Real Estate 2024: GARY BOWMAN

Bowman Consulting Group, founded in 1995 as a five-person company, followed Bowman’s 15-year stint at Urban Engineering. The publicly traded engineering services firm has about 2,000 employees with 97 offices nationwide, nine of them in Virginia. In July, Bowman, who remains chairman and CEO, was succeeded as president by Michael Bruen, the firm’s former chief operating officer.

Bowman Consulting Group has been on a buying spree since going public in 2021, acquiring 35 companies. Acquisitions this year include Element Engineering, a Colorado water and wastewater engineering firm, and Financial Consulting Solutions Group (FCS), a professional services firm in Washington state serving the public sector. 

Bowman Consulting Group climbed to No. 78 last year on Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms list and debuted at No. 135 on Engineering News-Record’s Top 150 Global Design Firms list. Bowman also ranked No. 6 on Zweig Group’s Hot Firms List of the fastest growing architecture, engineering, environmental, planning, construction and related professional services firms.

A Virginia Tech alumnus, Bowman previously served on the university’s College of Engineering advisory board and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni board. He is a member of the department’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni.