"Bulldog" engineers parlay education, friendship, and gaming boom into high-profile enterprise

Some people will tell you that a handshake isn't worth much any more. But don't count engineers Terry Moran and Mark Seymour among those doubters.

by Bill Wagnon

Like many young college graduates, Terry Moran and Mark Seymour left the state for greener pastures following graduation from Mississippi State. Although they received their bachelor's degrees nearly 10 years apart, both found it difficult to find work in Mississippi at the time, and both began their careers with General Electric.

Ironically, their paths crossed--not once, but twice. Their second meeting proved to be the start of a close personal and professional relationship. Beginning with nothing more than a handshake and a small loan, the two Mississippi State engineering graduates now own the largest multidiscipline engineering firm in the state, a company that's a key player in Mississippi's booming gaming industry.

Fourteen years ago, Mark Seymour, left, and partner Terry Moran went into business with a handshake. Now, they run a thriving engineering firm that employs 25 engineers, scientists, and technicians.

Moran, Seymour, and Associates in Biloxi is credited with designing and constructing the state's first floating casino, and since that time has completed six other such projects across the state.

"I had to leave Mississippi to find employment," explains 1959 civil engineering graduate Mark Seymour on how his career began. "It was difficult to find an engineering job in Mississippi at the time."

Like Seymour, Moran also reluctantly left the state after receiving his mechanical engineering degree from Mississippi State in 1969. Moran took his first engineering job with General Electric in New Orleans, at about the same time the company was transferring Seymour to its New Orleans operation after eight years in Schenectady, N.Y., and two years overseas in Brazil and Singapore.

"We worked together for three years there," says Moran, "then we both finally made it back home to Mississippi."

Biloxi native Seymour became city engineer for Ocean Springs, and North Gulfport native Moran returned to nearby Gulfport in the same capacity.

In 1981, eight years after "coming home," their paths crossed once again, this time at a seminar on the coast.

"I remember Terry asking me if I wanted to do some surveying work on the weekends," recalls Seymour. "We had a truck and a surveying instrument. It wasn't long before we found out we had a lot of old friends, and a lot of new friends, and we knew a lot of people. Everyone wanted us to do work for them."

Moran says that they soon had to decide whether to go into private business full time. "It was a big decision," he explains. "When you are working for General Electric or for a city, you can assume the paycheck will always be there on Friday. With your own business, the check is no longer just sitting there waiting for you, you have to earn it for yourselves and for your employees. And we started with just one truck and a surveying instrument."

Seymour and Moran check the progress on a casino under construction. The state's mushrooming gaming industry has allowed their company to expand twice in two years. Their goal is to become a full-service organization that can provide engineering support services, environmental planning, and construction.

And a handshake, of course.

"We began it with a handshake and have stood by one another ever since," says Seymour. "We always support each other's decisions. Terry and I were scared to death when we borrowed the $15,000 to begin Bulldog Plaza."

Moran, Seymour, and Associates is housed in the 10,000-square-foot office complex in Biloxi owned by Moran and Seymour and known as Bulldog Plaza.

What began with four employees in 1981 now is a thriving enterprise of 25 engineers, scientists, and technicians, and revenue of more than $1.8 million annually from the engineering services division of the company alone.

The firm has designed and constructed hundreds of projects over the years including more than 100 subdivisions, the Windance Country Club in Gulfport, the $50 million expansion of Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, the $30 million Mississippi State Port expansion at Gulfport, and many motels, bridges and highways, shopping plazas, and public and private buildings.

But the work that has gained the company the most notice has been its projects with Mississippi's relatively new gaming industry. This includes designing and constructing the state's first casino, followed by six more casinos in a two-year span.

The engineers say the Isle of Capri job came to them almost by default, when they initially met the casino representatives at a city council meeting in Biloxi in May of 1992.

"They needed a boundary survey, but didn't have an engineer," says Seymour. "We said, 'Let us be your engineers.' They wanted to be open by August 1 of that year. We convinced them that the only way it was possible was to consider a design/build concept, where we design, we build, and then we give them the key so to speak. It saves an enormous amount of time by eliminating the bidding process."

Although the Isle of Capri had never built a casino by this concept, they agreed to let Moran and Seymour have the job.

"We told them that we could go down there and start next week, and we did," notes Seymour. "And we opened them on August 1. They liked our performance so much that we also opened their casino in Vicksburg.

In two years, Moran, Seymour, and Associates completed $20 million worth of design and construction for the Isle of Capri. They followed this with three more casinos in Biloxi, and one each in Greenville and D'Iberville.

"You could say we helped create a piece of history," notes Moran. "It's no Declaration of Independence, but it still makes you feel good."

Seymour says the gaming industry also was a boost to the firm's subdivision work. "The day gaming passed, our phones started ringing from realtors all over the country," he says. "When they got the news, they wanted to find out just what we had on the coast."

Because of the gaming boom, the firm has expanded twice in two years and now occupies some 6,000-square-feet of Bulldog Plaza.

And construction on the coast isn't over, insists Seymour. "There has been $500 million worth of construction on the Gulf Coast in two years," he says. "We'll never see another surge like the last two years, but it won't disappear. It will level off and stay."

In January, Moran, Seymour, and Associates incorporated. Seymour is the president and Moran serves as secretary/treasurer. They'll rotate positions every year.

The engineers also own Mississippi Maritime, a marine construction firm, and Mississippi Design and Development, a construction management firm.

"We see us becoming more of a full-service organization, an organization that can provide all engineering support services, environmental planning, and the construction aspect also," Moran explains. "There's a lot of merit in this because it cuts so much time off the process."

Hard work, long hours, the support of old friends, and the trust of new friends--that's what Moran and Seymour say is half of the key to their success. The other half is heritage and education.

"We both left good jobs to come back to Mississippi," says Seymour. "We are always proud of where we came from and from where we received our engineering degrees."

The men also credit their success to the training they received at Mississippi State. Moran says he found out early that his engineering training was among the best in the country.

"When I began with General Electric, another Mississippi State graduate and I were sent to a 12-week training course in Schenectady, N.Y.," he recalls. "We were thrown in with engineering graduates from several big-name schools. I didn't think we could match up with them. But when the course was over, these two Mississippi State boys finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the class. That was the last time I ever questioned the quality of my academic training."

Seymour calls it "Bulldog engineering." He says it's the ability to improvise and adapt. "When you're faced with an impossible situation with limited resources and no logical hope for success, Bulldog engineering is completing your project by sheer determination," he says. "I've relied on this many times in my career."

In the meantime, the two continue to maintain close ties to their alma mater, including returning to campus to talk with senior engineering students.

“"The message we send to the students is that Mark and I didn't have the opportunity to go to work in the immediate area," explains Moran. "We had to work our way back through trials and tribulations. We encourage graduating seniors not to give up on opportunities in Mississippi just because big industry seems more attractive."

And there's more maroon and white in the offices of Moran, Seymour, and Associates in Bulldog Plaza than in Scott Field on a Saturday afternoon. Well, at least it seems that way to visitors.

The entrance sign has a Bulldog on top; the office colors are maroon and gray; the restrooms have Bulldog wallpaper; all chairs are maroon; the company vehicles are maroon; desk accessories are all maroon or gray; and the company stationery has the Bulldog on it. The firm's leasing company is Bulldog Management.

"If you didn't go to Mississippi State, you might find our office bathrooms a little out of the ordinary," laughs Seymour.