Hamid Adib is one of the principals of Wieldlinger Associates, Inc. The company is well known nationally and internationally for its innovation in design and its staff’s ability to provide cost effective solutions to challenging problems. In this capacity, Hamid is in charge of not only technical and engineering aspects of the projects he is involved with, but also financial aspects of the business. I met Hamid in his office last July. I introduced the Iranian-American Engineering Society (IAES) and our goals and visions. He was and is very kind with his support for the organization and more important, he accepted to be the first “distinguished” member to be interviewed. Hamid is young (not to mention handsome!!), efficient, serious about his job, yet very open and pleasant to talk with. He could very well be pointed out as one of the success stories of the Iranian Engineers in Metro Area. He is very active and involved with related organizations and events around him. I enjoyed this interview very much and learned a lot from him. I am very motivated by his courage, determination, and vision. I am sure that many of you would enjoy and share these feelings. Let’s see what he has to say to his fellow-Iranian engineers:

Q1: Hamid, please introduce yourself to our members, your family, your education, current responsibilities, and professional achievements, etc...

I was born in Shiraz and my family moved to Tehran when I was 4 years old. My parents were both educators and gave my sisters and me a broader perspective by striking a nice balance between life and education. I attended Kharazmi High School in Tehran and came here in 1977 after graduation. Two things that I decided while an 11th grade student and at age 15, shaped my life. One was to study structural engineering and the second was to come to United States for my college education. Even though my parents were somewhat disappointed by me not attending college in Iran, they respected my decision and supported me emotionally and financially. It turned out that I remained on schedule with finishing college, whereas my sister, who stayed in Iran, ended up graduating three years later due to the revolution.

I attended a small private college in Connecticut to be close to cousin who lived in New York. Once I finished my bachelor’s degree, I started working in nuclear field and pursuing my graduate degree part time. I wanted to be financially independent, gain experience and keep my broader perspective of life, rather than being a professional student. It was also helpful that Minges Associates, the company I worked for, sponsored my residency application. I became a licensed engineer in 1987 and was lucky to be able to balance a life between continuing my education, working, and teaching engineering. Professionally, I was also lucky to gain increased project responsibility, and became a project manager in 1989 at BVH Engineers a prominent consulting engineering firm in Connecticut. In 1992, my wife Firoozeh and I were married. As obtaining a terminal degree was a long term goal of mine, I continued my education part time, defending my thesis in 1995.

During my last months as a PhD student, my wife decided she wanted to pursue dentistry. I seized the opportunity to continue my part time education obtaining my MBA. I also accepted a position as the Principal and Director of Engineering in Connecticut's largest and most prestigious Architectural and Engineering firm, The S/L/A/M Collaborative.

By 1999, my wife had become a dentist, I had finished my MBA and we were both quite tired of studying. Although we both enjoyed the intellectual atmosphere of higher education setting, it was time to focus my attention to professional activities. My extra curricular professional activities were expanded from local to national level by being elected to the board of governors of the structural engineering institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The national exposure provided me with many opportunities at the larger firms with national and international exposure and I accepted my current position as a Principal in the New York office of Weidlinger associates in 2001. On July of 2003, we were blessed with having our son, marking the beginning of the best experience and years of my life.

Q2: What is the most interesting project you worked on?

Most interesting projects we get involved with at Weidlinger are confidential, due to the nature and type of projects. However, on the straight building structures, the tallest concrete building in Korea, a 67-story building, has perhaps been the most interesting.

Q3: What is your opinion about Iranian Engineering Community in Metro Area? What are their strength, weaknesses, and any other opinion you may have.

I can tell you with confidence that the Iranian engineering and architecture professionals are the most talented group that one can gather in a metropolitan area; however like all other Iranian professionals, we suffer from the lack of unity and even knowledge of other's existence. So one can say that the lack of community is our weakness and the talent is our strength.

Q4: What do you think about an organization like Iranian-American Engineering Society? Is there any need for such organization or are we better off without one?

Having an organization just for the sake of having one, but not positively impacting a group, in my opinion, is more frustrating than not having one. We have plenty of successful individuals that if pooled together, each member can be even more successful. As discussed earlier, it will be a challenge to successfully gather those individuals.

Q5: What do you think the goals and missions of this organization should be?

It is certainly worthwhile having an organization so long as it keeps an active crowd and the group is useful to its membership. The goals and mission is one that the group needs to establish not by an individual, but by the founding group. Of the paramount priority should be to help other talented and eager Iranians become established and flourish. My experience with other associations of Iranians has been less than ideal. My past experience has been that those who are least active have the highest expectation. In my opinion, only those who contribute should have the right to have expectations. It is a delicate balance of not being an elitist, yet attracting the best talent who will have a positive contribution.

Q6: How should we achieve the goals and missions you mentioned?

I believe that we need to gather a group at least 7 people who really think along the same lines, and have this group draw up a well written and clearly defined mission. Then we need to put the mission in front of potential membership for ratification. If we get an agreement on the mission, it is worthwhile continuing more formally.

Q7: Add whatever you like to say your fellow Iranian engineers, advice, complement, anything you wish.

I am in no position of giving advise to a group of intellectuals and highly successful individuals. I only ask one question, call it food for thought, for those individuals who are successful. “Would your success pace be faster and less stressful if you had the support of a group or an organization of powerful people in your profession”?

In a society where “who you know is more important than what you know”, the answer to the question raised is a definite “YES”. So, let’s pool our talents together, help each other, make our community strong and reap the benefits of having a unified voice.

Thank you Hamid. We are proud of you and looking forward to see you at our side as we grow to be a strong organization.