Our story spans nearly forty years.

While working for Sargent & Lundy, engineers Michael DeSantiago and Pedro Cevallos were continually asked if they knew of any qualified minority-owned engineering firms. On June 29, 1987, they decided to start that firm that everyone seemed to be looking for, and officially became one of the few Latino-Owned Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) in Chicago. Primera Engineers opened our first office in an incubator space at the Entrepreneur Center on Michigan Ave. and our staff quickly grew from three to five.

In 1991, Primera moved its team of five to our first independent office space at 230 N. Michigan Ave. and kicked off a relationship with the City of Chicago by undertaking a mass conversion of thousands of city sewer and water drawings to digital format. At the same time, Primera was asked to provide staff augmentation service to ComEd at six nuclear stations and began work on a 300-building, statewide fire protection program for a large telecom company. Ken Panucci, now Buildings Division Manager, joined Primera in 1999. With business booming, Primera surpassed $5M in revenue and expanded to include in-house electrical services.

With a growing awareness of eco-conscious design and construction, Primera took the lead by joining the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and became a founding member of the Chicago Chapter. In 2000, Primera began design work on its first LEED® certified building – the U.S. Navy’s Great Lakes Bachelor Enlisted Quarters – also the first federal building to receive a LEED certification. At 60 employees, we moved again, this time to 100 S. Wacker Drive.

On July 7, 2003, Primera’s future owner and CEO joined the firm to lead the business development efforts for the Buildings division. An electrical engineer by trade, she’ll lead the firm’s Utilities team just three years later.

In 2005, Primera received its first prime construction management contracts with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) and formally launched a Transportation group. With the new addition, Primera grew to over 100 employees.

Primera celebrated its 20th anniversary on June 29, 2007. In the same year, our longstanding commitment to quality was recognized with the accomplishment of ISO 9001:2000 certification of our Quality Management System. We remain one of the only engineering firms in the U.S. to hold this status. In 2008, Primera was awarded a blanket contract with ComEd and the official Utilities Division was born, joining our Buildings and Transportation teams. With a growing power delivery team, Primera opened a suburban office at 650 Warrenville Road in Lisle, Illinois.

With all three Divisions enjoying consistent growth, Primera began to expand our reach. Our first international project, BBVA Bancomer Headquarters, was well underway in Mexico City, Mexico. Likewise, in 2011, we hired our first employee outside the Chicagoland area and officially opened a Philadelphia-area office. Just a few years later in the Fall of 2013, Primera opened an office in Northwest Indiana. In 2014, our Business Consulting group was born, and Consulting Division Manager, Melissa Helphingstine, joined the firm. By 2015, we celebrated the 200-employee milestone and reached $30M in revenue.

Primera’s founding partners, Michael & Pedro, announced their retirement in early 2016 and sold the 220-person company internally. In March 2016, Erin Inman, Primera’s Utilities Division Manager purchased 100% of the shares, and Primera officially became one of the largest WBE’s in the region – keeping a nearly 30-year commitment of promoting and supporting diversity in our workplace and communities intact.

A little more than a year after the ownership transition, Primera celebrated 30 years of engineering meaningful relationships with our clients, partners and staff. With a focus on the next 30, the company began to build relationships with new utilities nationwide. Our Buildings, Transportation, Utilities, and Consulting divisions continued to provide best-in-class service to our clients while pursuing new opportunities to collaborate across divisions on projects for new and existing clients Nationwide.

Over the years, Primera has been involved in countless community events, fundraisers, educational programs, and mentoring. In 2018, the firm decided to be more intentional and focused with its giving by establishing the Primera Foundation – a new not-for-profit entity. The Foundation reflects Primera’s belief that all students should be given the opportunity to impact our world through science, technology, engineering, and math.

In 2020, we moved employees home in response to the global pandemic. While we’d spend the next two years working remotely, we continued to set records. We started practicing open book management through the Great Game of Business (GGOB) and moved our Chicago Headquarters to a new collaborative space at 550 W. Jackson. In 2021, we established a presence in Texas with our first project wins at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, welcomed Transportation Division Manager, Stacie Dovalovsky, and surpassed $40M in revenue for the first time! Primera was recognized as a Top Workplace in the U.S. in early 2022 shortly before onboarding our 250th employee.

In 2024, Primera celebrated its first acquisition, joining forces with woman-owned Corey Electrical Engineering, Inc. to solidify Primera’s presence in the Denver area and surpassed 350 employees for the first time. The Corey team built upon Primera’s 37-year history providing electrical engineering services in the education sector and strengthened our Aviation team’s National resume with experience at Denver International Airport (DEN).

Vice President, Al Clark, joined Primera’s leadership team to drive business growth and build strategic partnerships in the Southeastern region and formally opened Primera’s Atlanta office on January 1, 2025. Primera earned Female Business Enterprise Designation (FBE) in Atlanta and our total revenue surpassed $60M for the first time.