PEOPLE-FIRST CULTURE

One of SAM’s five core values is People . We know that our success is based on the hard work and effort of our team members. We make a point to celebrate their accomplishments and create a work environment that nurtures our employees continued education, growth, and development. We foster collaboration and encourage the sharing of best practices across disciplines and departments. We build community with office events, holiday parties, ongoing internal communications, and a welcoming environment.

Our culture of learning, inclusion, and technical innovation provides an extraordinary environment to build a rewarding career.

At SAM, we are committed to providing a positive work environment, clear career paths, competitive compensation, and a top-notch benefits package including:

• Hybrid work schedules for eligible positions

• Company paid premiums for medical, dental, vision, Long-Term Disability, and life insurance (HSA and FSA plans available)

• Generous paid time off (vacation, sick, holidays, and parental leave)

• 401(k) program with employer match

• Employee Assistance Program

• Tuition reimbursement

Clear career paths for advancement and transitioning from field to office

• Specialized in-house training programs designed to assist our employees in advancing in their career

• Fun themed events throughout the year

• Passion for our Community — we offer numerous opportunities to volunteer alongside peers with our community support and giving programs

In August 2020, HALIS, a LiDAR and imagery acquisition company located in McDonough, Georgia, joined SAM Companies, becoming SAM’s sixth acquisition.

HALIS specialized in aerial data acquisition for a wide range of markets across the U.S. and had operated for a decade. They offered a full set of data acquisition and extraction services that have enhanced SAM’s existing aerial mapping business.

At its helm as President was Geoffrey Sease. Along with HALIS’s leadership team and all of its employees, he joined SAM as part of the acquisition.

“At the time, we knew that SAM had a reputation for excellence in geospatial services nationally, and were thrilled about becoming part of their team,” said Sease. “What we have found is that our combined strengths and expertise have allowed us to deliver even greater value for our clients.”

At SAM, Geoffrey is the Aerial Mapping Operations Manager of the East Region, overseeing a large team and geographic footprint. He and his team work hand-inhand with market sector leads to expand their team’s geographic reach further and take on larger projects.

SAM cares about its employees.

Our expert corporate services specialists are equipped to partner with you to help build your team and your business. With industry leading marketing, legal, safety, and financial services as well as in-house human resources, talent acquisition, administrative support, and a dedicated 24/7 IT helpdesk, SAM’s corporate services allow our client-facing staff the ability to focus on providing the highest quality service and deliverables to our clients.

ADMINISTRATION – Our Administration team provides significant support to our staff and helps day-to-day business run smoothly. This team also organizes events across all of SAM’s offices, which provides opportunities for staff to build stronger relationships.

ACCOUNTING – SAM’s Accounting department includes CPAs whose detailed reporting keeps our budget on track and helps to manage revenue, invoicing, and cash flow.

HUMAN RESOURCES – Our HR professionals manage your employee’s benefits, learning and development, and employee relations. Part of HR, our dedicated talent acquisition team helps you recruit top talent.

APPLIED TECHNOLOGY – SAM’s Applied Technology department sets us apart. They are continually researching new ways to improve SAM’s existing equipment, software, and develop our own proprietary technologies to provide unique solutions to client issues.

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION – The Marketing and Communication team enhances the company’s presence by reaching clients and partners with targeted content, strong corporate proposals, and a performance-focused website and social presence.

IT – Our IT team is prepared to set up new employee equipment, manage software security, and assist with any technical issues you may face. SAM’s dedicated 24/7 IT helpdesk is always on hand to help.

LEGAL – Our in-house counsel helps you to avoid any legal pitfalls, negotiate contracts, and advise on general legal matters. Our Legal team can help you mitigate risk and navigate negotiations successfully.

SAFETY – Safety is at the forefront of every project that SAM undertakes. Our Safety team is committed to keeping our employees safe and has contributed to our exceptionally low Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR).

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT – We are prepared to help you bring in new business and deepen the relationships you have with existing clients. Our Seasoned Business Development team has a proven track record and will partner with you to build a value adding strategy with our business development playbook.

In August 2020, SAM acquired Midland GIS Solutions (Midland), then the largest full-service Geographic Information System (GIS) firm in the Midwest.

Midland’s record of innovative GIS practices and data hosting expertise complemented SAM’s push to stay at the forefront of advancements in our industry.

As part of the acquisition, Midland leadership staff joined SAM, including then Senior Vice President, Matt Sorensen, who has over 26 years of experience working in the GIS industry and had focused on county government clients.

