The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Elderberry on June 17, 2019, 12:07:10 pm
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Houston Chronicle by Sergio Chapa June 14, 2019
Storied Houston company KBR began with teams of wagons and mules to pave rural roads. Today, it’s helping NASA return to the Moon and put a man on Mars.
Over the past 100 years, KBR has grown into a global company with more than 36,000 employees around the world and nearly $5 billion of annual revenue. Its current form came together in the 1998 merger between New York engineering firm M.W. Kellogg and Houston construction company Brown & Root.
Whether as Brown & Root or KBR, the company built some of most iconic landmarks in Houston and the Lone Star State including Minute Maid Park, Rice Stadium, the Gulf Freeway, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Mansfield Dam and the Lone Star Steel Mill.
It was once a subsidiary of oil field service giant Halliburton. But KBR parted ways with its former parent company in 2007 following a series of scandals and congressional investigations related to its no-bid contracts and conduct in the second Gulf War in Iraq. The Houston company survived those scandals and is spending 2019 celebrating its centennial.
KBR’s Notable Projects
Over the past 100 years, KBR’s predecessor company Brown & Root has built some of most iconic landmarks in Houston and the Lone Star State.
0000 Minute Maid Park
0000 Rice Stadium
0000 Gulf Freeway
0000 NASA’s Johnson Space Center
0000 Mansfield Dam
0000 Lone Star Steel Mill
KBR Through The Years
Houston information technology and construction company KBR is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019. Brown & Root, one of KBR’s two predecessor companies, was founded in 1919 when teams of mules and wagons were used to repair roads in rural Texas. Now with more than 36,000 employees in 40 nations, the company closed 2018 with a $281 million profit on more than $4.9 billion of revenue.
1919
Herman Brown and brother-in-law Dan Root start paving roads in Central Texas
1922
Herman's brother, George Brown joins the company
1926
Brown & Root opens office in Houston.
1929
Dan Root dies
1936
Company wins bid to build the Marshall Ford (now Mansfield) Dam northwest of Austin, kindles relationship with freshman Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson
1940
Browns win $90 million contract to build naval training center in Corpus Christi, their first big military project
1946
Company launches its petroleum & chemical division
1947
Firm builds an offshore oil rig 10 miles off the Louisiana coast, the first successful rig that far at sea
1961
Company awarded design contract for Manned Spacecraft Center at Clear Lake, home to NASA
More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texas-inc/article/KBR-at-100-From-mules-to-Mars-landings-13999117.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texas-inc/article/KBR-at-100-From-mules-to-Mars-landings-13999117.php)