APTech founder Katie Zimmerman profiled for National Women’s Small Business Month
APTech founder Katie Zimmerman, P.E.
Historically, there has been a dearth of women-owned businesses nationwide. It was not until 1988 that women were allowed to apply for a business loan without a male relative co-signing. Only 6 years later, Katie Zimmerman, P.E., helped pave the way for female civil engineers and founded Applied Pavement Technology, Inc. in 1994. Today, there are now over 13 million women-owned businesses nationwide, representing 42 percent of U.S. businesses and generating $1.9 trillion worth of revenue annually.
In celebration of National Women’s Small Business Month, the News-Gazette—the newspaper covering the Champaign-Urbana metro area where APTech is headquartered—recently profiled five local women whose leadership and entrepreneurial spirit has left lasting impacts on the community. Among these vanguard women was APTech’s own Katie. Katie’s legacy in the pavement engineering industry cannot be overstated; in particular, her pioneering work in the field of transportation asset management has been instrumental in helping government agencies make better planning and budgeting decisions and improve transparency and accountability.
Thanks to Katie’s leadership, APTech has grown to become a nationally recognized leader in our industry. Her technical knowledge, combined with her passion for giving back, helped set the course for the firm’s future successes.
“I found that civil engineering was the most people-oriented of all the disciplines within the engineering community,” Katie said in the article. “It resonated with me.”