“Being an entrepreneur is all about taking risks,” Abe Adewale said. “You have to be committed. A lot of times you plant a seed, and you water the seed you planted knowing it will sprout out of the ground. That’s what we did.”
Abe and Nicole Adewale, the husband-and-wife heads of ABNA Engineering Inc., were featured speakers for the new series “An Evening With…,” sponsored by the St. Louis Bioscience & Entrepreneurial Inclusion Initiative, on October 6. Through this series, which features women and minority business owners involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) regional companies, BioSTL hopes to provide a pathway for high-potential, talented women and minority bioscience entrepreneurs to create viable, high-growth ventures.
ABNA, which started in a 9-foot-by-8-foot room in the Adewales’ house in Blackjack nearly 20 years ago, is a civil engineering firm licensed in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. With more than 70 employees and offices in St. Louis, Chicago and Southern Illinois, ABNA provides structural and civil engineering design services for transportation infrastructure, sewer systems and other public utilities. It also provides expertise for industrial, educational, healthcare and commercial projects.
ABNA’s major projects include the Mississippi River Bridge/Illinois approaches, high speed rail, City Arch River 2015, the O’Hare Airport modernization program, I-64 design/build and the Lindbergh Tunnel at Lambert airport. ABNA’s corporate clients include Monsanto, BJC and the Salvation Army.
The Adewales, who both attended Georgia Tech, met while working for the Illinois Department of Transportation. Both were fueled by an entrepreneurial fire to start their own business. They decided upon engineering.
“I come from a family of teachers, lawyers, but no one in the STEM fields,” Nicole said. “I was always passionate about geology, and I made mud pies in the back yard. I read a job description for civil engineering, and it said ‘designs buildings and blows things up.’ That’s all it took.”
Abe is the only child in his family to pursue a non-medical profession.
“My parents wanted me to be a medical doctor,” he said. “But my mother was in the accounting realm, and always had side jobs” – entrepreneurial enterprises in their native Nigeria that included selling private school uniforms and sliced bread – “and I was her sidekick. I learned about negotiations, forming relationships and calculating profit margins.”
Prior to quitting their jobs, the Adewales lived very frugally and saved about 30 percent of their combined income for a few years, knowing that they also had to support their growing family. “Our business did not require a lot of startup money,” said Nicole, who quit her job first. “We wanted to ensure our financial security without jeopardizing our family’s security.”
With four daughters and a growing business, the Adewales knew they could not do it alone.
“From about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., we are business partners,” Nicole said. “After those hours, we are husband and wife, and parents. We also have a great village with my parents and people at work. You have to engage the community to help you reach your goals.”
The Adewales serve as mentors to other business owners and well as students. As head of ABNA’s philanthropic efforts, Nicole has formed strategic alliances with the St. Louis Science Center, the National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE) and FIRST Robotics.
“You hear a lot about not having a lot of young African Americans in STEM fields,” Abe said. “We are doing our very best through programs like NSBE and FIRST to develop that feeder program or pathway for young kids.”
ABNA Engineering Inc.: www.abnaengineering.com.
