Welcome to our website and thank you for taking the time to learn about our company. I’d like to share with you a short narrative about my upbringing and background.
I grew up in Southern New Hampshire and Northeastern Massachusetts. I spent my childhood mucking through swamps, woods and fields, in search of the next rock to flip over in anticipation of what was living beneath. When I was 8, my family moved to a new subdivision in a small town in the Merrimack Valley. The road was still under construction when we moved in to the house my father built. My natural curiosity for how things work found me shadowing the site contractor, asking questions and doing my best not to annoy them. In hindsight, they had the patience of saints. Around the same time, my father and extended family were expanding their restaurant. I remember walking through the bare steel frame of the building, watching the brick layers mortaring CMU walls, electricians, plumbers, carpenters…it was an exciting experience for a kid to be part of. It was these early run-ins with construction and the wild that planted the seeds that would eventually grow into my professional career.
Later in my youth, I learned the principles of hard work, commitment and leadership through Boy Scouts of America, sports and work. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout, a proud accomplishment which I still display on the wall in my office. I played varsity cross-country and track and field through all of high school. Being the child of a restaurant family, I also worked at my family’s restaurant starting in middle-school. The restaurant instilled on me the customer service values of the hospitality industry. These childhood experiences shaped my core of values of hard work, integrity, courtesy and workmanship.
In 1999, I was accepted into Northeastern University’s College of Engineering. My childhood interests in the environment and construction led me to the civil engineering program, in which I excelled. Northeastern is a co-operative work/study curriculum so in between class semesters, I worked in the industry. I worked at Modern Continental Enterprise Group, Parsons-Brinkerhoff and SEA Consultants (now Kleinfelder) during this time.
Following graduation in 2004, I accepted a job at McKenzie Engineering Group where I worked out of their Saugus office. It was a small company and within a short time, I was given an opportunity to take a leadership role for the company. It wasn’t long before the owner and I moved the office to Danvers where I began growing a network of clients. I must tip my hat to Brad McKenzie for his mentorship and patience during my time at his company. It was during this time that I was immersed into the world of the public permitting process. I attended meetings with planning boards, conservation commissions and town officials. Worked with attorneys, developers, architects and other professionals on strategy, scope and constant thinking on your feet. The public arena is where I really found my niche in the industry and doors started opening for me. It was September 29, 2008, the start of the economic recession and a day that I’ll never forget, that started me on a path to ownership.
During the economic recession of 2008-2010, everyone in our industry was looking for work. Development had ground to a halt, and I was not alone in pursuing every lead I could find. I found a lot of small house addition jobs during this time and many of them needed septic system inspections. So, I started a small company specializing in septic system inspections, Cameron Site Inspection, Inc. that I could work on weekends. It filled an economic need for me and my family while we waited out the recession. It also taught me the basics of owning a business. It wasn’t long before I convinced myself that owning an engineering company was the next logical step in my career.
The concept of a partnership between John and myself began in late 2011 over a coffee and orange juice. It wasn’t long before we formed The Morin-Cameron Group. The company has grown considerably since it’s rebranding. I owe this success to our collective commitment to excellence, and the outstanding staff that surrounds us and makes this happen. I am very excited about what the future holds for our Company.
~Scott P. Cameron, P.E., Principal