Huitt-Zollars

Huitt-Zollars

Huitt-Zollars, Inc., founded in 1975 by E. Larry Huitt and Robert L. Zollars, created its Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 1980 to hold retirement assets for the engineering and architecture firm's workforce. The plan serves as a private defined-contribution vehicle, distinct from public pension systems, and exists solely to benefit employees of the parent company. The parent firm operates across Texas and California, with its headquarters in Dallas and additional commercial offices in Glendale and Fort Worth. The plan's investment posture connects directly to Huitt-Zollars's core business: civil engineering, architecture, and infrastructure design. While the plan's specific asset allocation is not publicly detailed, its embedded position within an operating engineering firm suggests exposure to real estate and commercial property, including the Three Lincoln Centre tower that houses its headquarters. The parent company's deep involvement in NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association, and the Dallas Regional Chamber further anchors its investment footprint in physical assets and regional development. With an estimated $83 million in assets, the plan remains modest in scale but tightly integrated with the operating company. Robert McDermott has served as President of Huitt-Zollars, Inc., and Cliff Wall as CFO, guiding both the engineering practice and the retirement plan. Robert Zollars, the co-founder, has maintained outside board roles at Five9 and Kate Farms while serving as a Senior Advisor at Frazier Healthcare Partners, indicating a broader investment awareness that likely informs plan governance. The plan has not publicly disclosed a recent reallocation or major hiring event. Huitt-Zollars's structure as an ESOP makes it a rare hybrid: it is both a retirement vehicle and a shareholder in its own sponsor. This architecture forces a dual mandate — fiduciary duty to plan participants and alignment with the parent firm's long-term project pipeline. Unlike a conventional pension fund that sources deals through external managers, Huitt-Zollars's investment capital sits inside the firm that designs the airports, highways, and commercial sites where its assets are deployed.