One year after moving into a more spacious building, BETA Group Inc. is absorbing another change that became official at the start of 2020.
The firm’s president of 20 years, Frank Romeo, is now its chief executive officer, and Joseph D’Alesio, a former senior vice president, has been elected president. D’Alesio is also continuing in his role as chief operating officer.
“I’ve been president for 20 years, and it’s now time to transfer leadership roles to establish a sustainable management team for the future,” said Romeo, who remains on the firm’s board of directors.
The planning firm has lent engineering, construction, design and other expertise to countless infrastructure projects throughout Rhode Island and New England. Its resume includes assignments on streets, highways, schools, water systems, urban centers, trails and bridges.
Much of its completed work has become part of the landscape for many Rhode Islanders. The firm had a hand in street and lighting design near the Providence Performing Arts Center, and its landscape architects were part of a team that won a landscape design award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for work on the bike and pedestrian path that runs alongside Interstate 195 on the Washington Bridge.
BETA also designed the exits and on-ramps on Interstate 295 near Citizens Bank’s Johnston corporate campus that opened about 1½ years ago, and designed bridge replacements on Interstate 95 over Toll Gate and Centerville roads in Warwick. Although the bridges are under construction, BETA will remain involved through their completion.
Upcoming projects include working with the Narragansett Bay Commission on the next phase of the Combined Sewer Overflow program and creating a new system to connect the Bristol County Water Authority’s water line with pipes in Pawtucket. The undertaking requires the installation of 35,000 feet of new water main, D’Alesio said.
Founded nearly 40 years ago, BETA was first based in Pawtucket. Now, the company boasts six offices in New England, including its headquarters in Lincoln, where BETA moved into a new building a year ago.
“The new space provides a first-class working environment for our employees,” Romeo said. “It’s nearly 30,000 square feet with a semi-open layout that encourages communication and collaboration.”
Romeo and D’Alesio joined the firm in 1985, when its employee roster totaled about 12.
Although there’s been obvious growth, BETA’s focus hasn’t changed, both men say.
Its clients are still municipalities, state agencies such as the R.I. Department of Transportation, and organizations that manage natural resources.
“Our role is to improve the communities that we live and work in with sustainable and integrative solutions,” Romeo said. “We’ve grown, for the most part, organically by expanding our geographic reach and areas of expertise.”
About 20 years ago, ownership of the company was transferred to its employees, most of whom are engineers, planners, landscape architects and environmental scientists.
“We’ve always remained focused on our belief that client service is paramount and contributes to our continued success,” D’Alesio said.
OWNERS: Employee-owned
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Multi-service professional firm
LOCATION: 701 George Washington Highway, Lincoln
EMPLOYEES: 175 overall, 90 in Rhode Island
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1982
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.
