as part of URI’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Lecture series
KINGSTON, R.I. – April 13, 2007 – Blake Henderson, the founder and chief executive officer of Northeast Engineers & Consultants, Inc., will discuss the globalization of engineering and construction services on April 16 at 2 p.m. as part of the University of Rhode Island College of Engineering’s Risica Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering Entrepreneurship.
The lecture at Cherry Auditorium in URI’s Kirk Technology Center is free and open to the public.
“Engineering and construction services are one of the USA’s chief exports to the Middle East,” said Henderson, who earned a civil engineering degree from URI in 1979. “The business model we are pursuing now is to open channels to market by building our staff here at home where there is an abundance of qualified and experienced engineers, and sending constructors into places like Baghdad, Dubai and the Caribbean, where there is plenty of work but a shortage of these skills. The internet makes all this possible.”
Northeast Engineers provides multidisciplinary engineering and construction program management around the world. Its engineering division focuses on land development and infrastructure design and permitting, while its construction program management arm provides professional management and control for all types of construction projects. It has offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California and Washington, D.C., as well as in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.
In addition to his URI degree, Henderson earned a degree in systems engineering from Virginia Polytech and a business management certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to founding Northeast Engineers, he was a surface warfare officer for the U.S. Navy. He is the founder and director of the Iraqi Children’s Aid Relief Effort, a member of the Newport War College Foundation, and a recent inductee into the URI College of Engineering Founder’s Club.
The Anthony J. Risica Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering Entrepreneurship was established in 2003 with a donation from Tony Risica, a URI electrical engineering alumnus who became involved in starting two telecommunications companies, Sonus Networks and Arris Networks.
For more information about the lecture, call the College of Engineering dean’s office at 401-874-2186.