In 1975, the company that would eventually become Harris Group Inc., Schuchart & Associates, consisted of two employees: Ed Allbaugh and Bob Harris.

Weyerhaeuser in Longview, Washington, became an early customer of the company, beginning a relationship that has continued to this day. Other customers included Boise Cascade and Georgia Pacific.

Schuchart & Associates grew to 30 employees in their first year, and under the leadership of Bob Harris and Bill Hytinen, starting in 1977, expanded beyond pulp and paper to include natural gas compressor station projects with NW Pipeline (now Williams).

In the late 1970s Schuchart & Associates began working in Alaska. During this time, the firm’s reputation for value and customer satisfaction had grown by leaps and bounds, with the design of an award winning modular oil refinery delivered to the North Slope for Arco.

In 1983 Schuchart & Associates merged with Pearson, Pape, Allan & Huggins; PPA&H brought with them quality customers as well as challenging projects. The merger strengthened the “task force team approach” to projects, which included a large team dedicated to the ongoing work in Alaska.

The second company to merge with Schuchart & Associates was the Portland office of Sandwell International, in 1985. Sandwell’s history dated back to 1959, and its acquisition was a timely opportunity, further strengthening the firm’s collective experience in large projects. In January 1985, Sandwell Portland merged with Schuchart & Associates.

In the late 80’s Schuchart & Associates became Harris Group Inc., and opened two new offices, including Denver, CO.

Denver became the center for engineering services for the power generation and oil & gas markets. At the same time, Harris Group began providing project finance and independent engineering services, offering due diligence, providing lenders, investors, developers, and owner’s assistance with the development, financing, acquisition, divestiture, and monitoring of industrial and energy facilities.

In 1989 Harris Group's Life Sciences/Biopharmaceuticals market was formed, and was awarded one of its first projects with Immunex (now Amgen). As the business grew, new projects were executed from offices in Seattle, Denver, and Portland through the first decade, and more recently through offices in Thousand Oaks and San Francisco.

By the early 1990s Harris Group had nearly tripled in size. Its revenues had grown at an average annual rate of over 30%, and in 1992 Harris Group developed its Industrial Manufacturing and Aerospace businesses and began its long-term relationship with Boeing.

In 1995 Harris Group celebrated its 20th corporate anniversary. A vision for a worldwide delivery system for engineering helped lead to the establishment of Harris Group International Inc. - its first mandate: to secure a large market share of the Russian pulp and paper business. At the same time, Harris Group was implementing PDMS and WAN resources to enhance its global delivery systems.

In the mid 90’s Harris Group began serving the Emerging Technologies (moving emerging technologies from concepts to commercialization) and Renewable Fuels and Chemicals marketplaces. Both markets grew out of Harris Group's pulp and paper market sector in response to its customers’ objective to maximize the value of all their resources. When demand for ethanol began to increase, there was a growing advantage for Harris Group's pulp and paper customers to convert sawdust and other forest products residues into fuel.

The range of applications for converting natural resources or waste into energy is endless. Today, Harris Group’s Renewable Fuels and Chemicals market sector serves over 50% of the world’s largest providers of alternative fuels including:

• Abengoa Bioenergy
• Imperium Renewables
• Osage BioEnergy
• Qteros
• Sapphire Energy
• Motiva Enterprises LLC

In the public sector, Harris Group continues its long relationships with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the US Department of Energy (DOE).

Significant to Harris Group’s success is its ability to capitalize on the strengths and talents of its employees, and its ability to identify customers and marketplaces where it can add value.

• In 2003 Harris Group developed the Port Facilities and Utility infrastructure business. Its present day relationship with the Port of Seattle began at that time, eventually including the Ports of Tacoma and Portland.
• In 2004 Harris Group's Thousand Oaks, California office opened to expand services to the life sciences business, further strengthening its growing relationship with Amgen and other biotech firms.
• In 2006 the water and waste water market was developed, serving King County, Washington and other municipalities in the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast.
• With a 10 year history of serving the market, Harris Group formally established its Fuel and Chemical Distribution Facilities market sector in 2008, serving Shell, Motiva Enterprises LLC and other major chemical distribution firms.

Since our founding in 1975, our people have always been the source of Harris Group’s success and competitive advantage.  Training and technological resources continue to be fundamental to Harris Group’s growth. In 2006 Harris Group University was established as an in-house advanced training center for employees, with courses in Technical, Business, Project Management, Marketing, and Personal Development – sharpening our employees’ skills, and helping our customers become more successful.

Harris Group has the core resources and the maturity to continue to plan ahead, remain customer oriented, think globally, and implement projects in an intelligent and timely manner. Our ability to diversify our customer base, maintain past relationships, and forge new alliances has always served us well.

Harris Group has kept the best of what it has learned, and continues to build on its strengths to embrace the future in all the markets we serve.