Our Corporate Partners

Bechtel Group, Inc., continued

Stephen Bechtel, Jr., chairman emeritus of the Bechtel Group, supports CU-Boulder as a national leader in engineering education.

Through support of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory, the Bechtel Computer-Aided Design Laboratory, and the new Discovery Learning Center, the Elizabeth and Stephen Bechtel, Jr. Foundation has been a strong partner to the college in improving facilities for teaching and learning.

Mr. Bechtel and his wife also have supported programs providing opportunities to underrepresented minorities and women in the field of engineering. As a former engineering student at CU-Boulder, Bechtel says he appreciates the help the engineering college gave him in launching his own career.

"It got me interested, focusing more on engineering, and gave me a good foundation to go on in engineering education and later in business," he says. "I'm still very much impressed with the quality of engineering students coming out of the school. I think CU has been pretty progressive and a national leader in improving teaching techniques in the last few years."

As the Bechtel Group looks to hire 100 to 150 engineering graduates every year — some of them from CU — it makes sense for the corporation to support the quality of the education future employees receive. But the commitment doesn't stop there.

The Bechtel Group provides scholarships and support for diversity programs at some 35 universities throughout the country, while the company's officers provide volunteer service to a variety of institutions. Senior Vice President and CU-Boulder alumnus Darrell Donly, for example, supports the college through service on the Engineering Advisory Council, while other Bechtel officers serve in similar capacities at other institutions.

"The Bechtel Group as an organization, and I personally, have a very strong desire to help the profession, and part of that comes through supporting engineering education," Bechtel says.