By Jessica Borders
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — FOX Engineering PLLC, with a location in Fairmont, “is setting goals and raising standards.”
Owner and president Jennifer Fox, a structural engineer specializing in bridge design and bridge inspection, has been doing this work for 16 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from West Virginia University and is a registered professional engineer in several states.
Right out of school, Jennifer worked for the Division of Highways for four years and made some beneficial contacts. She then went into the consulting industry for another four years.
Prior to forming FOX Engineering, Jennifer had been commuting to Charleston every day for work. She wanted to be more accessible to her children, who were very young at the time, and she knew she had the self-discipline to establish her own business.
"I've always been a really self-motivated worker,” she said.
Jennifer started FOX Engineering, a limited liability company, out of her home in 2001 and received some help from a federal program called the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. She quickly began obtaining better contracts and hired her first employee a year and a half later.
In 2003, Jennifer purchased a 10,000 square foot commercial building, which is now at full capacity, in historic downtown Ripley. The company currently has a total of 38 workers at its three locations. Jennifer said the employees are very talented and, like her, had the desire to work closer to family and home.
In addition to the headquarters in Ripley, FOX Engineering has a satellite office in Maryland, where five employees work. In 2008, Jennifer acquired another company, John Giese Engineers, to form the Fairmont office of FOX Engineering.
"It's quite an accolade to me that he entrusted his reputation to me,” she said of John.
Jennifer said she met John while she was working for the state, and from 2001 to 2008 they teamed together for several bridge projects. When John retired, Jennifer acquired his personnel and current contracts. John still helps out at the business as needed.
The Fairmont office is located at 1000 Green River Drive in the Marion County Business and Industrial Park. Seven employees are stationed there, and the staff is growing.
FOX Engineering really targeted the Fairmont area because of the growth and potential. The area also had a need for qualified engineers and surveyors who could provide more attention to detail, Jennifer said.
The company has three divisions: design, surveying and construction. The design portion of the company includes bridges, roads, structural elements, and civil design, and the surveying segment involves anything from small boundary and topographic surveys to large surveys. The construction division does guard rails, excavation, seeding, mulching, and small buildings.
FOX Engineering has seven registered professional engineers. Jennifer said the business has mostly senior level staff, which allows for senior level participation — rather than just supervision — at all levels of the project.
"Obviously everything I do I look for growth, and I always have a goal,” she said. “We have some pretty aggressive goals for the future as well."
Jennifer wants to keep expanding the West Virginia staff and possibly branch out, while continuing to provide the same quality of work. She said the company plans to continue concentrating on smaller projects.
For more information, call FOX Engineering PLLC in Fairmont at 304-534-3245.
E-mail Jessica Borders at jborders@timeswv.com.
