Chairman and Co-Founder of CEI Announces Retirement

C. Michael Shupe, chairman of Bentonville-based CEI Engineering Associates announced his retirement during a companywide meeting May 1.

Shupe will resign his post effective May 31, and formally retire on June 15. CEI president and CEO Jeffrey D. Geurian will succeed Shupe as chairman.

Shupe earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas in 1966, added a master’s in 1970, and co-founded CEI as an engineering and surveying firm with a staff of five in 1979. Since then, the company has evolved into a full-service firm with more than 90 employees and eight offices nationwide.

According to a news release, CEI was part of more than 50 projects at the Rogers Municipal Airport, major work at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, and more than 500 local and national public works projects. The Engineering News-Record named CEI one of the nation’s top 500 engineering firms from 2003 to 2008.

Shupe, who was elected to the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame in 2009, is a past chairman of the Rogers Planning Commission, past member of the Northwest Arkansas Community College Board of Trustees, and a co-founder of the Ozark Natural Science Center.