Southern Rail of Vancouver Island is the rail operator for the Island Corridor Foundation. Southern Rail of Vancouver Island’s parent company Washington Group of Companies is owned by Dennis Washington. The Island Corridor Foundation would like to congratulate Mr. Washington on being awarded the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business.
Montana’s Dennis Washington, founder of The Washington Companies, is being honoured as Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business.
The Washington Companies’ stable includes North Vancouver-based Seaspan, and its subsidiaries Victoria Shipyards in Esquimalt, Vancouver Shipyards and Vancouver Drydock. Seaspan is embarking on a $7.3-billion federal shipbuilding program expected to develop expertise and bring stability to the industry.
The 11th annual Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year gala is on June 4, UVic said in a Gustavson School update distributed Friday.
Born in 1934, Washington launched his own construction business in Montana and then moved into other sectors.
In the early 1970s, Washington branched into mining and continued to diversify, going into dam-building, railroads, and marine shipping.
Washington Construction merged with Morrison Knudsen, a publicly traded construction and engineering giant, in 1996. From that, Dennis Washington directed the formation of Washington Group International, acquiring components of Westinghouse and Raytheon, to mould one of the largest design/build companies in the United States, a UVic backgrounder said.
Today, The Washington Companies consist of more than a dozen affiliated endeavours. They are leaders in rail and marine transportation, shipbuilding and repair, mining, environmental remediation, heavy equipment distribution, and aviation, UVic said.
In 2013, the distinguished entrepeneur award was presented to Brandt C. Louie, chairman and CEO of H.Y. Louie Co. Ltd., and chairman of the board of London Drugs.
