe to deliver our best for clients time and again."
"Life is volatile and fragile. Owning a part of HDR gives me a sense of stability and belonging that motivates me to be better, learn more, try harder, speak my truth and it pushes me to be more involved in our company."
"Employee ownership has enhanced my experience at HDR because it allows employees to have one more thing in common. Sharing successes creates a unique comradery."
"I feel like I am my own entrepreneur — I want HDR to succeed just as much as our CEO because it impacts my long-term bottom line. Our success is every owner's success."
“Every little success, we feel proud because we feel like we’re part of the overall family. The company really treats every employee just like a family member.”
“I think in many organizations, people have the attitude of renters. They are not looking to leave a legacy or impact or nurture others. But when you own it — you treat it like you own it. That’s the magic sauce that keeps people here.”
“ESOPs have the ability to enhance productivity and profitability by all employee-owners having the same mindset to grow the business and continue to do things better. As an investor, it is another means of adding a different type of investment to my retirement portfolio and diversifying by adding to my international holdings.”