Five Questions

Trudi williams has taken two complicated and sometimes

dreary topics—engineering and water management—and made them her passion. Her

Fort Myers-based TKW Engineering Consultants Inc. is one of the area’s largest

engineering firms, with a staff of 25, including 13 engineers. Since Williams

founded the firm in 1989, TKW has beat out the competition to land large public

and private sector projects, from the transformation of Sanibel Harbour Resort

Conference Center to terminal enhancements at Orlando International Airport.

Williams also serves in another high-profile position, as

chairwoman of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, a

group responsible for setting water policy for 16 counties. Williams, appointed

by Gov. Jeb Bush, can hold her own in any group. At one meeting, she told her

fellow board members: “You know what? God gave me a brain and the governor put

me here assuming I’d use it.”

Juggling a busy career, business and civic commitments, and

spending time with her husband and three teen-agers, Williams begins her days

at 3 a.m. and goes full-force until about 9:30 at night. And when it comes to

her own body, she doesn’t conserve on water, drinking about a gallon of it a day.style="mso-spacerun: yes">

As a woman, how tough has it been to establish an

engineering firm in Southwest Florida?

We still are overcoming obstacles. The men I hire say it’s

never been this hard to get work in other firms they’ve worked in. You always

have to be proving yourself and because people are scrutinizing it more, when

your work goes out the door, it has to be perfect.

In today’s business environment, what makes a company

successful?

I don’t know what makes a company great other than the

people who work for it. People know what I stand for and what I won’t stand

for. You’ll never hear any swearing in this office. If they swear, they do it

outside. When I hire people, I tell them, you only need three things—honesty,

integrity and honesty. Anything else, we’ll teach you. You can be the best and

brightest engineer, but if you cheat on your time sheet or lie to your clients,

I don’t need it.

Your role with the South Florida Water Management District

makes you our local water expert. Simply describe the major issues.

Water management has four responsibilities—water quality,

water quantity, being good stewards of the environment and flood protection.

Which is more important? It depends on what you do for a living. There isn’t

one that’s more important than the other. And we have interests competing for

the same resource. We have the tourism industry; we have agriculture; we’ve got

the fishermen; we have urban use, like the utilities. You’re never going to

make everyone happy—it’s absolutely impossible.

How much time do you spend on water management issues, and

what is the payoff?

I spend about 20 to 25 hours a week and it’s an unpaid

position that only gets bad press. Really, why would anybody take this abuse? I

think the answer is because I believe I can make it better. There is a limited

resource, which is water—hard to believe here in Florida when we’re surrounded

by it. How are we going to make sure that we can have water for future

generations, for all of those issues?

What is the most important thing that people should know

about you?

I don’t think they realize how hard it is to be a female and

have an engineering firm when you’re always looked at as, ‘You’re a women

engineering firm, how can you be any good?’ I don’t think people understand the

time commitment you have to put into the water management district if you want

to be effective. They’re both huge, huge responsibilities.

It’s been a wild ride. I don’t know if I’d do this

engineering thing over again. It’s been worthwhile, but when I look around and

see how quickly other firms have developed, I’m awed. But I think it makes us

work that much harder and makes us that much better.