William J. Nugent

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2020

For leading Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to excellence by focusing on the firm’s long-term success in its mission to deliver better solutions to the world’s construction problems, fostering success leading to growth throughout the United States and internationally, building a culture of unprecedented trust and freedom, and setting a high personal standard of technical excellence, client service and contributions to the profession.

Biography

William Nugent joined Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE) in 1976 and has served as the company’s President and CEO since 1997. In that role, Nugent has helped WJE succeed and grow from about 250 employees in twelve U.S. offices in the late 1990s to more than 750 employees in twenty-nine locations in the U.S. and London today. His career at WJE has also included more than eight-hundred projects involving problems with buildings and other structures. Among these have been structural failure investigations, structural and materials testing, wind and seismic damage assessments, and evaluation and repair of building facade, curtain wall and glass failures or serviceability issues. In addition, he has authored numerous reports and papers and presented lectures on a variety of structural, architectural and materials problems and repair techniques. 

Nugent earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1973 and M.S. in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1977. He is an active member of the Safety Glazing Certification Council Board of Directors, the American National Standards Institute Z97.1 Committee and the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.