At Burns & McDonnell, some of the strongest partnerships start small: a single person, a single program, a shared way of working. That's exactly how the relationship with KGDR Consultants began, and nearly a decade later it has grown into one of the firm's most integral strategic partner collaborations.
It started in 2018, when Deena Rifai, president and founder of KGDR Consultants, joined a local diverse partner program with Burns & McDonnell to support the client, ComEd. Working side by side with the team, she learned the firm's approach and culture from the inside out.
“It was Deena, party of one, sitting in our office and working hand in hand with our team,” says Ewa Gasienica-Szymkow, a section manager at Burns & McDonnell. “She really dove into all of the details, learning our communication style, learning the importance of our MacCulture, focusing on client success, and truly became an integral part of the team.”
That was the point, Gasienica-Szymkow says. Rifai wasn't looking to grow KGDR Consultants as a staffing agency; she wanted to build a true partnership, developed alongside Burns & McDonnell — from the ground up.
From a Team of One to a Multistate Partner
Rifai remembers it the same way.
“We’ve experienced significant growth since we started working with Burns & McDonnell,” she says. “When KGDR first started, I was actually working as a project manager as a team of one.”
From that starting point on the program with ComEd, KGDR's role steadily expanded: first into project management and project controls, then across broader Burns & McDonnell portfolios of utility work. As trust grew, so did the geography. KGDR moved into supporting Burns & McDonnell on the East Coast, in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Michigan, and ultimately into FirstEnergy's footprint across Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio.
“Burns & McDonnell has played a significant role in KGDR’s growth by providing us with opportunities to expand our involvement across multiple disciplines and broaden our capabilities.” Rifai says. “We started out with project management, but right now we're supporting project management, project controls, document control, outage sequencing, construction management and procurement. We've tapped into so many disciplines with Burns & McDonnell. I think the relationship we've built and the trust that Burns & McDonnell has had in us ever since we started working together and consistently performing to their standards have helped KGDR grow and opened doors to so many opportunities.”
A Milestone Project: Key Crossing
Ask Rifai about a project that captures the partnership at its best, and she doesn't hesitate: the Key Crossing project, which involved retiring aging 230-kV transmission lines beneath the Patapsco River in Maryland.
The work called for a specialized construction manager with a marine construction background. It had to be someone who could support towers on both sides of the river and see the project through from start to finish. KGDR found the right person: a construction manager that was also a professional diver and licensed pilot who supported the project from start to finish, including the stringing of the transmission lines.
“He was involved in every aspect of the project from inspecting the marine construction work with our boat in the middle of the river to the stringing of the transmission lines,” Rifai says of the construction manager KGDR placed on the project, describing a level of hands-on involvement that reflects how deeply embedded KGDR's team has become in Burns & McDonnell project delivery.
Partner, Not Competitor
Perhaps the clearest sign of how far the relationship has come: This year, a client recognized KGDR's growth and opened the door for the firm to compete directly for work.
But for KGDR, the opportunity reinforced the value of the relationships it had built and its focus on continuing to grow alongside Burns & McDonnell.
“KGDR decided that their relationship with us is more integral,” Gasienica-Szymkow says, “and that they'd prefer to stay a partner versus growing into a competitor.”
It's a moment that speaks to the foundation Rifai and her team have built over the better part of a decade: a partnership rooted in shared culture, mutual trust and a long-term view of what success looks like for both organizations.
From a single person in a shared office to a multidisciplinary partner spanning several states and utility clients. KGDR's growth mirrors the kind of homegrown, values-driven partnership Burns & McDonnell aims to build with its strategic partners. It's a relationship shaped not by a single contract, but by nearly a decade of demonstrating together what long-term partnership can look like.
