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In 1986, the NY Mets, Bears, Celtics and Canadians were sports
champions, Aerosmith and Run DMC mixed rock and hip hop
with “Walk This Way”, Top Gun and Cheers were on screens
both big and small and historically BL Companies started its
epic journey in the A/E world.
Thirty years of BL Companies is to be celebrated this summer. Whether you
were here from early on or just joined BL recently, you are part of the history
of this firm and as such will continue to transform our business and culture
through your hard work, dedication, teamwork and accountability.
BL Companies was established in 1986 by a wife and husband team (Eve
Barakos and Bob Landino - (Does that solve the BL name mystery for you?) This
once family-owned business offered traffic, transportation and survey services
at the start.
The number of employee owners who have been at BL before 1990. Can you
figure out who they are? Hint: They started in 1988 &1989.
By the turn of the century, BL had expanded its service offerings to provide
a full array of Architecture, Engineering, Environmental and Land Surveying
services throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
of our employee owners are younger than BL born in 1987 or later.
BL became an ESOP in 2006. BL turned a new page in ownership and leadership in
2001 with the departure of Eve Barakos who stepped down as President and left
the business. In 2005, Bob Landino sold the business to a small group of senior
employees at BL. Those senior leaders decided to move BL towards a broader based
ownership structure via an ESOP (initially 70%) which started BL’s journey with
employee ownership and engagement.
In 2011, BL Companies became 100% employee-owned.
Number of employee owners celebrating a 30th birthday this year as well. (You
know who you are but can we guess?)
30
2
2000
44
100
7
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