The 2019 Seminole 100 Celebration honored the top-100 fastest growing businesses owned or managed by FSU alumni. The 2019 celebration included seven FAMU-FSU Engineering alumni representing six companies.
The Seminole 100 Celebration recently revealed a list of the hundred fastest-growing businesses in the U.S. owned by Florida State University alumni. The list included six businesses owned or managed by graduates of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
The Seminole 100 is an awards program hosted by the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, the Florida State Alumni Association and EY, a global organization affiliated with Ernst & Young. FSU holds the annual celebration to recognize top-performing alumni-owned businesses and to reveal their Seminole 100 numerical ranking. EY verified the information from each company and ranked businesses based on a compound annual growth rate.
2019 FAMU-FSU Engineering alumni awardees
#4: SimpleNexus
- President/COO: Ben Miller
- Industry: Finance & Insurance
- Location: Lehi, Utah
- Founded: 2011
- Growth rate: 153.71 percent
Ben Miller received his bachelor's in civil engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2004 and went on to receive his MBA in entrepreneurship from Brigham Young University. SimpleNexus is a 100 person organization with over 180 mortgage company customers and more that 18,000 users nationwide. They have signed with 15 of the top 25 lenders in the country. Miller is responsible for operations ranging from setting up strategic partnerships to managing implementations and developing employee benefit programs.
#7: Orlando Project Controls, LLC
- Principal/Owner: Scott Collins
- Industry: Construction
- Location: Lake Mary, Florida
- Founded: 2007
- Growth rate: 136.32 percent
Scott Collins received his bachelor’s in civil engineering at the college in 1987. Orlando Project Controls provides full service professional project services for all project delivery methods in the construction industry. The company specializes in scheduling and controls consultation and execution, training and claims mitigation for owners, architects and engineers, contractors and subcontractors.
#8: Asset Engineering, Inc.
- President: Charles Reed
- Industry: Technical Services
- Location: Bartow, Florida
- Founded: 2009
- Growth rate: 100.54 percent
Charles Reed II received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering at the college in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Asset Engineering is a 100 percent minority-owned business that provides engineering consultation, project management, training and administrative assistant support for transportation projects. They specialize in the management of federally-funded projects and work closely with local and state governments to successfully administer federal projects.
#17: Square Peg Technologies
- Founder/CEO: Jacquay Henderson
- Industry: Technical Services
- Location: Washington, D.C.
- Founded: 2014
- Growth rate: 68.87 percent
Jacquay Henderson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and manufacturing engineering at the college. Square Peg Technologies is a technology-consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. that specializes in data analytics, data science, artificial intelligence exploration, custom and enterprise software implementations and user experience design. They provide solutions that lean toward the future based on smart data strategies, creative design principles, cloud enabled software deployments and business-hypothesis driven experimentation.
#22: Southeast Forensic Consultants
- Managing Partners: Travis Gourley, David Wesolowski
- Industry: Technical Services
- Location: Tallahassee, Fl
- Founded 2014
- Growth rate: 57.55 percent
Travis Gourley received his bachelor’s in civil engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2009. He is recognized by Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction (ACTAR) as an accredited accident reconstructionist. Southeast Forensic Consultants is a Florida-based group of forensic engineering and safety consultants. Their staff of professional engineers and certified forensic specialists has years of training and experience in various areas such as forensic engineering, accident reconstruction, safety engineering and accident investigation. The company has offices located in Tallahassee and Orlando, Florida, and serves the southeast including Georgia and Alabama.
#53: Urban Catalyst Consultants, Inc.
- President: Sean Marston
- VP: William Colbert
- Industry: Technical Services
- Location: Tallahassee
- Founded: 2014
- Growth: 28.33 percent
- William Colbert, P.E. and Sean Marston, P.E. both received their bachelor’s in civil and environmental engineering at the college.
Urban Catalyst Consultants, Inc. is a civil engineering firm that specializes in land development and infrastructure projects in Tallahassee and the surrounding areas. Both president Sean Marston and vice president William Colbert received their bachelor's degrees in civil engineering from the college, Marston in 1996 and Colbert in 2010. UC2 has expertise in all areas of land development ranging from multimillion-dollar mixed-use projects to smaller scale commercial retail and residential projects. The firm’s expertise includes expediting permitting at the state and local levels. The company has experience working with municipalities and institutions of higher education on various infrastructure projects, including stormwater management, water distribution, sanitary sewer collection and roadway projects.
For the full list of awardees or to learn more, visit Seminole 100 online.