Epstein Receives IHCC Hispanic Business Advocate Award!

This past Thursday, Epstein was honored with a Hispanic Business Advocate Award from the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) and our friends at GSG Consultants, Inc. The award was presented to Epstein's director of civil engineering, Greg Osborne, PE, at the IHCC's April Breakfast Meeting held at the Union League Club of Chicago, a gathering that was focused on the state of Chicago's transportation sector. As part of the meeting a round table discussion was held that included Dorval Carter, Jr., the head of the Chicago Transit Authority, Ginger Evans, the Commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation, and Ray Lang, in charge of development at Chicago Union Station. This informative discussion was moderated by Tom Kotarac of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

One of Epstein's long-standing core philosophies has been to provide opportunities and professional mentoring to a wide selection of minority-, women- and disadvantaged-owned business enterprises. This belief comes from the fact that our firm was founded by a Russian immigrant and was once considered a small and disadvantaged business. It was only through the support from larger firms and organizations that Epstein was able to have the opportunity to prove our capabilities and eventually grown into the global firm we are today.

With this in mind, throughout our history Epstein has subcontracted design, engineering and specialty services to disadvantage business enterprises and these subcontracts have totaled tens of millions of dollars in fees and have often averaged 30 percent or more of contract value. It is from this corporate core value that Epstein came to collaborate with the talented engineers at GSG Consultants. From our partnerships with GSG, their firm was granted an opportunity to expand its civil engineering design and site development capabilities. Working with Epstein on projects for clients like the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and CDOT, GSG has had the chance and to demonstrate its growing capabilities, opening up areas of opportunity for future growth delivering civil and site development services.

Thanks again to IHCC and GSG for this tremendous honor. We are proud to help play a role in nurturing the development of Hispanic-run professional firms like GSG!