Sargent & Lundy Chairman, President, and CEO Victor Suchodolski won top honors this week among chief executives of some of the nation’s leading companies, earning Top Workplaces USA’s inaugural Leadership Award. Suchodolski was among 17 finalists and was chosen based on anonymous employee feedback about the industry-leading engineering design firm’s leadership and culture.
“I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of all the people I work with, who are also the people I work FOR,” Suchodolski said in accepting the award as part of USA TODAY’s Top Workplaces 2025 National Awards Summit in Las Vegas. “This award will serve as a daily reminder of the trust my team has placed in me and the responsibility that comes with it.”
This is the first year the award has been bestowed by Top Workplaces USA. In June, more than 80% of Sargent & Lundy’s employees responded to an anonymous survey conducted by the Pennsylvania-based research firm Energage. In response to a question about having confidence in the leadership of the company, an overwhelming 89% of respondents said yes.
“He really cares about the employee experience, which upholds the core value of Our People,” said one anonymous respondent. “He is approachable and clearly dedicated to Sargent & Lundy and its staff. He does not just sit in his corner office but rather comes down to other floors for meetings and says ‘hi’ to staff as he does so.”
The Energage survey measures employee engagement based on key benchmarks such as perceptions of fairness, growth opportunities, communication and collaboration, and shared beliefs in the company’s direction, values, and meaning. The results are tabulated and identify companies that score above benchmark standards set from data obtained through millions of responses received from thousands of companies across the country. Companies that score highly are eligible for regional, national, and other Top Workplaces specialty awards recognizing corporate culture.
This fall, Suchodolski received the Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces Leadership Award for employers in the city with over 1,000 employees.
Suchodolski was elevated to CEO in 2023 after 26 years of service with the firm. Starting as an electrical project engineer, he worked in roles throughout the company, building a deep understanding across engineering disciplines and strengthening client relationships. He continues Sargent & Lundy’s long legacy of being led by an engineer.
This national recognition of Suchodolski’s leadership is the latest in a string of honors Sargent & Lundy has received. The company has been on the Top Workplaces USA list since it began in 2021. It has received regional honors from the Chicago Tribune for the past 10 consecutive years and the Delaware News Journal since 2019. It recently earned three more Fall Culture Excellence Top Workplaces awards for its commitment to employee appreciation, employee well-being, and investment in professional development. It also swept all five Spring Culture Excellence Awards for compensation and benefits, innovation, leadership, purpose and values, and work-life flexibility.
The firm is currently amid a hiring campaign and is looking to fill over 1,000 open positions to meet increasing power demands throughout the country. The nearly 135-year-old firm has open positions for engineers, designers, project managers, and support staff. Opportunities can be found at sargentlundy.com/careers.