A Legacy Begins
In 1939, as World War II loomed, Raulin B. Wight founded his surveying firm, Wight & Company. After America was attacked in the Pacific, Raulin became Colonel Wight, serving as a civil engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers, attached to the Army Air Corps. Fighting in the footsteps of the Marines, he helped secure and build landing strips as the U.S. advanced across the Pacific Theater.
After his commission ended, Col. Wight returned home to Chicago’s western suburbs and expanded his company’s services to include civil engineering. It didn’t take long for the firm to form trusting partnerships and be awarded many important, high-profile projects. In the early 1950s, Wight & Company completed the master planning and civil engineering for the new town of Oak Brook, Illinois, an accomplishment the Colonel considered his greatest civilian achievement.
When “Sonny” Wight joined the family firm in the late ‘50s, Wight & Company expanded its services again to include his professional discipline –Architecture. Sonny’s focus on building trust helped foster a generational relationship with DuPage County, including work for the College of DuPage. Over the years, Wight worked extensively with this very important client, including designing the College’s physical education facility and its McAninch Arts Center.
A Turning Point for the Next Generation
As the company grew, so did the next generation of the Wight family. Despite witnessing the evolution of his family’s firm throughout his childhood, attorney and one-time ranch hand Mark Wight initially had no intention of joining Wight & Company. “My father used to say I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler,” he recalled, “so I had no business being in an architecture firm.”
However, fate intervened with Mark’s plans when his father became gravely ill and the company fell into a deep debt, a debt Sonny had personally guaranteed. Mark, a steadfast entrepreneur, left his prospering law and real estate practices in Seattle and returned home to his father and the firm.
Ultimately, Mark decided that leading the family business wasn’t something he had to do, but something he’d be proud to do. The company’s finances may have been suffering, but the work never had. “I decided to follow the lead of our clients and put my trust in Wight & Company.”
When he resolved to stay, Mark tracked down Kevin Havens, who, as a high school student, had been Wight & Company’s first intern. “I talked him into returning to the firm, now in a leadership role,” Mark said. “Kevin became the Director of Design, Joe Ferreri was the Operations Director, and I was the Director of everything else. You can’t believe how hard you have to work, especially early on…like the first 20 years.”
With a little luck, some determined relationship building, and nonstop hard work, Mark and Kevin won the first eight or nine projects they interviewed for, including one that leveraged the trusted relationship his father had established, the DuPage County Courthouse.
“With that project, which had been our most important by far, I learned the power of revenue,” Mark explained. “At the time, we were still a small company in some pretty serious financial straits. The ability to start billing on the Courthouse project really helped us grow.”
In just a few years, the firm’s staff grew from 15 to 40. As their success continued, the employee roster also expanded. Today, more than 240 professionals are on the Wight & Company team.
Mark credits four projects as “being the springboard for the company” during his early years as CEO and Chairman. Those projects, which included College of DuPage, DuPage County Courthouse, Waste Management Corporate Headquarters, and Kane County Courthouse, were attained with “the relentless pursuit of long-term relationships,” and sustained with a commitment to integrity and trust.
While the clients served as the springboard, Mark knew that success could only be achieved with the right team. As a bona fide business philosopher, he realized after the firm’s early rapid expansion that, “if you fill a business with smart, Type A personalities, you end up with a dysfunctional mess.” That's when he landed on two notions that have been a guiding principle for his whole career: culture outperforms strategy and character outperforms talent.
Since then, Mark has focused on building a culture of shared values such as honesty, trustworthiness, empathy, and other attributes he cites in his new employee orientations. “With a staff of 15 or 16 different first languages, having these core values creates a powerful sense of camaraderie that we all feel. People who work with us feel it too. Being able to attract and retain people of character is a competitive advantage. It’s more important than anything else.”
He goes on to explain how the company’s focus on culture translates to service and trust. “It’s trust that wins clients and trust that keeps clients. Our core branding is ‘the only foundation we build on is the trust we have in each other and the trust our clients have in us.’ That, along with the business model of the relentless pursuit of long-term relationships, has been our mantra since the early ‘90s.”
Building for the Future
With those guiding principles always at the forefront, the business continued to thrive and expand In the ‘90s, Wight Construction was formally established when Laurel Motors requested a design-build project. Then, in the ‘00s, Mark and then President of Design Rich Carlson made strategic hires to add the disciplines of Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Structural Engineering. This launched a new era of Wight & Company as a fully integrated AEC firm.
During this time, Wight & Company also established itself as a pioneer in sustainable design. As a pilot project for the US Green Building Council (USGBC), Wight designed, civil engineered, and sustainably realized one of the nation’s first LEED certified buildings for the U.S. Naval Station Great Lakes. The firm also designed and built Bolingbrook High School, the first LEED certified school in Illinois. Since then, there have been many more Wight sustainability firsts.
“We have been ahead of the curve in sustainability for a long, long time. And make no mistake, that is due to the influence of former Chief Sustainability Officer Lois Vitt Sale,” Mark said, “She gets 100 percent of the credit. All I did was give her a very long leash, trust her instincts, and constantly say ‘yes’ to her ideas. I don't think I said ‘no’ to Lois in 27 years.”
Another strategic move was made in recent years when Wight & Company returned to its roots, the ones planted by Col. Wight, by strengthening and investing in its Transportation & Infrastructure business. This now vital segment of the company emphasizes environmental design and a generational pursuit of low-carbon, sustainable connectivity.
The firm’s 85-year history, inextricably linked with Mark Wight’s family history, has been filled with pivotal moments and challenges. But above all, it’s been filled with trust. Trust in family, trust in clients, and trust in the culture of collaboration that is at the heart of Wight & Company.
Under Mark’s leadership, the company’s breadth and profitability has grown exponentially. And as Wight & Company looks to the next 85 years, we know we will continue to grow as we remain united in our relentless pursuit of long-term relationships, sustainable design, and helping people live their best lives.