DARIN ANDERSON
CHAIRMAN/CEO
SALAS O’BRIEN
WHY: Guided the growth of Salas O’Brien, an Irvine-based engineering services firm that is one of OC’s fastest growing. Roll-up strategy has helped firm in four years triple annual sales to $562M. Salas O’Brien currently has $20B in annual construction value and works on more than 17.3K projects each year. The firm also has nearly 100 offices across North America.
IN THE NEWS: Salas O’Brien announced in late April it acquired EDEC, a company specializing in electrical, instrumentation and control systems. The merger helps Salas O’Brien expand its operations in the electrical engineering space.
NOTABLE: Salas O’Brien in 2024 received minority investment from Blackstone, which has more than $1T of assets under management. The company has been recognized by Engineering News-Record’s annual list of top design firms.
QUOTABLE: “As more companies and institutions pursue their decarbonization, energy transition, and critical infrastructure goals, Salas O’Brien’s expertise has never been more needed in the world. Blackstone’s investment helps us gain greater access to talent, enhances our technology resources, and helps us better serve more clients. The fact that we can do all of this while retaining our employee ownership approach and in partnership with the incredible professionals at Blackstone is an amazing validation of our team’s hard work—and positions us to get even better.”
