Business News

Kam Movassaghi retires from Fenstermaker

by Leslie Turk

After a decade as president of the consulting engineering firm, former DOTD chief says he will remain active in the profession but has no specific plans.

The New Year brings a new challenge for Kam Movassaghi: retirement.

After 10 years as president of the Lafayette-based consulting engineering firm Fenstermaker, he retired Jan. 1. “It has been a great ride, and I will treasure the memories. I will continue my involvement in my profession, community and the national issues as long as I can,” he says in an email to friends and colleagues.

While at the firm, Movassaghi led a staff of more than 300 employees involved in a variety of projects in transportation, municipal, industrial, environmental, water and energy sectors. The growing firm is listed in Engineering News Record’s Top 300 Design Firms in the Nation.

“I plan to remain active in the profession while continuing my community service for as long as I am able to [he is a big proponent of completing I-49 South]. I currently do not have anything specific [lined up],” Movassaghi tells ABiz.

The affable Movassaghi has more than 45 years of experience in engineering, management and leadership in private sector, government service and academia. He is a former secretary of Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, where he managed an annual budget of $1.3 billion and was responsible for developing a 10-year program to expedite building of 500 miles of new highways, construction of a new bridge and renovation of Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River. This $5 billion, 10-year, statewide program, called the Transportation Intermodal Model for Economic Development (the TIMED program), was the single largest highway construction program in the history of the state.

Movassaghi spent 25 years in academia, involved in teaching, research and administration, and is a former head of the Civil Engineering Department at UL Lafayette. His academic career includes appointments at two other universities. He has a B.S. in civil engineering from UL, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from LSU. He was elected to LSU Civil Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2005.