Baird & Associates Coastal Engineers Ltd.,
Ottawa, Ontario

www.baird.com

Baird & Associates Coastal Engineers Ltd. solves complex problems on oceans, lakes and rivers. In 1999, the Ottawa-based firm opened an office in Chile to better serve its Latin American clients. "As a small firm, we recognized early in the export process that we had to minimize risk, due in part to the presence of large multi-disciplinary companies," says Bill Baird, President of Baird & Associates. "We did this by making use of federal government services such as the PEMD (Program for Export Market Development), the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service and CIDA INC." As a result of this approach, Baird & Associates today has projects to its credit in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, India and Malaysia.

The United States was the firm's first export market, where "we quickly realized that we could provide significant technical innovation," says Baird. To improve service and provide a platform for growth, Baird & Associates opened an office in Madison, Wisconsin. Having acquired the confidence to compete globally, Baird set its sights further south and in 1990, began promoting its capabilities in the Caribbean. Today, it is a major coastal engineering force in the region, highlighted by the recent award of seven shoreline restoration projects in Barbados—one of its largest projects to date.

In 1996, Baird & Associates turned to Chile. After developing a project in Viña del Mar, it generated further business in Chile, as well as in Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay. To capitalize on the huge market potential, the firm opened an office in Santiago and, shortly afterwards, was awarded the coastal engineering design work for Chile's most important port development project, Complejo Portuario de Mejillones, where construction is near completion. Working with the Chilean navy (La Armada), Baird also assisted in the creation of a new regulatory framework to govern certain technical aspects associated with the development of coastal and port infrastructure. This project has garnered the firm the respect of the local engineering community, resulting in a significant increase in business activity.