Leo Titus Jr. entered the smoky, dark, burning Pentagon lit only by glowing embers and flashlights after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack as a rookie in the Fairfax County, Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Team. I was helping to shore up and stabilize areas where first responders and investigators had to work. His team leader told him to put away his “only pen” to distract Titus from the carnage. “It was surreal, because I didn’t know what I was doing,” says the 56-year-old road engineer who didn’t realize at the time how his life and career would take a parallel path.
Prior to 9/11, Titus was already a leader at geotechnical and environmental design firm Engineering Consulting Services Ltd., Chantilly, Va., as chief operating officer of the firm, which is ranked No. 66 on ENR’s 2025 Top 500 Design Firms list with $453.8 million in prior-year revenue and a current regional business headcount of more than €500 million in the USA the unit ranks No. 35 on ENR East’s Top Design Firm 2025 ranking, with revenue of $152.25 million in 2024.
In addition to his corporate duties, Titus has spent significant time since 9/11 touring the United States to recount this experience. “I’ve been doing presentations around the country since October 2001 sharing this story,” he says.
“I’ve done it for 10 people; I’ve done it for 1,000 people,” says Titus. He also faced the personal challenge of becoming a single father to three young children after his first wife, Jennifer, died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 34.
Matt Kroll, vice president of land rights at Ashburn, Va.-based construction and development firm Timber Ridge Management, says Titus is successful because “his character and his values drive him in every area of his life.” Kroll, who has worked with Titus on mixed-use and residential developments in Northern Virginia for 20 years, says he “leads with heart and a zest for life. It’s genuine and authentic, regardless of the environment.”
Odyssey of Civil Engineering
Raised in Saratoga Springs, NY, the son of a teacher and food service worker, Titus says he was inspired by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to study mechanical engineering at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, with dreams of building space stations. After struggling to wrap his brain around “rigid body dynamics” in one of his first courses, Titus says a summer job helping masons construct sidewalks and buildings led to a switch to civil engineering, where “everything stopped… and I was good at statics,” he recalls.
He switched majors just to graduate in the 1991 recession, but still landed a geotechnical engineering job in Baltimore. Joining ECS in 1997, Titus achieved leadership roles in both the company and the industry. He was elevated to the role of COO in 2021 from a previous position as president of the MidAtlantic unit and served as president of the Geoprofessional Business Association in 2022-23.
“Leo is a thoughtful, values-driven leader who consistently brings strategic vision, inclusive leadership, humor and hard work to every room he’s in,” says Joel Carson, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
Leo Titus (left) had his first mission with the Fairfax County, Va., Urban Search and Rescue Team at the terrorist-damaged Pentagon following the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.
Photo courtesy of Leo Titus
Reconstruction of the Pentagon
As a young manager, Titus clashed with an older employee. After discovering that the employee was passionate about field qualifications, Titus empowered him to create a company training program. The employee eventually invited Titus to join the county’s search and rescue team, and he completed the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s structural specialist training a month before the 9/11 attacks. He spent about a week at the Pentagon with the team before ECS, which had already been working on the building’s renovation program, turned its attention to the actual reconstruction.
“Leo is successful because his character and values carry him through all areas of his life.”
—Matt Kroll, vice president of Timber Ridge Management
The scope of the company’s project included determining which elements of the building should be retained and removed. The analysis involved “looking at the concrete under a microscope to get a sense of the heat and the fire and how the concrete was damaged,” says Titus.
ECS also verified the bases for a heavier redesign, including pile load testing. At the time, Titus, who ran the company’s concrete laboratory, oversaw field testing and inspections. “We set up a concrete testing lab right there on the heliport and were testing concrete 24 hours a day,” he says.
Crews tore down 500,000 square feet of concrete from the Pentagon in late October 2001 before replacing it with new material in mid-April 2002, five months before the building’s September 11, 2002 reopening ceremony, finally giving Titus a chance to pause to consider “what.”
Talking Legacy
About a month after the 9/11 attacks, Titus was asked by his boss to give a presentation to company employees about his experience. This led to another talk with the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a rotary club. “I’ve probably given it over 250-300 times now,” says Titus.
Titus has also shared the experience of Jennifer Titus’ death by spearheading the family’s fundraising for breast cancer awareness through the non-profit organization Susan G. Komen which now totals more than $400,000. “It’s hard to do; I don’t like asking people for money,” says Titus. “But I do. I tell the story.”
In 2005, he married Rosalie Titus, who was working for a fire protection engineering company when they met at an industry event.
Titus’ career remains strong as ECS continues to grow, recently reporting 100 offices, including an expansion in California, and $552 million in revenue by 2025. Titus is focused on helping scale the business, with Titus projecting growth of $1 billion in revenue and 6,000 employees by 2032.
Titus, who continues to teach a civil engineering course on building inspections at Clarkson University, recalled a recruiting trip to the school when a student told him that one of his lectures a few years earlier inspired the student to pursue a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering.
“When it comes to making an impact, I tell people, ‘Get involved, share your stories, go talk to kids,'” she says. “You’ll never know what your impact is, but you could change people’s lives or lead them down a path they didn’t even think was possible just by sharing your experience.”
