The CEO of Barge Design Solutions, who started at the company as a civil engineering student intern, is among Nashville Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs for the third time.
Bob Higgins, BE’89, has led Barge as president and CEO since 2009. Barge is a certified Great Place to Work® and is ranked #27 in Nashville Business Journal’s Fast 50, a list of the fastest growing private companies in the city.
This is the third year in a row that Higgins has been named one of the Journal’s Most Admired CEOs and Their Companies winners.
Higgins was reappointed in March to the Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s Board of Visitors. Board members serve as advisors to the Dean and senior staff. During his previous three-year board term, Higgins helped establish a scholarship in the name of Barge Design Solutions for the School of Engineering. The fund is supported by employees who are alumni of the engineering school plus a match from the company. Barge employees also mentor students, visit classes, provide internship opportunities and oversee student design projects.
Higgins sits on the board for the Nashville Downtown Partnership as well as the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as chair of the Governance Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee. He also serves on the board of directors for the Saint Thomas Health Foundation, Nelson Andrews Leadership Center and Nashville Public Library Foundation.
He is a past recipient of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) Engineer of the Year award and a graduate of several community leadership programs.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, (615) 343-6314
brenda.ellis@Vanderbilt.edu