CDM Smith

Facts about CDM Smith

We’re passionate about what we do. We work together—in teams and in partnership with our clients—to solve complex environmental and infrastructure challenges. Together, we create a learning culture, dedicated to always finding a better way for our clients, for the planet, and for each other.

Ownership - CDM Smith is employee owned, instilling pride in our work and allowing us the freedom and independence to put our clients first.

Organization - Closely aligned with our clients, CDM Smith provides services through the following major business groups:

• Client Services - Asia
• Client Services - Europe
• Federal Services
• Industrial Services
• Public Services, North America East & Latin America
• Public Services, North America West/Central

Through a matrix structure, these units are supported by the Consulting & Engineering Divisions and the Construction Division—all working together to deliver integrated consulting, engineering, construction, and operations services worldwide.

Services – CDM Smith offers full services—consulting, engineering, construction, and operations—across the project life cycle in water, environment, transportation, energy, and facilities.

Safety First. Our clients expect it, we demand it, and our employees live it. CDM Smith's health and safety program is based on the principles that people are our greatest asset, accidents and injuries are preventable, and everyone is responsible for safety. 

Elements of our successful H&S program include:

• Leadership of the Corporate H&S Officer and network of H&S managers in every business unit
• Comprehensive H&S training
• Accurate reporting, analysis, and investigations
• Medical surveillance program overseen by a board-certified occupational physician
• Project health and safety plans

Thanks to this vigorous program, CDM Smith has consistently achieved experience modification, total recordable incident, and lost workday incident rates much better than industry average.

The post-World War II economic expansion fueled a period of population growth, suburban development, and technological advancements—inspiring CDM Smith’s founders with a vision to apply their thought leadership in new ways to advance environmental stewardship, public health protection, commerce, and infrastructure development.

Thomas Camp left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—where he’d chaired the department of sanitary engineering—to set up a consulting practice with partners Herman Dresser and Jack McKee in 1947. Camp pioneered drinking water treatment technologies such as dual-media filters and direct filtration—still in practice today. McKee advanced approaches in water quality protection and groundwater recharge. Dresser established the character and business practices of the firm, emphasizing teamwork, employee development, and exceptional client service.

Just a few years later, as automobile ownership was rising, commerce expanding, and suburban development exploding, Wilbur Smith, South Carolina’s first state traffic engineer, saw the opportunity to contribute to the significant transportation and infrastructure investment strategies needed to facilitate economic productivity and prosperity. In 1952, together with his brother, James M. Smith, he founded the consulting practice that became Wilbur Smith Associates.

Over the next six decades, both firms grew from their strong regional roots to a global footprint—through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions—each step of the way building their reputations for industry leadership, technical excellence, and exceptional client service and diversifying their service portfolios to meet the evolving needs of public and private clients.

In 2011, CDM and Wilbur Smith Associates joined forces to become CDM Smith, a leading global consulting, engineering, construction, and operations firm of more than 5,000 professionals delivering integrated solutions in water, environment, transportation, energy and facilities.

Our Cultural Guideposts

Successful enterprises have a vision of who they are, why they succeed, and where they are going…shared values and principles that guide them through changing markets and unrelenting competition.

Our Core Values

CDM Smith's core values define what CDM Smith— the company and our people—stands for throughout time, regardless of changes in leadership, structure, and market conditions. CDM Smith's core values—excellence, initiative, shared commitment, integrity, and teamwork— are the fundamental and enduring principles that guide our collective and individual decisions, strategies, and actions.

Our Vision

CDM Smith will be a global water, environment, transportation, energy and facilities firm committed to exceptional client service to improve the environment and infrastructure.

To achieve our vision, we will be:

•     Pre-eminent in the eyes of clients by delivering the right total solutions and setting the standard for exceptional value and service.
•     The employer of choice by providing superior opportunities for the best people in the industry.
•     A full-service, global firm that is financially strong and growing through the business and technical performance of our people.

CDM Smith will remain a privately owned firm, free to determine our own direction, committed to building a stronger enterprise for each future generation.

Quality—excellence delivered—is achieved through CDM Smith's culture of high expectations and our rigorous program of quality management through leadership, processes, and training.

Leadership - Responsible for leading quality management at CDM Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer Bill Howard reports directly to the President and serves on the Board of Directors. He leads a network of quality managers in all business units who inspire, manage, and audit quality and client satisfaction in all our work.

Processes - CDM Smith adheres to a rigorous and comprehensive quality management program, with detailed quality manuals, project technical reviews, and continuous quality monitoring for the life of the project. We gather feedback through client audits and satisfaction surveys, and share lessons learned as a process for continuous improvement.

Training and Certification - Through CDM Smith University (accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training), CDM Smith provides rigorous training and certification for our client service managers, project managers, technical professionals, and administrative staff. Our technical professionals also collaborate through a network of technical disciplines, conducting research and development and sharing knowledge and best practices across the firm.