What is the “Black-Owned Spotlight Series”? The Women’s Business Development Center is proud to celebrate the great business owners we work closely with. As part of our commitment to advocating for and amplifying diverse voices, we launched the WBDC Black-Owned Spotlight Series, where we periodically will highlight the experiences of our Black business owner community.
Meet Kimberly Moore: KDM Engineering is a M/W/DBE professional engineering firm focused on power distribution design, gas distribution, and telecommunications design for public and private sector clients. Headquartered in Chicago, the firm also has branch offices on the east coast. Kimberly shared with us why she started her business: “I have always had an entrepreneurial drive and created several different companies, trying to find my niche. Not many of those companies worked out. In my final role as an employee, I had a group managing position at an engineering firm and was essentially doing for them what I ended up doing with KDM – helping to grow their business and team. When it became clear there was nowhere else for me to go at that company to grow my career, I decided it was time to start my own engineering firm and established KDM Engineering.” For more information about KDM Engineering, follow them on Instagram @kdmengineering and visit their website: www.kdmengineering.com.
We asked: How do you support or serve your community?
Kimberly shared: A fierce supporter of women and minorities in STEM, I created Calculated Genius, Inc. in 2015, a nonprofit intent on educating and enlightening underrepresented youth in engineering. In 2020, Calculated Genius impacted over 90 students with digital resources and programming, including awarding $40,000 in scholarships to women pursuing engineering at the collegiate level and sponsoring a virtual six-week Summer Scholars program focused on STEM and entrepreneurship. Calculated Genius also offers career readiness workshops and has developed an amazing mentorship program where students can tap into the firsthand knowledge and experience of STEM professionals. As a proud Northern Illinois University alum, I sit on the NIU Alumni Association Board of Directors. I am also a member of the City of Chicago’s Affirmative Action Advisory Board, helping to ensure the City of Chicago is actively working to do business with diverse firms, which will have a positive impact on its infrastructure well into the future.
We asked: What advice would you share with new business owners? What lessons have you learned since growing your business?
Kimberly shared: One of the most important things you can do as a business owner is be prepared to transform what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. What works for you today, might not work for you tomorrow. Keep looking ahead, focusing on the next goal and how to get there. At KDM, once we’ve achieved one milestone, I’m already thinking about what we need to do to get to the next one and how we’re going to do it. Advice for getting to the next level: When you’re still working in the business instead of on the business, it’s the hiring of key people that will help you branch off so you can do other things to help grow the business.
Thank you, Kimberly, for participating in the “Black-Owned Spotlight Serie.” We are proud to have you in our WBE network.
