Chicago, Illinois, United States
Terry Ruhl is a proven senior executive and board director with a passion for driving transformational business growth and delivering exceptional value to clients and stakeholders. He brings extensive experience in business transformation, strategy development, mergers and acquisitions, and infrastructure planning, design, and program management. He previously led the National Governments business for CH2M, a global A/E industry leader, partnering with governments worldwide to advance defense, infrastructure, environmental, and economic priorities. As a member of CH2M’s Board of Directors and Corporate Leadership Council, he helped guide the company’s capital structure transformation from an employee-owned enterprise to a publicly held corporation. From 2012 to 2016, as President of CH2M’s Global Transportation business, he oversaw its rise as one of the industry’s largest transportation consulting practices. Under his leadership, the business doubled in size and profitability and achieved the No. 3 ranking among Transportation Design Firms ($1 billion revenue) by Engineering News-Record. In 2018, he founded INFRADEVCO, LLC, providing strategic consulting and management solutions to A/E firms, public agencies, private equity investors, and corporate boards. After earning his Doctorate in Business Administration from DePaul University in 2021, he became Board Chair and CEO of H.W. Lochner, a multidisciplinary transportation consulting firm headquartered in Chicago. From 2021 to 2025, Mr. Ruhl led Lochner through exceptional growth—doubling revenue, nearly tripling earnings, and increasing enterprise value by 450%. In July 2025, he guided Lochner’s merger with Egis Group, a Paris-based leader in architecture, consulting, engineering, operations, and mobility services, positioning Lochner as the cornerstone of Egis’ U.S. growth strategy. Mr. Ruhl earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in transportation engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. A lifelong learner, he has completed executive education programs in leadership, business administration, and finance at MIT Sloan, Thunderbird, the University of Michigan Business School, and Harvard Business School. Through his doctoral work and continuing thereafter, his research has focused on strategy, evidence-based management, organizational behavior, and mergers and acquisitions in professional service firms. He has authored numerous publications on transportation engineering as well as business management and leadership.
Founded in 1944, Lochner provides planning, environmental, design, construction engineering and inspection, and program/construction management services for surface transportation, aviation, and water clients. In July of 2025, Mr. Ruhl led Lochner to the merger with Egis Group, a Paris, France-based global leader in architecture, consulting, engineering, concessions/operations, and mobility services. The partnership positioned Lochner as the cornerstone of Egis’ growth strategy in the United States, while expanding Lochner’s geographic reach internationally and significantly diversifying the business.
Business consulting and management solutions for A/E companies, public agencies, private equity investors and corporate boards engaged in the planning, design, engineering and delivery of infrastructure solutions. Service offerings included strategy development; business restructuring/refinement; mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; and sales optimization and marketing, in addition to professional consulting for community infrastructure needs. Also served on multiple company boards as a non-executive director.
Member of CH2M’s Board of Directors (starting with the Governance Committee in 2014) and Corporate Leadership Council that completed the capital structure transformation from an employee-owned company to a public-sector corporation – creating the world’s largest design engineering firm. Worked through various company reorganizations and capital structure alternatives, including the $300 million private equity investment by Apollo Global Management, LLC.
Led CH2M’s $2 billion National Governments business, partnering with governments around the world to advance their defense, infrastructure, environmental, social and economic missions. Directed the growth and profitability of four operational units serving the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S Department of Energy and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, U.S. Civilian Agencies and International Governments. Also, increased sales growth by more than 14 percent and delivered a profitability increase of 16 percent above plan, resulting in $20 million of additional benefit to the company.
Led CH2M’s global Transportation business, spanning aviation, highways and bridges, ports and maritime and transit and rail. Directed the growth of CH2M’s transportation business from $500 million to $1 billion and advanced the Engineering News-Record transportation ranking from No. 7 to No. 3, domestically, and from No. 30 to No. 4, internationally. Managed the acquisition and integration of a North American transit and rail consultancy and a multinational engineering consultancy company, based in the U.K.
Served in various project delivery roles for transportation, aviation and land development services, both domestically and internationally.
Initiated career as a civil engineer focusing on aviation and transportation projects, starting in Kansas City and relocating to a client program office in West Palm Beach, Florida.