By Staff
Tell us about Hammond & Associates. What do you do?
Hammond is a black-owned MEP engineering firm. We are one of the largest Black-owned MEP firms in the Southeast United States. We have been in business for 36 years. If you are unfamiliar with MEP engineering, it is short for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design engineering. It’s not a hot topic of chats but it is a critical piece to the building puzzle. We manage the design for built environments alongside architects and other design partners. Mechanical is the HVAC, the electrical power including the fire alarm, lighting, cabling, elevators, etc., and plumbing which is the water supply, sprinkler system, and pipes. When you look at it that way, what would a building be without those systems? That is what we bring to the table. We currently have offices in Florida and Georgia but our work extends across the Southeast as far as Texas.
How did you get started in this industry?
My father, Eric Hammond, built this business as a Jamaican immigrant from the ground up in the 1980s. I was involved in the company growing up but it wasn’t something I had a passion for initially. When I was in middle school and high school, my dad started exposing me to what he was doing and showing me how to do simple tasks. In 2017, my dad had a conversation with me about his plan to retire over the next few years and how he thought I was best suited to take over the reins. He handed me the baton in 2023 and I’m very humbled to have the opportunity and experience to stand on his shoulders as I like to put it to take the company to the next level in the next 36 years.
What keeps you here? What is your inspiration?
One of my daily inspirations is the people who work at Hammond & Associates. I’ve grown strong relationships with this talented group and I truly enjoy working with them every single day. Even more than that, I’m inspired to build upon something great. Our company has been around for a long time and has been intentionally built by my father. I’m excited to see what it can turn into over the next few decades. I want us to be an example for other engineers and other businesses out there that you can be a Black-owned business like ours in a predominantly white industry and create something great. We have an opportunity to do something impactful for years to come in this industry.
Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced personal or professional and how you responded to that challenge.
True story: When we opened our Atlanta office in 2018, my dad came up to Atlanta, handed me a set of keys to the office, showed me a portfolio of work the firm had done in the past and said, “Go!” And that’s how I officially started in the business. I started off going to a lot of networking events to meet people and doing a lot of cold calling. LinkedIn quickly became my best friend. Though it was a challenge to land that first client in the beginning, there were a few businesses who trusted us and gave us a shot to do some work with them and we made it our priority to provide high-quality service.
Additionally, the “new school vs old school” generational dynamic between my father and me has made “compromise” a frequently used word around Hammond! Now as technology advances, approaches to people management change and operational systems update, we have had to come to a compromise on how the business should progress on many occasions. It’s something that we have navigated through and now that he has handed me the baton, we’ve reached the ultimate compromise and he trusts me with the direction I want to take the company.
As a Black business owner and leader, do you feel a call and responsibility to give back and if so, how do you respond?
I do. We’re in a unique position at Hammond Engineering. There is a dearth of licensed, Black engineers, in MEP especially, and we have a responsibility to show others that a team like us does exist. It’s through our work, exposure, and opportunities like this that we open the door to those who don’t necessarily know what we do and the impact our work has. A large part of our work is community development and designing and building these buildings that we all use daily. We want young people to know that our work is not just necessary, but it’s life-changing and even cool. And that there is space for them to do it too. It’s such a great feeling to drive down the street and be able to say, “I had a hand in developing that building.” Recently, I was appointed as Chairperson of SPIKE Studio, an organization that focuses on getting our youth involved in the architectural, engineering, and construction fields. I pride myself on my involvement with that organization, along with other community-centric organizations that help us continue to grow collectively as a people and a society.
Putting work aside (if possible), what do you do to maintain a healthy work-life balance?
I wouldn’t call it a balance – I call it an integration. Spending time with my family is my balance of sorts. There are a lot of benefits to being a business owner but there are also a lot of demands from the business as well. My family has become accustomed to that and they know that it’s a give-and-take situation. My family is integrated into the business and the business is integrated into my family. I spend as much time as I can with my family and take that time to focus on them because they deserve that. Aside from the family, I go to the gym daily to keep myself in shape and energized.
(Music) In the spirit of former POTUS, Barack Obama, who’s on your playlist?
I listen to a little of everything – my taste in music varies moment by moment. I do listen to a lot of gospel and Christian contemporary music like Toby Mac, Tenth Avenue North, Chris Tomlin, and Hezekiah Walker to get my day going. Later in the day when the emails start coming in, my mood changes and I may listen to Eminem, 2Pac, Biggie, or Nas. Then as the day comes to an end, I may switch to R&B artists like John Legend. I’m a huge fan of 80s soft rock so Journey, Led Zeppelin, and other artists like them are also my go-tos.
What impact do you want Hammond to have on the world/community in the next five years?
Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me, aside from my father, in leadership. My father was my proof that it existed and was possible for me. I want to be someone else’s proof that it is possible for them. I want to leave a legacy that we have served the community well through the work we do – quality and sound engineering design. I want to know that the buildings we build or design will be used for a hundred years from now. We want to also give opportunities to young engineers who don’t know about this field that will change the trajectory of their lives. We want to say that we provided that spark for that one person coming out of school that makes them say, “I want to be an engineer.” My dad started a Kids in Science club in the early 2000s that has provided a tremendous amount of sparks. I want us to continue doing that moving forward.
