Our history

As a world-leading engineering professional services and project management company, our heritage of delivering excellence stretches back over a century.

Our roots trace back to two formerly separate companies: SNC-Lavalin, and Atkins.

In its early days, the precursor to SNC-Lavalin was formed by Arthur Surveyer in 1911, following a distinguished career in the Canadian Department of Public Works. By the early 1920s, it had already become one of Montreal’s leading engineering service providers for power projects. This success was built on two qualities: a passion for providing high-quality technical studies and objective expert counsel, and a rigorous work ethic dedicated to creating value.

Over the following decades, the company that originally bore Surveyer’s name transformed into SNC as it began to expand into diverse new sectors. From oil and gas, to mining and metallurgy, to infrastructure, SNC played a pivotal role in building the power plants and industrial facilities that would elevate Canada to its position as one of the world’s leading producers of natural resources.

SNC continued to grow in success and size, eventually merging with the Canadian engineering giant Lavalin in 1991. Adopting the SNC-Lavalin moniker, the new partnership became the country’s largest engineering and construction company and one of the top engineering and construction firms in the world.

More major acquisitions followed in the new millennium, reinforcing this position. UK-based design, engineering, and project management company WS Atkins was acquired in 2017.

The original company, WS Atkins and Partners, was established in 1938 by Sir William Atkins in London. In its early years, the company specialised in civil and structural engineering design. After the Second World War, the services offered by WS Atkins and Partners to clients grew to include specialist services in planning, engineering sciences, architecture and project management.

In the 1990s Atkins made several significant acquisitions, including the project and cost management consultancy Faithful+Gould. Faithful+Gould’s story began in 1947. Eric Faithful and Leonard Gould began their partnership as they helped to repair Bristol after it was heavily bombed in the Second World War. Leonard Gould continued to take the business forward into the 1960s, opening several new offices across the UK, and rapidly expanding over the next number of decades. As part of SNC- Lavalin's acquisition of Atkins, Faithful+Gould joined the SNC-Lavalin Group in 2017.

In 2023, SNC-Lavalin Group rebranded to AtkinsRéalis, to establish one company, one strategy and one integrated offering to solve the world’s biggest and most complex challenges.

Today, we continue to build on this proud legacy from both Arthur Surveyer and Sir William Atkins for our global customers. With every new project and every new success, we can trace a direct line back to the original commitment of our two founders: creating the utmost value, by delivering the highest-quality end-to-end project solutions.