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98 99 Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act. In broad terms, a lot of folks charac- terize the environmental industry as either reme- diation-based or natural resource-based.We’re focused on the natural resource side.” “We’re a science-based firm,” Thalken continues. “We believe remaining focused on the natural resources niche, with staff experienced in aquat- ic, marine, and terrestrial environments. It gives us a competitive advantage when competing with firms that provide natural resources as a supporting service. As a result there is a natural synergy between Normandeau and similar sized engineering firms that do not provide the natural resource services.We don’t want to expand into their business lines because we would then be perceived as a competitor and we would lose some of our team partners.We are committed to remaining focused in the natural resource niche.” “In 1987, Dr. Normandeau sold the firm to Ther- mo Electron, which is now Thermo Fisher Scien- tific– a Fortune 500, public company focused on the manufacture of scientific instruments,” Thalk- en recounts. “So, in the late ‘80s, they made a foray into the consulting business and acquired several firms, including Normandeau Associates, a natural resource consulting firm and several environmen- tal engineering companies. “In 2000, they decided to divest themselves of their professional services firms and focus back on their basic core business of instrument man- ufacturing. They offered our CEO, Pam Hall, the opportunity to buy the firm. She countered that she would like to set us up an employee-owned firm. The buyout was accomplished through a lev- eraged ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) NORMANDEAU ASSOCIATES with about 60 percent of the purchase from Ther- mo done with a bank loan, 20 percent by senior managers of the firm, who invested some of their own money, and about 20 percent retained by Thermo. The fact that Thermo remained commit- ted to our success was a big part in convincing the bank to let us take the loan out. “In 2007, we paid off the bank loan; in 2011, we bought back all the preferred shares from Ther- mo; and in 2012, all of the remaining common shares were repurchased by the ESOP trust, so we became 100 percent employee owned. Today, we have 19 offices in 12 states. The easiest way to describe our office locations is that they range from Maine to Florida on the east coast, and from Seattle,Washington to Arcata, California on the west coast. From these offices, we work through- out the U.S. and are experts at deploying staff to any project site. Thalken says that about 80 percent of the company’s work is for private clients, with the remaining 20 percent for the public sector. “The public sector work involves support to ports and waterways State DOTs (Departments of Trans- portations) and federal highway projects, most of which are associated with bridges. Most of our private sector work revolves around the energy markets.We do a lot of work for power plants to help them site new facilities, as well as com- ply with conditions of their operating permits. In the hydropower industry, we do a lot of work associated with re-licensing; they have to be re-licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) every 30-50 years. In similar