KCI Technologies Brings Its Expertise, Customer Service to Polk County
A purpose to “care for and improve the built and natural environment to better our society.” KCI Technologies uses a collaborative approach and personal service to provide clients with the best experience possible.
KCI Technologies provides engineering, planning and consulting services to a variety of industries, including transportation, energy, environmental, water and telecommunications. It “delivers innovative, sustainable solutions that enhance infrastructure, improve mobility and support critical systems that communities rely on every day,” according to its website.
KCI was founded in 1955 as Matz Childs and Associates. Max George joined the company’s Tampa office in 2025 as a survey practice leader. His goal is to grow the company’s land surveying services.
“After a succession of moves that paralleled the firm’s growth, the company was purchased by industrial products conglomerate Walter Kidde & Co. in 1969,” said George, who was the director of surveying for Chastain-Skillman in Lakeland from March 2021 to January 2022. “Eight years later, Kidde merged the firm with three other architectural and engineering firms to create an engineering subsidiary known as Kidde Consultants Inc. In 1987, Hanson Trust of Great Britain, a manufacturing company, purchased the parent company Kidde.”
The subsidiary then “initiated an employee buyout from Hanson, which was completed in December 1988. In 1991, the firm’s official name was changed to KCI Technologies, Inc.. Over the years, the firm has been consistently placed among the top consulting engineering firms in the country by the Engineering News-Record,” George said.
KCI’s core values include honesty, integrity and respect. Employees are expected to “bring our best, embrace continuous innovation and creativity, and commit to deliver what we promise,” he said.
About KCI Technologies
KCI provides “turnkey expertise to federal, state and local government agencies. As well as institutional and private-sector clients,” said George. “Our incredible team of professionals offers technical expertise in many facets. Surveying, power engineering, subsurface utility engineering, site development, landscape architecture, transportation, telecommunications, facilities and construction services.”
It is 100% employee-owned. “As owners, every employee shares responsibility for delivering quality products on time and on schedule,” he said. “The incentive to work collaboratively and proactively is visible and actual at every level.”
Working in Polk County
KCI is working on projects in Polk County.
- “We are currently supporting a confidential private-sector development in Winter Haven that is re-purposing a former food manufacturing site,” George said.
- “We are supporting TECO with mapping existing structures for the design of improvements. In the past, the firm has led several major roadway improvement projects along County Line Road and pedestrian bridge rehabilitation in Winter Haven.”
George said working on the first project is satisfying. “The great thing about the confidential client site is that we’re taking a site that was unused and arguably becoming a hazard to the community. We’re helping to change it into something that is going to bring value. A resource to the community that it currently doesn’t have.”
Expanding in Polk
The company plans to grow in Polk County.
“KCI is committed to expanding and growing our service offerings throughout Central Florida. One of our key initial focuses is Polk County,” George said. “Our growing Survey, Civil/Land Development Engineering and Landscape Architecture groups are assembling teams. They include professionals with previous Polk County experience. Our Power, Transportation and SUE (Subsurface Utility Engineering) groups are looking to increase market share of what we’ve already been doing in the county.”
Until KCI opens an office in Polk County, it is served by the company’s offices in Tampa, downtown Orlando and Maitland.
That growth dovetails with its plans to expand in the region. “Company growth in the Polk/Tampa region is a key strategic initiative of KCI’s over the next five years,” George said. “We are dedicated to expanding our service offerings here, as well as to growing our existing services and building relationships with the local public and private entities.”
Giving Back
KCI gives back to the community in at least two ways:
- Staff members are given a day to work for a non-profit of their choosing and still get paid. It’s part of KCI’s “volunteer days,” George said.
- “At the corporate level, a non-profit/charity is ‘adopted’ annually,” he said. “Within Polk County, our employees have assisted with youth activities and with the Homeless Coalition of Polk County.”
