GeoEngineers celebrated its 35th anniversary Tuesday, Sept. 29, by recalling the early years of the firm. Co-founder Jack Tuttle headlined a lunch event in our Redmond, Washington office where he spoke with former CEO Kurt Fraese about the origins of GeoEngineers. The conversation was broadcast live to offices across the country.
Jack served as the first president of GeoEngineers from 1980 to 1993 and continued as board chair until his retirement in 2000. Kurt credits him with establishing GeoEngineers as a resilient company that could continue efficiently through ownership and leadership transitions.
“He certainly set us off on the right course,” Kurt said. “It was such a gift to have founders who were so selfless that they envisioned and planned for a time when they would not control the company. That’s very rare.”
When the board of directors was presented with an offer to sell GeoEngineers, Jack was instrumental in the decision to turn down the offer. This choice helped establish a strong employee-centric ethic that has continued in GeoEngineers to this day.
“It’s easy for the first generation to simply hang a for sale sign out,” Kurt said. “That didn’t happen at GeoEngineers because of Jack’s vision and his selflessness.”
Jack helped lay the foundations of technical and ethical excellence that has set GeoEngineers apart for the past 35 years—foundations we continue to build upon every day.
