ACEC National Annual Report
From ACEC National President & CEO Linda Bauer Darr and ACEC National Board President Dan Larson:
"Dear ACEC Members,
We are pleased to share the 2025–2026 ACEC Annual Report, Built to Lead, now available to read here. It captures a year of advocacy, innovation, and influence on behalf of the engineering industry - and it arrives at a pivotal moment for the Council.
On May 3, 2026, ACEC’s Board of Directors unanimously adopted an updated Strategic Plan built the way we do our best work: together, over months, with input from Board members and Member Organization executives across the country. With this revised roadmap now in place, we want to share what our new direction means for you and your firm.
This has been a strong year for ACEC, and we built on that strength deliberately because the environment our members operate in hasn't gotten simpler. The pace has picked up and complexity is growing. We are living through a period of unrelenting disruption and unending opportunity. New technologies are reshaping how firms deliver projects, workforce pressures are reshaping who does that work, and political currents are testing the professional standards that have protected the public and this industry for generations.
Our Strategic Plan exists to help ACEC meet all these challenges without losing focus on what matters most. A key component to this is having a strong, supportive national team. Over the past year, we've added two new strategic hires who give ACEC sharper capability precisely where the industry needs it, including new expertise in technology and data that strengthens our work on digital transformation. This gives ACEC the people and intelligence to lead credibly on the issues reshaping your business.
All of this ties into ACEC’s number one priority – advocacy. By investing in technology and data infrastructure internally, we fuel our strength in delivering effective advocacy on the issues that matter most to you. Issues such as infrastructure funding, energy markets, tax and regulatory policy. And it also helps with the important work we do for you on business education, leadership training, helping you build out your networks, and research and thought leadership. These are foundational to our organization – they represent what we are and why we exist. The new Strategic Plan builds on this foundation by putting particular focus on four rising priorities: Digital Transformation, Licensure Protection, Membership Growth, and Workforce Development. They will provide guidance alongside, and not in place of, ACEC's longstanding institutional commitments, which remain embedded throughout the plan:
- Digital Transformation: We're helping firms navigate AI, automation, and shifting delivery models with resources backed by real technical and data expertise, so our actions are grounded in evidence, not guesswork.
- Licensure Protection: The profession faces challenges to licensure on many fronts. This plan gives that fight strategic underpinning with better tools, stronger coordination, and real support for the grassroots leaders and Member Organizations defending licensure in state capitols.
- Workforce Development: Growing the pipeline of talent entering and staying in this profession remains one of our most consistent, long-term challenges. This plan keeps it front and center through our committees and the Engineering Workforce Consortium.
- Membership Growth: As we help the engineering industry evolve, the Strategic Plan is designed to position ACEC to grow and strengthen alongside it.
Above all, this plan does not live just on paper. It is being implemented as a living document across every department at National and in partnership with our Member Organizations. A Future Focused Task Force will assemble each year to review external and internal changes impacting our industry and decide if the plan needs to be modified to stay strong. You should expect to hear about specific progress, not just intentions, in the months ahead.
On behalf of the Council, we wish to thank everyone who has had a hand in bringing this updated Strategic Plan into reality over the past year. That includes our past Chairs Gary Raba and John Rathke, Karen Friese and her leadership on the Strategic Planning Committee, Keith London for his work guiding the Planning Cabinet, and to all our members and volunteers whose years accumulated experience has helped guide our approach on this important project.
ACEC exists to advance the business of engineering by empowering firms and protecting the profession. By uniting this Federation behind this Strategic Plan, we will move forward with clear eyes about the challenges ahead, and real confidence in this industry's ability to meet them. Thank you for being part of this Federation, and for the work you do every day advancing the engineering industry."