HFW hires new director of project controls to succeed retiring director

ST. LOUIS – The HFW Companies (HFW), a fast-growing professional services firm with a national focus on the architecture and engineering industry (AE), has hired Brenda Jimenez, an experienced leader in financial and operational data analysis, to serve as its new director of project controls.

Jimenez, based in Atlanta, Ga., succeeds Pierre Douyon, who will be retiring later this fall. As project controls director, she will plan and direct all project controls functions across HFW and its growing national network of HFW Partner firms, according to Daniel Forguson, CVA, CPA, chief financial officer of HFW.

“As Pierre prepares for his retirement, we’re fortunate to have recruited another professional and thought leader with such extensive project controls experience in the AE industry,” Forguson, one of HFW’s three co-founders, said of Jimenez. “Brenda brings strong, project-focused analytical and financial forecasting abilities to HFW, which will serve us well as we continue to drive aggressive growth across our expanding network.”

Jimenez’s AE-specific experience includes work as a senior project controls specialist with Jacobs. She also previously served as finance team lead for a Chicago-based engineering firm. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and economics.

Jimenez joins a growing finance team at HFW, whose goal is to invest in an expanding network of middle-market architecture and engineering firms serving metropolitan infrastructure markets with strong legacy brands and growth potential, Forguson said.

To date, HFW has built a portfolio of nine strategic partner firms with a combined 500-plus employees and collective 2023 annual revenues that put HFW at No. 242 in Engineering News Record’s annual Top 500 ranking of the largest AEC companies.

Regarding Douyon and his tenure at HFW, Forguson said: “We’re grateful for Pierre’s leadership in guiding HFW’s project controls efforts through this latest period of aggressive growth.”

For more information about The HFW Companies, contact Michael Hein, AIA, CEO of HFW, at 618.560.4756 or at [email protected].