Jackson, Miss. – Waggoner Engineering announced today that Matthew Butler has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer, effective January 9, 2022. Butler is based in Waggoner’s Jackson office as a member of the company’s executive leadership team.
As President/COO, Butler is primarily responsible for managing the company’s day-to-day affairs, accelerating firmwide operational performance, and overseeing the transformation of the company’s business model in collaboration with leaders from across the firm.
“Matthew is a strategic and innovative leader with decades of industry experience,” said Waggoner CEO Emad Al-Turk. “He will be a tremendous asset as we accelerate our approach and continually optimize and grow our business while focusing on earning our client’s confidence as their trusted advisor and our employees’ confidence to consider Waggoner as their employer of choice.”
A senior executive with over 30 years of experience, Butler has helped transform large engineering and construction firms into recognized infrastructure and environmental leaders. He says he’s thrilled about taking Waggoner to the next level of growth.
“Waggoner is a great company; it has a history of performance,” he said. “The Waggoner organization we see today will be a different, transformational organization in the next two years, and that’s more exciting than anything else.”
A top priority is to grow Waggoner’s geographical footprint, utilizing partner firms across the country to assist clients with every project stage. To do that, Butler says, you have to be people first.
“We have to have a robust recruiting effort for talent that we need to bring into the organization,” he said. “We need to train that talent, but more importantly, we need to retain it because retention will be the ultimate goal for our predicted growth.”
Before joining the firm, Butler was a vice president for Atlas Technical Consultants, responsible for overall profit growth, execution, and strategy of Louisiana operations. In 30 months, he helped them grow to 60 full-time employees, with a profit growth of 38 percent.
He also held several senior-level executive positions throughout his career, including Vice President with Jacobs Engineering and Senior Vice President for the Shaw Group and CB&I.
“I sincerely appreciate the confidence Emad has placed in me to help position the company for future growth,” Butler said. “I look forward to working closely with Waggoner’s talented employees and management team as we build upon our strong foundation and deliver value to our clients and communities.”
Growing up, Butler understood that everyone was not afforded the same opportunity at the start of life. He wanted to make a difference.
“When you live, work, breathe, and have a quality life in the community, it’s about giving back,” he said. “I knew that if one day I achieved a certain level of success, I felt the sense of obligation to give back to the underserved and really motivate and give them the same hope.”
A supporter of many social, civic, and charitable organizations throughout southwest Louisiana, Butler serves on the Board of Directors for the Young Leaders Academy, the Baton Rouge Metro Airport Commission, and as a Governor appointee to the Pontchartrain Levee District Board of Commissioners. Butler has also held memberships in several other local and national non-profit agencies.
He holds a Master of Science degree from Southern University and A&M College in Environmental Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science from McNeese State University in Environmental Science.
About Waggoner
Waggoner Engineering was founded in 1976 as a civil engineering firm passionate about helping communities realize their potential. For almost 50 years, Waggoner has provided solutions through a culture of integrity, service, and creativity for our clients. Today, we have 15 offices in 5 states and are recognized for our innovative, multi-disciplinary services that make it much more than a traditional engineering firm.