Linda Bauer Darr Delivers Remarks to ACEC Board of Directors

Addressing ACEC’s Board of Directors at the Sunday opener of the 2026 Fall Conference in Phoenix, President & CEO Linda Bauer Darr gave an honest and blunt assessment of the turbulence member firms are facing, alongside a deeply optimistic and confident view of the industry’s and ACEC’s ability to prevail amid that turbulence. Her message was clear: the old rules no longer apply, and the firms that thrive in this brave new world will be the ones that stop reacting and start deciding.

“Our members are finding themselves at a point where conventional wisdom is no longer serving them,” said Darr. “Because not much is conventional these days. And on some days, it feels like wisdom has left the room completely.”

Her assessment of the landscape was stark. When the Board last met in May, she noted, the consensus held that the Federal Reserve would sit tight. Instead, the Fed voted unanimously last month to raise rates for the first time since 2023. “When Kevin Warsh took the job, the markets expected a dove. Instead, they got a Chair who had no choice but to be aggressive on inflation.”

Then there are tariffs, which have proven impossible to kill, despite years of litigation. Meanwhile, construction costs keep rising, led by electrical systems straining to support the data center boom. In September, diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon. “Every engine turning over on a jobsite across this country is now burning some of the most expensive fuel in American history,” Darr said.

She pointed to the ACEC Research Institute’s most recent sentiment survey as indicative of the prevailing mood: 72 percent of firm leaders are “significantly concerned” about inflation, and their outlook for the U.S. economy has slipped deeper into negative territory.

And yet.

Those same executives, in that same survey also report remarkable confidence in their own balance sheets, with a median backlog of a full year of work. The constraint isn’t demand. As ever, it’s people. “We can’t keep up with the volume of work, and we still can’t find enough people to do the job,” said Darr.

Invoking John F. Kennedy’s 1962 line about repairing the roof while the sun shines, Darr joked that sunshine has been scarce of late, but that doesn’t preclude preparedness. “When the storms refuse to let up,” she said, “the roof is only as strong as what holds it up.”

Darr outlined the four pillars of the strategic plan refinement greenlit by the Board in May, describing it as a deliberate choice, rather than a reaction.

“Organizations that react get pushed by events. Organizations that decide get to shape them.”

Of the first – digital transformation – Darr noted that AI presents the industry with tools that can imitate judgment. “That’s not a reason for panic, but it is a reason for seriousness,” she said. Pointing to the Research Institute’s recent Leading Through AI Risk report, she declared that the study treats artificial intelligence as neither a “miracle nor a menace,” instead treating it as what it is: “a powerful instrument that demands governance.”

Discussing the second pillar, workforce, Darr spotlighted the Pipeline Project, launched this summer with ACE Mentor to pair students with practicing engineers. “AI will change how engineers work, but it won’t change the fact that we need more of them,” she declared.

The third pillar is licensure, for which Darr made an emphatic case alongside a push for preserving and expanding Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), declaring the issues two sides of the same coin.

“Licensure answers who should do the work. QBS answers how they should be chosen. And both give the same answer to why. It’s because competence is not a luxury when lives are on the line. The shortcut always looks cheaper…right up until it isn’t,” she said.

Last, but certainly not least: membership. Darr reported 71 new member firms in the first quarter of FY27. Every victory won on Capitol Hill or in statehouses comes down to numbers. Growing our membership is the engine behind every policy ACEC pushes to deliver. Every new voice is another reason for a lawmaker to take a meeting.

That’s going to be particularly important in the coming months, with more than 100 new lawmakers headed to Washington come January. Darr declined to prognosticate margins or majorities in next week’s midterms, instead insisting that both the Council and the industry are uniquely positioned and prepared to bring order to chaos even in a gridlocked Washington.

“Our work is essential,” she said, “so our work endures.”