A bio box for Lee Curtis
Updated: September 30, 2024
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2024 Outstanding Women in Business
Outstanding Women in Business: Curtis has transformed the engineering industry
photo | christine peterson
Lee Curtis, president, director of people and culture at BSC Group in Worcester
By Laura Finaldi
When Lee Curtis started working to enhance the culture, vision, and mission at engineering consulting firm BSC Group, Inc., she didn’t anticipate it would result in her becoming the first female president of the company, and the youngest.
But it was the culture Curtis and her colleagues created that eventually paved the way for something like that to happen.
“She’s transformed the company, been able to hire a lot of good people, and attracts ambitious people,” said David Hayes, past principal of BSC and retired chairman of the board, who worked with Curtis for more than a decade. “It’s been very healthy for the company.”
Curtis said she wanted to help create a work environment where all of leadership had a voice, where things like promotions and having a seat at the table weren’t solely based on years of service. In her previous role as a principal of the company’s Worcester business unit, she found although she was able to create a strong culture within her team, she’d hit roadblocks when she had to reach to the broader organization.
“Sometimes I could do the things I needed to do, but I would be hitting walls everywhere else,” Curtis said. “The leader at the time said, ‘If you want to do all this good work, why don't you tackle it? Create a revitalized mission and values and see what you can do with it.’
“I said, ‘I would love to.’ It took awhile, but I did it,” she said.
Curtis originally joined BSC in 2004 as a wetland and wildlife scientist. She rose through the ranks over the years, becoming head of the Worcester business unit in 2018 and company president in 2023. Under her leadership, the Worcester unit grew from 17 employees to 48.
Reflecting on her first year as president, Curtis said she’s proud of the work she and her colleagues did to enhance the company culture. That’s what paved the way for her to become president in the first place, she said.
“I’ve worked at this company for 20 years. I know what we started out as when I first came here and who we were and what the dynamics and culture and structure looked like,” she said. “That the company and the leadership team felt comfortable installing me as president, that to me was the work that many of us were doing, of trying to get us to shift and getting us out of that old school and fixed mindset that everything has to do with years of experience, not the impact individuals have.”
Curtis has been a transformative figure at a company in the male-dominated engineering field, Hayes said. She can make tough decisions, but she puts a big emphasis on culture. She’s especially good at finding the best person for the job, and is willing to delegate parts of her responsibilities if she feels someone else’s skill set works better, he said.
“She’s a strong leader, and she sets parameters: ‘This is what company wants to do, here are your skills, go do it,’” Hayes said. “She’s there for support, but she’s willing to share responsibility.”
Operating that way, Curtis said, allows her to get the best out of her people. Delegating is a huge part of the company’s five-year plan, she said; each member of the leadership and executive team can own various C-suite responsibilities.
Her strength comes on the people and culture side of things, Curtis said, so she owns that side of the company, and that team has developed internal opportunities for education, transparency, and mentorship. She originally focused mentorship on advancing women and people of color, but realized mentorship needed to be inclusive of all team members who aspire to advance.
As the captain of the team, as she sees herself, Curtis said she strives to surround herself with people of various backgrounds and experiences. That’s the only way to innovate in ways the company would have never considered otherwise, she said.
“It’s not about hiring people or molding people to be exactly like me. It’s about trying to find all complementary strengths that can create discourse and debate,” she said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly said David Hayes is the current chairman of BSC Group's board of directors. He retired from that role in late summer.
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