This year Bechtel is celebrating its 110th anniversary. From a small railroad-grading business in the American West at the end of the 19th century, we have grown to become the world’s premier engineering and construction company, with 42,500 employees, offices worldwide, and projects in dozens of countries. This anniversary is especially gratifying in the wake of our performance in 2007, which overall was our best yet. For the second straight year, we achieved record results in both revenue and the value of new work that we booked.
Last year witnessed the completion of a number of important projects that will take their place alongside our signature projects of the past. They include the UK’s first high-speed rail line, the longest new suspension span in the United States in four decades, the historic restart of a U.S. nuclear reactor, and our first-ever project in Iceland, an aluminum smelter.
We also won a number of major new projects last year, including work that strengthens our position as a leader in helping customers meet growing worldwide demand for energy.
Complementing our strong execution in 2007 was the best safety performance in our history. Year in and year out, Bechtel ranks among the safest companies in our industry, and last year was no exception as more than 90 percent of our projects completed the year without a lost-time accident, and 53 projects each achieved more than 1 million consecutive safe work hours.
As a global company, we recognize our obligation to help customers meet their goals for a sustainable world. In 2007, we developed new tools for performing sustainable engineering and construction, and our innovative training programs provided job skills to hundreds of local workers.
We also continued to improve the quality of our own work through Six Sigma, the data-driven methodology now in its eighth year at Bechtel.
While we had a great year in 2007, we know that past performance is no guarantee of future success. We are confident that in 2008 and beyond, our skilled and dedicated employees will continue to build on 110 years of world-class service to our customers.
Riley P. Bechtel,
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Adrian Zaccaria,
President & Chief Operating Officer
