In 1991, partners Al Casey, Ron Mead, Bill Liberto, and Joe Straub founded M/E Engineering in Rochester, NY. The group’s goal for this new company was to direct and refine its focus in the core expertise of mechanical and electrical engineering. Over the next couple of years, the business grew exponentially as the team provided those specialized core services throughout New York State.
In 1996, M/E Engineering opened a second office in Buffalo, NY with Bill Liberto, Vice President, stationed there as head of operations. While this branch saw steady growth throughout the next three years, it wasn’t until 1999 when M/E acquired the Buffalo-based engineering firm Wilson, Klaes, Brucker, and Worden that it tripled in size, and the need to expand M/E’s leadership team became evident. That same year, Tony Thomas, Cal Puffer, John Dredger, Bruce Knapp, and Jim Chatelle joined the team as official shareholders.
With continued client growth across New York State and other more distant areas, M/E opened a third office in 2003 in Albany's Capital District. Joe Straub, also serving as Vice President, relocated to the Albany area to oversee operations there in Schenectady. Al Casey, serving as company President, remained in Rochester along with Vice President Ron Mead, who oversaw Rochester’s operations.
In 2004, M/E opened its fourth office in Syracuse NY, where its Computer-Aided Engineering Services Group was based, their specialty in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.
Continual growth led to a further need to expand, in terms of both leadership and services. In 2007, Ken Swan came on board as an Associate and lead of M/E’s developing Commissioning Services Group. In 2011, the company was joined by Brian Danker (Rochester), Dave Schlant (Buffalo), and in 2015 by Mike Sullivan (Capital District) who all became shareholders.
In 2016, M/E’s first and only president Al Casey retired. Ron Mead assumed the role in his stead with John Dredger named Vice President and head of operations in Rochester. Founding members Joe Straub and Cal Puffer also later retired in 2018, after which Mike Sullivan took over management of the Capital District office. The Buffalo branch was joined by Rob Stewart, newly in charge of the firm’s expanding Hospitality Group.
The beginning of 2017 marked the 25-year anniversary of M/E Engineering, P.C. By now, the firm had grown to nearly 200 people, a success owed not only to the talent of our many design professionals, but to their integrity and hard-working commitment to serve our clients all across the U.S. to the best of their capability.
2017 also welcomed Beth Ann Bilger (Capital District) and Eric Miller (Buffalo) as Project Managers.
In early 2019, our headquarters relocated to its new home at 300 Trolley Boulevard in Rochester. Later that year, Matt Shannon joined the leadership team as a new Partner, while John Dredger rose to the role of President. His predecessor Ron Mead remained on board as the company's Chief Financial Officer until his retirement in 2022.
2020 marked the addition of Melanie Stachowiak (Buffalo) as the new Partner-in-Charge of our Sustainability & Energy Services Group. In Rochester, Garrett Donals was promoted to Partner.
M/E celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2022. Michael Sullivan was promoted to Vice President in our Capital District office, Rob Stewart was made Principal in Buffalo, and Richard Gostling became an Associate Partner in Rochester. Aaron McConnell (Rochester) and Mike Richards (Buffalo) were both promoted to Project Managers. With the retirement of Ken Swan, commissioning engineer Steve Hollis also rose to Project Manager in charge of the expanding Commissioning Services Group.
The leadership team welcomed its newest members in 2023, with Craig Mott (Rochester) as an Associate Partner and Peter Murrer (Buffalo) as Partner. Daniel Cappelli (Capital District) was also promoted to Project Manager.
2025 began with the promotion of Garrett Donals and Matt Shannon to Principal and Richard Gostling to Associate Principal.
