In the engineering world, change is the order of business. So, whether it’s widening roads, designing bridges or creating a walkway for city beautification, engineers thrive in the new. The latest change for Vaughn & Melton (V&M), though, is internal; its leadership structure.

“We’ve come a long way in our collective effort in a relatively short amount of time,” said David Harrell, now president of the company, speaking from his Knoxville, Tenn. office. “We’re coming to the end of a strategic 10-year plan where we’ve brought all of our divisions together, and the next 10 years will be really exciting because of our strong foundation.”

One of the main changes for the firm has been adjusting its leadership roles. After a period of unprecedented growth, V&M had multiple locations throughout the Southeast. In the last decade, the company has grown from just over a hundred employees in a handful of offices across three states to more than 300 professionals across 14 offices in five states.

To avoid disparate and conflicting priorities, the company’s Board of Directors decided to streamline leadership roles. Now, rather than having multiple regional vice presidents across individual states reporting to a CEO, V&M has created a single president, an executive vice president and multiple office leaders to manage day-to-day operations.

Leading the company into the future meant tapping into long-term engineer talent. L. DeWayne Brown of Asheville, who has been with the company since 1990, will fill the role of executive VP. Danl L. Hall of Knoxville has more than 30 years’ experience and will be regional VP of Tennessee and Georgia. Reece Schuler of Asheville, with V&M since 1998, is regional VP of the Carolinas. And James Ballinger of Lexington, who has more than 27 years’ experience, is the Kentucky regional VP.

The company’s strategic vision was put in place by CEO Randolph Scott who remains in that role today. He has been credited with spearheading the efforts for the 10-year plan to streamline operations as well as making the company fiscally sound.

Vaughn & Melton has no debt, which is increasingly rare in today’s business climate. It changed the company structure to become an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) rather than breaking it up when founders Bob Vaughn and Nick Melton retired. The company has continually added core services to its offerings since its inception. And, most notably, seven offices have been added in the last decade, more than doubling the company’s size.

Other notable leadership roles moving forward include Robert Andrew acting as Chief Information Officer, Brandon Lewis as Project Management Office Director, Becky Rehorn as Chief Marketing Officer and Jennifer Wolery as Corporate Safety Director.

Office leaders include Ken Hammon in Kennesaw, Ga.; Regional Vice President James Ballinger in Lexington; Clint Goodin in Lexington; Hardy Willis in Asheville, N.C.; Michael Calhoun in Boone, N.C.; Jon Ford in Charlotte, N.C.; Dwayne Alligood in New Bern, N.C.; Paul Garrett in Raleigh, N.C.; Joel Setzer in Sylva, N.C.; Randy Stepp in North Charleston, S.C.; Wrenn Barrett in Columbia, S.C.; Jeffrey Miller in Gray, Tenn.; and Vice President Danl L. Hall overseeing Knoxville, Tenn.

For more information about this press release, contact Chief Marketing Officer Becky Rehorn via email at crrehorn@vaughnmelton.com or by phone at 865-546-5800. For more information about Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers, Inc, visit www.vaughnmelton.com.