Growing with Bohler

Kate Curll, PE, LEED AP, recently celebrated 10 years with Bohler. And it’s been a busy decade. Throughout the time, she has had the chance to be a part of a new office opening, relocate to another state, and take the reins as one of our first women branch managers — opportunities that stemmed from Bohler’s growth.

Kate joined Bohler after graduating from the University of Southern California in 2005 and working a stint with a small engineering firm in The Golden State. But having grown up in Connecticut and with her family still on the eastern seaboard, Kate always knew she would eventually return home. When she interviewed with Bohler, she immediately recognized it was the right fit.

Bohler was one of the first firms that I interviewed with. It was more like a conversation, more natural.

— Kate Curll, Branch Manager, Charlotte

“Bohler was one of the first firms that I interviewed with, and it was great because it was more like a conversation, more natural than the interviews I had experienced with other firms,” Kate recalls. “I joined what was then our Sterling (now Herndon), Virginia, office as an Assistant Project Manager, and about a year later, we opened another Mid-Atlantic office.”

The firm’s expansion marked Kate’s first career milestone at Bohler.

Kate learned about the new office after a meeting that she attended alongside Mid-Atlantic Divisional Managing Partner Dan Duke and CEO Adam Volanth with a local developer. After the meeting, Dan called Kate to offer her the opportunity to transfer to the new office. “I said, ‘If you could see how big the smile is on my face right now,” Kate recalls. “This is amazing!’”

Even without the new office, Bohler was already doing a lot of work in the city. Establishing a physical location there was a natural step. “I can’t tell you how many construction cranes were on the horizon at the time and how many of them were Bohler projects,” Kate says. “Opening that office really helped us springboard into being the local consultant for a lot of local developers.”

​​​Kate joined several other team members in establishing the new location. “We each had to wear different hats, even to the extent that when calls would come in, you’d have to stop what you were doing to pick up the phone and answer, ‘Thanks for calling Bohler. How can we help you?’” she says. “It was small, but it was fun.”

Kate learned a lot about the business and gradually took on more responsibility during her eight years there, going from Assistant Project Manager to Project Manager to Senior Project Manager to Associate. “It’s a prime location with a ton of great opportunities for clients and projects,” she says.

In addition to professional career growth, Kate experienced several personal milestones while part of the team — including getting married and welcoming all three of her children to the world. It was while on maternity leave with her third baby in 2021 that Kate realized she needed to make a change for her family.

Over that time, it became clear that her parents, who live in North Carolina, were starting to need additional support and that living seven hours away in Maryland was no longer an option. “I was planning on going back when my maternity leave ended, but some things came up personally for my parents, and we decided that we needed to move down there to be closer to them,” Kate says.

Kate met with the Mid-Atlantic leadership team and filled them in on her plans to leave. “I told them that I really wanted to stay with Bohler, but I didn’t know if they would still want me or if there was space for me down in Charlotte,” Kate recalls. As it turned out, there was.

Serendipitously, a project manager in Charlotte was preparing to move to the Mid-Atlantic area, leaving an opening in the Queen City. So, when Mark Joyce, Southern Division Managing Partner, learned that Kate was interested in moving to Charlotte, he was thrilled. “Kate is a proven performer in the Mid-Atlantic and has solid Bohler experience,” he says. “It worked out really well.

Kate joined our Charlotte office after her maternity leave ended in late 2021 and spent the next year getting acclimated — learning how the office worked and getting familiar with the codes and regulations that are unique to the area. She also had the prospect of another opportunity in front of her: branch manager.

It just so happened that Charlotte’s then-Branch Manager Daniel Hines was preparing to move into a new position, leading the Southern Division’s new Technical Resource Group. When Kate expressed interest in transferring to Charlotte, Mark thought she would make a great branch manager.

​​​​​​​“Kate is highly organized, and she lives The Bohler Way and drives the Core Operating Principles,” Mark says. “She’s very operationally driven and follows the process, thinks things through, and creates stability and predictability in business operation. This was exactly what we needed in Charlotte.”

While Kate knew that becoming branch manager was a possibility, she didn’t immediately step into that role. “My transition into the branch manager position is something that we worked on for months,” Kate says. “We wanted to make sure it was going to be the right fit for both sides.” In less than a year, the match was clear.

As Bohler grows, it opens up doors to different geographic areas, different market sectors, and different positions that allow employees to flourish.

— Kate Curll, Branch Manager

Mark announced Kate’s promotion to Branch Manager in October of 2022. Bohler’s growth gave Daniel the opportunity to move into a more technical-focused role, and it gave Kate the chance to take the next step in her career. “As Bohler grows, it opens up doors to different geographic areas, different market sectors, different industries, and different positions that really allow employees to flourish,” she says. “It’s exciting to be a part of it.”

For Kate, the added bonus is that she’s been able to grow with the firm while caring for her family. “My parents live four miles down the road now,” she says. “I’m able to help them, and quite honestly, with three kids, they’re able to help me, too. It’s hard to quantify how much that means for my family.”