As Director of GIS Operations at SAM, Matt serves as a project manager, and assists with the company-wide strategic vision of our GIS capabilities. Matt’s professional qualifications and experience have established him as a leading management professional and developer of GIS and web-GIS solutions.

Matt said about joining SAM, “We were excited to become part of an industryleading company like SAM. This has enabled our team to expand the reach of our considerable experience and capabilities in GIS to broader markets across the U.S.”

These departments are headed up by experts in their respective fields, and our HR team or Accounting Team can handle those areas better than a GIS expert can. And that gives us the energy to focus our attention on our client’s needs.”

MATT SORENSEN, Formerly Senior Vice President of Midland GIS Solutions, Acquired 2020

SAM was founded in 1994 to offer professional land surveying services. Since then, SAM has become an undisputed leader in providing geospatial and inspection solutions for a broad range of market sectors.

Our entrepreneurial spirit is foundational in everything that SAM does. We are continuing our aggressive geographic expansion, breaking into new markets across the country and Canada, and setting up new offices in more than 15 states. We have taken on over 14 acquisitions since 2016, with more underway. We are expanding our service offerings and pursuing new markets – including greater renewable energy, telecommunications, GIS, and utility engineering capabilities. SAM’s technology continues to evolve, and our Applied Technology Team is continually looking for ways to improve or utilize existing equipment in innovative ways.

As a company that has successfully grown from the ground up, we understand that you and your team have ideas and best practices to share that can make us better. Across our organization, we encourage our team members to take the initiative and share those ideas and any lessons learned from past projects so that we can improve as a whole. Maintaining that same entrepreneurial environment that you have created, we provide the opportunity to build a semi-autonomous growth strategy and grow a business inside of SAM with the support of a business development team that is second to none – hundreds of Seller-Doers and Market Leaders to collaborate with and share relationships.

Kirk Larson joined SAM in 2020 as part of the Midland GIS Solutions (Midland) acquisition along with all of the Midland staff.

Kirk, who served as Senior Vice President at Midland, is now Director of GIS Operations at SAM. He oversees business development and operations, primarily focusing on utility and infrastructure GPS and GIS services. He is also the mayor of Savannah, Missouri.

“The combined strengths and capabilities we can now offer are a win-win for our companies and our clients,” Kirk said about the acquisition.

Recently, Kirk’s team saw a significant win materialize in the form of a new project outside of the range of their previous geographic footprint and are excited for even more growth on the horizon.

“This is one of my favorite memories within SAM,” said Kirk. “We’d been working hard to expand past our traditional geographic area, and we landed a very large project we’d worked hard to go after. I remember calling my business unit leader and telling him that we’d won the project and all I heard on the other end of the line was screaming, hooting, and hollering. It demonstrated how happy and proud he was, and all of us were, to make that next step inside of SAM.”

I’m doing work now in market sectors and geographies that I could never have dreamed of two years ago. It’s very exciting to have projects out West and even in the Northeast now. We were a regional Midwest company, and we’ve now really blown the doors off that. I’ve been to more states than I ever have been in my life, and I am enjoying it.”

KIRK LARSON, Formerly

Vice

of Midland GIS Solutions, Acquired 2020

We provide continuous coverage across the U.S. and and parts of Canada—while our local management teams leverage their relationships with community partners.

Whether it is a project outside your current geographic reach or outside your scope of expertise, SAM’s resources can help you fulfill your clients’ needs. We are experts at rapidly mobilizing assets for our diverse clientele — with one-day’s notice, we have geared up 30+ crews to execute a project. With 40+ offices across the country and one in Canada, company-owned aerial acquisition aircraft, top-of-the-line sensors, mobile mappers, and expert staff, we can help you tackle even the most daunting project.

TECHNOLOGY-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS NATIONWIDE

1400+ Employees

320+ Field Crews

150+ Licensed Surveyors, Professional Engineers & Photogrammetrists

John Watson, RPLS, PLS, joined SAM in March 2021 as part of the acquisition of John F. Watson & Company (JFWCo), a geospatial solutions and consulting firm located in Midland, Texas, specializing in renewable energy and natural resource development.

JFWCo brought more than 20 years of experience delivering services to the electric utility market, providing professional services on numerous wind, solar, battery storage, and transmission projects, along with their long-standing client relationships.

JFWCo’s dedication to providing best-in-class service and collective expertise in the renewable energy market has proven an excellent match for SAM.

