In the Shadows

About the Book

This is the memoir of a professional civil engineer practicing within two government entities and twelve construction companies during his career. Joe describes his civil engineer practice working for family-owned construction companies, a major corporation, and the government. Joe traces his practice from a design engineer at Brooks AFB, to a construction engineer at a major mining management company, to construction management positions at several family owned construction companies, to an estimation consultancy at a major government transportation entity. Joe has built successful union operations and a successful merit shop company for respected union contractors. With this experience, he describes the details for building merit shop divisions and the management of the ensuing double breasted operations. Joe describes his consultancy during a troubled construction period of a major transportation agency. Joe places you in his office as he grows a regional heavy, industrial rigging company into a highly respected national industrial constructor. The reader relives with Joe, the execution of the double breasted business model for two respected union contractors. Joe will impart to the reader the excitement of starting a merit shop company and doubling its growth each year. Joe will let the reader relive California labor history as he or she participates in the initial development of the ABC, Southern California parallel craft training programs. Joe will take the reader inside the establishment and growth of a Los Angeles industrial division for a major ENR fifty merit shop constructor, as itrelentlessly drive to become a billion dollar industrial constructor. Joe’s more than ten years as a construction claims consultant is described as he builds a professional estimation department within a state transportation entity recovering from federal sanctions and experiencing chaotic restructuring. Finally, Joe will describe for the reader the “inside baseball” of three major lawsuits in which Joe prevailed. One lawsuit, although won, was lost on appeal, due to the appellate court ruling that the intervening change in the law was retroactive.

About the Author

In this unusual memoir, Mr. Buley recounts his successful fifty-year career as a professional civil engineer, taking the reader into his personal and business life to show the interaction of family, social, and political events that shaped his technical career. Mr. Buley’s memoir shows, in explicit detail, the importance of maintaining your customer base while changing corporate entities to make maximum use of your technical talents. This customer base was primarily the top fifty Fortune 500 Companies that included major mining, utility, petro chemical, manufacturing, and transportation projects. Mr. Buley holds a bachelor of science from the University of Vermont, a master of science from Stanford University, attended Western States University, College of Law, is a registered civil-structural engineer, maintains a California Contractor’s “A” license and is a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers.