Leslie M. Duke
Chair and CEOA proven leader in the workplace and industry, Leslie Duke paved the way for countless employee-owners, community members and students through her mentorship and leadership.
Leslie spent her career strengthening and supporting the communities in her home state of Texas and across the U.S. Leslie became the firm’s eighth CEO in history in 2024.
An entrepreneur at heart, she joined our company in the late 1990s as an engineer in the Houston office’s transmission and distribution services group, inspired by the employee ownership model. Since then, she’s held numerous leadership positions and helped establish six offices.
She helped expand the firm’s customer base from one local Houston client to more than 650 local, regional and national clients in the industrial, refining, chemical, manufacturing and power utility markets. During her tenure, the business delivered over $5 billion in engineering, procurement, construction, environmental and consulting services from the region.
In the community:
Leslie is passionate about giving back and encourages those around her to do the same. She supports organizations including:
- Greater Houston Partnership, former executive board member
- United Way of Greater Houston, former board member
- Texas Tech University Dean’s Council, emeritus member
- Junior Achievement of South Texas, former board member
- North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, former board member
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I was run over by a Volkswagen beetle in a McDonald's parking lot when I was 3 years old. I can solve the Rubik's cube. My husband Travis and I owned a ‘New Mexican’ food restaurant many years ago.
How do you and our firm make the world a better place?
The work we do is extraordinary. Everything we touch is making the world a better place to live, work and play.
What’s the coolest part of your job?
The people I get to work with. Every day I meet a new employee-owner. Their backgrounds are all so diverse, so unique. Each brings a new, refreshing and often global perspective to the work we do and drivers fueling it.