David Rubenstein Interviews Deryl McKissack on Her Namesake Firm’s 30 Years of Groundbreaking Work on Iconic Architecture, Engineering and Construction Projects.

At a time when Black-owned businesses have been failing twice as fast as other companies, Deryl McKissack is celebrating the 30th anniversary of her namesake architecture, engineering and construction services (AEC) firm.

To mark the occasion, entrepreneur-turned-author and PBS host David Rubenstein will interview McKissack on September 25th at 12:00 PM about her trailblazing work on high-profile projects in a field challenged with diversity and inclusion issues.

Deryl is President and Chief Executive Officer of McKissack & McKissack, managing over $15 billion in projects nationwide. McKissack & McKissack has grown to 150 employees, with offices in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington, DC. The firm is ranked by "Engineering News Record" as one of the top 50 program management firms and top 100 construction management firms in the country. and by the "Washington Business Journal" as one of the top 25 design firms in the metropolitan Washington area.

David is a Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group. He is Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Council on Foreign Relations; a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation;a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution; a Trustee of the World Economic Forum;and President of the Economic Club of Washington. He is an original signer of The Giving Pledge; the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations; and the author of The American Story and How to Lead.

OUR HISTORY

McKissack & McKissack is an outgrowth of the oldest minority-owned architecture/engineering firm in the United States.

Its roots go back to before the Civil War, when a slave named Moses McKissack learned the building trade from his overseer. It was his grandson, Moses III, who launched the first McKissack & McKissack in Nashville, Tennessee. The year was 1905.

McKissack & McKissack was founded by Deryl McKissack in 1990. When Ms. McKissack established her company, she was the fifth generation of her family to carry on the building tradition.

1975

Upon retirement, William DeBerry’s wife, Leatrice, assumes the position of Chief Executive Officer of the McKissack firm.

1975

In 1987 Leatrice is awarded a design contract for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN. The museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, she is awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Female Entrepreneur Award.

1990

As an outgrowth of the McKissack firm founded in Nashville, TN, Deryl McKissack starts her own company—McKissack & McKissack—in Washington, DC as a sole entrepreneur working with very limited financial resources.

30th Anniversary

OUR HISTORY