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Managing complex engineering projects in highly-regulated industries around the world

Mark Butler is the president and managing director of the Americas at IPS—Integrated Project Services, LLC. With offices around the world, IPS is a global, full-service engineering and design firm that specializes in complex, cutting-edge projects in highly regulated industries sectors such as pharmaceuticals, energy, biotechnology, chemicals, food and beverage, and mission critical facilities. The company has earned worldwide recognition and honors, including ISPE Facility of the Year for six years, as well as inclusion on the Zweig White Hot Firms List (2015), the Inc. 500/5000 List of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America (2014), and the Engineering News-Record’sTop 225 International Design Firms and Top 500 Design Firms.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about launching and leading a global organization. How many people do you employ, and where are they located?

MARK BUTLER: We are organized in four regions. Our 1,100 personnel break down to about 700 in the Americas, which includes offices in Canada, the US, and Latin America. We have an EMEA region—Europe, Middle East, Africa—that has about 50 folks right now. India has about 300 and then Singapore and China add up to another 50. So, all together we’re in that 1,100 range.

When we took possession or ownership of the company in 2007 we really wanted to set a global footprint for the company. In doing so, we talked to our branded pharma companies, multinationals who were looking for our services, and essentially we started to work with them in other countries. What’s really been accelerating our growth is the western style of EPCM delivery. It wasn’t prevalent in many countries; they had their own way of delivering projects, which tended to be a cost-reimbursable time and material type of a project. When pharmaceutical owners are looking at trying to find cost certainty and budget certainty and trying to control the cost of goods, they really need a delivery method that is going to help them have cost certainty out of a project. So, what EPCMV does for them—it allows us to identify the cost at a very early point in the job, and then take the responsibility to deliver the project for that fixed cost. As we’ve accelerated throughout the world, we’re actually bringing that style of project delivery to Europe, Asia, and India. It’s been very successful.

Q. What sorts of clients do you serve?

A. So, IPS has a number of different clientele, which is really exciting, but it’s also challenging. We do a lot of work for generic manufacturers. Generic manufacturers basically take products that are off patent. They have a very low margin and they have a different set of criteria for designing their facilities and making them fit for purpose and making sure that the high-volume products are produced as efficiently as possible.

We also work for branded companies. Branded companies, a lot of times, are wrapped up in specific IP so they can help to extend their product patent a little bit longer, so they become a little more technically challenging, as well as the fact that the branded companies, because of their reputation and their quality procedures, have their own standards. So, working for companies like Merck and Pfizer and Bristol Myers, the mainstays of the pharmaceutical world—they have some very rigorous standards that we have to comply with. That brings another set of challenges together.

And then we have contract manufacturers. Contract manufacturers are taking on manufacturing for branded companies on a per unit cost basis, and so they have to meet the quality standards of the branded manufacturer, but they also are in a very cost competitive world to win the work.

Our client base spans all of these, and so we have to really understand, before we start a project: What are the goals and objectives of that customer and how are we going to apply innovation to help them meet their goals? IPS doesn’t necessarily have a recipe for success on projects. Our success is really helping our customers succeed and being agile and flexible to apply the right set of standards to meet our customers’ goals.

Q. What is your vision for the future?

A. Our vision 2020 says that we need to continue our global growth, we need to stick with what got us to this point—and that’s our knowledge, skill, and passion for the industry and for helping our customers succeed—and the 2020 vision platform really says that we are going to continue to bring the IPS-branded way of delivering projects to the world. We’re going to look for opportunities to acquire companies in different regions and we’re going to continue with our organic growth.

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ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NKF's 15,000 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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