Previously serving as Founder and President at JFWCo, now, as SAM’s Corporate Renewables Market Lead, John focuses on providing clients with surveying services and development consulting in all phases of a renewable energy project lifecycle, along with maintaining strong relationships with landowners, title companies, real estate and title attorneys, and other land-related professionals.

The acquisition allowed for cross-selling of complementary SAM services to legacy JFWCo clients and enabled both companies to deepen market penetration and strengthen relationships with existing clients. In addition, the acquisition allowed SAM to bid on, and win, sizable wind and energy storage projects — projects that neither SAM nor JFWCo would have been able to secure on a standalone basis.

Many of our clients require a local presence; they need that local insight. And at the same time, they need a large company that has earned its stripes and knows how to navigate the waters of closing a major project. With our national presence, we can combine both of those kinds of expertise to give our clients the best service possible.

We might have five projects in Texas, three more in Illinois, two in Montana, and one in California, and often, it is the same group of people working on those projects. By being able to perform those services all over the country, we provide our clients the same quality and semblance of service, independent of geographic location.”

JOHN WATSON, Formerly

Having been part of SAM throughout the company’s entire evolution, from our humble beginnings as a three-person land surveying firm to today — a market diversified, tech-enabled geospatial and inspection solutions firm — myself and SAM’s entire leadership team understands the challenges, and the ups and downs, that come with managing and growing a people-first business in our industry.

With a vision to be the best-in-class provider in our industry, while being the most valued partner to our clients, employees, and communities, we have matured from a narrowly-focused, opportunistic growth model to a collaborative growth mindset built on sound strategic thinking.

Having completed numerous acquisitions and observing SAM’s founder in our transition, we understand how difficult it can be for a founder to transfer the ownership of their business. Because of that, we do not take this significant event lightly — our process is collaborative and is built on honesty and transparency to ensure a successful transition for you, for SAM, but most importantly for the employees.

SAM’s business development plan is driven by value creation through top-line growth, not cutting expenses to benefit the bottom line. Our stable, diversified business model mitigates risk and cash flow concerns, allowing you and your business partners to sleep at night and focus on business development and operations, while providing you the ability to monetize your operation and diversify and reduce risk of your own personal portfolio.

Protection from Cash Flow Concerns:

Having the capital to take a risk on a larger project or one with a longer pay cycle allows you to be more strategic in the clients you pursue. Knowing that you will be able to make payroll means that you can focus on business development, hiring the best people, and the quality of the work you complete.

Protection from the Unexpected:

If the past several years have been any indication, being able to sustain an unexpected challenge is crucial. SAM can provide the stability of a mature business positioned to withstand disruptions to the market.

Legal Protection:

Having in-house legal counsel and the capital to retain additional legal support when necessary, protects you before, during, and after a project is completed. From the moment contract negotiations begin, having a seasoned legal professional on your side is beneficial. A legal dispute can be extremely costly in both time and funds, and SAM has the resources to withstand litigation when required.

SAM is backed by Peak Rock Capital, a leading middle-market private investment firm with a deep understanding of our business and a strong track record of supporting companies and management teams in driving growth, innovation, and building leading platforms.

In 2021, Peak Rock Capital acquired SAM Companies in order to invest in a growing infrastructure services platform with a strong leadership position in advanced geospatial technologies. Peak Rock Capital saw the opportunity to accelerate SAM’s already solid track record of growth by extending SAM’s technical capabilities, technology offerings, and geographic expansion through complementary acquisitions and organic development.

Peak Rock Capital is focused on opportunities where it can support senior management to drive rapid growth and performance improvement. Since the acquisition, SAM’s executive team has maintained a meaningful owner position and has leveraged Peak Rock Capital’s investment into new technological advancements.

A robust private investment firm backing SAM allows us to invest in the industry’s most advanced technologies and leading talent. As a part of SAM, you would have access to the benefits of a powerful financial backer, enabling you to turn your attention and efforts into expanding your capabilities rather than cash flow.

ARE YOU A GOOD FIT?

Who We Are Looking For

Are focused on the Utilities, Transportation, Local Government, and Commercial Development market sectors

Have strong experience and focus in Utility Engineering, Aerial Mapping/Inspection, Land Surveying, GIS, Inspection, and BIM/3D Scanning

Can help us bolster our capacity and capability within our current geographic footprint and help us expand beyond it

Have a strategic, growth-minded culture and team, excited about new career development opportunities both technically and professionally