Aerospace firm has big hopes for Springs

A Houston-based aerospace engineering firm hopes to grow its recently expanded Colorado Springs office from 12 people to more than 100 within two years by winning upcoming contracts with the Air Force and Army space commands.

MEI Technologies Inc. has grown from a three-person company started in 1992 with a $10,000 loan to become one of the nation's largest Hispanic-owned firms with nearly 800 employees and $125 million in revenue. The local office already is working on contracts to provide engineering work on two satellite networks, the Ballistic Missile Defense System and a military space operations center.

"If we had listened to the conventional wisdom, we would have never started this company. We are people that have grown up doing things we shouldn't have been able to do," said Edelmiro "Ed" Muñiz, founder, chief executive and owner of MEI Technologies. "The key has been to not listen to conventional wisdom, take risks but keep them manageable and surround myself with people who you can turn your back on and trust to follow through."

Muñiz made the comments during an open house Wednesday at MEI's 4-month-old office at 2860 S. Circle Drive, near the Colorado Springs World Arena, which replaced a small marketing office housed in an executive suites operation.

The local office also serves as a base for employees who work as subcontractors to Lockheed Martin Corp. on its contract to build the Orion spacecraft for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

MEI has mostly expanded by winning subcontracting work on large aerospace contracts won by defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, Computer Sciences Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Honeywell International Inc.

Muñiz said his company has grown large enough to credibly bid as a prime contractor on major military contracts ranging in size from $10 million to more than $100 million.

"Colorado Springs is squarely in the middle of our strategic plans for growth. We want to diversify our customer base and expand our market and if you want to expand in the military contracting business, you have to look at the hot spots, and this is one of them," Muñiz said. "We have grown our revenue by 15-20 percent a year and I am very confident that we can grow our position here. It just takes time, investment and the right people."

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Contact the writer: 636-0234 or wayneh@gazette.com