Featuring Topaz Awards Winner Harry Lawrence: Colleague, Leader, Mentor, and Friend
by Laurie Lumish
Are you registered for SMPS SFBAC’s Topaz Awards yet? This week, we’re thrilled to be featuring our Lifetime Achievement award winner, Harry Lawrence!
After knowing someone for nearly 20 years, it should be easy to write a few words about their career and contributions to SMPS SFBAC. But it is not. Writing about someone who is always there, sharing and contributing to the A/E/C landscape turns out to be quite a challenge.
Harry Lawrence of Terracon Consulting is such a person. During my A/E/C career, I have never not known Harry. He was at RGA Environmental when I first met him in 2005. A smaller environmental firm that operated in many of the same markets as my own firm, Harry and I had a lot to talk and share about where the businesses were headed. We’d share leads, make introductions at SMPS events, and even started doing some SMPS committee work around the same time. As colleagues we assisted each other in our various career endeavors.
I had the great pleasure of serving with Harry on the SMPS SFBAC Board in the mid-2000’s when board meetings and events were always in person. During that time, he demonstrated his keen understanding of the A/E/C marketplace, helping guide programs that brought our members in touch with the latest client and market-based trends. One thing I frequently hear from members who joined the organization during this time is that Harry was one of the first people they would meet. As programs chair and a leader, he made himself the unofficial welcome ambassador at every networking opportunity.
When the small firm Harry worked for was acquired by a behemoth, Terracon, he stayed through the transition and thrived. His professional opportunities tripled in size and relying on his skill as well as his network in SMPS, he made the most of those opportunities. After this transition is when I started to get to know the mentor Harry. With a larger marketing/BD team behind him, Harry could take his years of experience and share that with others through Mentoring Pathways, through supporting Terracon team members in their growth, and by joining BLF to share his insights with peers.
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, when offices were still sealed up, after the sky had turned orange in the Bay Area, and we still didn’t know when or if “life would go back to normal” Harry and I had coffee. Sitting outside, on a sun-filled day, with some Starbies, we shared what we had been going through. It was the first time I had seen anyone except a family member in months in person. Right then that in-person connection was all that was needed to get through to the new year when things started looking a bit brighter for everyone. And I finally knew Harry as a friend.
Laurie Lumish, CPSM is Principal and Director of Marketing and Business Development at Degenkolb Engineers and Past President of the SMPS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
