Diversification key to growth: Information technology introduces real-time capabilities. (Engineering).

The greatest challenge facing Brent Thompson in the future is attracting engineers to work in the north.

"We need to increase the size of our bench strength," says Thompson, who is vice-president and general manager at Wardrop Engineering Inc.'s Thunder Bay office.

"In five years you are going to see a shortage of engineering skills," Thompson says.

He says. the community can help his firm and others by "selling the lifestyle" enjoyed by northerners.

Wardrop has exploded in size and has enjoyed a 100 percent cumulative revenue growth over the past three years. There has also been a string of "strategic acquisitions." The company is an employee-owned Canadian group of nine companies and two subsidiaries with more than 400 staff working in Canada and abroad.

"Our significant growth improves our diversity," Thompson says, "and is directly related to commitments we have to our customers. The firm now has the capability of offering clients total solutions, everything from an engineering service to project financing, he says.

Thompson places a high priority on the personal development and satisfaction of the employees who report to him.

"We give our people the opportunity to work on projects all. over Canada and abroad. We are a company that focuses on each individual employee's career."

One of the more interesting projects was the international space station. Engineering technology developed by Wardrop employees from Saskatoon, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto and Winnipeg supported Chris Hadfield's first walk in space. Hadfield made history as the first Canadian to take a space walk. At the height of the project, which was a subcontract from Spar Aerospace Ltd. (now MD Robotics), 35 Wardrop engineers and technicians were involved.

Although Wardrop is headquartered in Winnipeg, Thompson regards Thunder Bay as the "cornerstone of the company's history." The engineering firm's founder, Les Wardrop, graduated from Port Arthur Collegiate before enrolling in the civil engineering program at the University of Manitoba. He worked for the City of Winnipeg for a brief period and then established W.L Wardrop and Associates in 1955. A year later, the new company opened an office in Thunder Bay. This office now employs 70.

Thompson graduated from the same university as the company's founder with a degree in geological engineering. After joining Wardrop, he spent five years in Africa working as a hydro geologist in Nigeria and as a designer of secondary roads in Uganda. He has worked for Wardrop for 14 years.

"For years our focus was municipal engineering, involving sewer, water, roads and municipal infrastructure," Thompson says.

This changed in the mid-19 60s when the company ventured into heavy industry.

"We started doing general engineering in pulp and paper facilities and engineering for the mining industry in aboveground facilities. In the past five years we have developed process capabilities for these heavy industries."

Wardrop has been involved in information technology for 12 years. This division began by offering monitoring processes for the pulp and paper industry, and since then the company's information technology has grown dramatically, he says.

"With the development of the World Wide Web, an executive 1000 miles away in a office at Montreal can call up a mill's real-time production or quality data," Thompson says.

The Thunder Bay office is heavily involved with environmental engineering. The firm designs changes to prevent environmental impact to soil, water and air.

Wardrop's Toronto's office, with 100 employees, is involved with Ontario's nuclear industry, doing work at the Darlington, Pickering and Bruce nuclear facilities.

Ethnic diversity in the Wardrop staff is something that Thompson views as a major advantage.

"We do not have targets. Each person has the skill sets required for the job. With such ethnic diversity in the staff, we look at problems in a lot of different ways.

The number of languages spoken is also and advantage to the company, Thompson says.

Wardrop recently expanded its information technology capabilities with the acquisition of Abend Solutions Inc. The acquisition broadened the company's network integration and application development services.

Thompson says the acquisition of Abend Solutions "brings state-of-the-art videoconferencing to Wardrop. It reinforced our presence as the largest information technologies consulting firm of its kind in Northern Ontario," he says.

In the future, videoconferencing will play a major role in the delivery of health care in Northern Ontario, Thompson says.

"A specialist in Toronto, Sudbury or Thunder Bay can, as an example, communicate with a nurse in Pikangikum regarding a patient," he says.

Thompson says videoconferencing is important to Thunder Bay and Sudbury in developing these cities as regional centers.