International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti has expanded its presence in Brazil and Latin America through a strategic alliance with São Paulo-based firm BRZ-Experts. Since setting up shop in 2012, Thornton Tomasetti’s Brazil office has been manned by Director of Engineering Euclydes Trovato with assistance from Consultant Rafael Gomes de Oliveira and support from across the firm. The two have now transitioned to BRZ’s São Paulo office where Euclydes will continue to represent Thornton Tomasetti as director of engineering.

Key Points

• BRZ-Experts has 24 professionals, including several industry veterans with more than 30 years of experience. The firm has been providing services to the Brazilian and international insurance industries for more than 25 years. It offers services in forensics, risk management, technical analyses, cause and origin studies and repair cost estimations for damaged structures.

• Thornton Tomasetti has collaborated with BRZ on insurance investigation projects in the past and will continue to pursue this as well as new design and various other types of work.

• Through this alliance, BRZ will benefit by gaining Thornton Tomasetti’s broad expertise in structural design and property loss consulting, which will improve the firm’s ability to attend to a broader set of claims. Thornton Tomasetti will gain a more solid footing in Brazil and Latin America by collaborating with a local firm.

• The two firms are currently collaborating on a new 45,000-square-meter Albert Einstein Hospital Medical Research and Learning Center in São Paulo. Thornton Tomasetti will provide structural and façade engineering and sustainability design from its Boston, Chicago, London, Miami and Portland offices for the project designed by Safdie Architects and Perkins+Will.

• Thornton Tomasetti’s other strategic alliances include firms e.construct and Hardesty & Hanover.

Executive Quotes

Joseph Burns, S.E., P.E., F.ASCE, FAIA, LEED AP, Thornton Tomasetti managing principal who oversees the firm’s Brazil region
“Through this alliance, BRZ-Experts gains a connection to a larger critical mass of engineers, increasing their capabilities, and we benefit from a closer working relationship with an established local firm. While other international consulting firms are pulling out of Brazil because of the economic and political climate, we are committed to staying. Our alliance with BRZ will help both firms weather the current downturn while positioning us for future growth.”

Newton Maier Borelli, CEO and technical director, BRZ-Experts
“With our alliance, the globalized reinsurance market can now count on us when appointing engineering experts for complex claims. Our collaboration will also create new opportunities in
insurance and design markets in Brazil and in other Latin American countries.”