JACKSON, Miss. (Jan. 2, 2018) – Neel-Schaffer co-founder and President W. Hibbett Neel, PE, was honored by the Institute of Transportation Engineers today when he was named an Honorary Member of the international organization.
Honorary Membership is the highest recognition of notable and outstanding professional achievement presented by ITE, which has 70,000 members worldwide. Hibbett has been a member of ITE for over 40 years and served as the ITE International President in 2014. Only 80 members have received Honorary Member status since 1933, when the first Honorary Member was chosen.
“I am honored to receive this award,” said Hibbett. “But I know what little success I’ve achieved I would not have achieved without the great support of my wonderful wife Susan. We are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this year on May 11, 2018. And we have had many talented, dedicated employees who have really made this company a success.”
Hibbett and Gorman Schaffer founded Neel-Schaffer in 1983, primarily as a traffic/transportation firm. The firm has grown from one office with 20 employees to a company that now operates 36 offices across nine states.
“As federal mandates and local priorities emerged, we established offices to provide services to clients throughout the Southeast,” explained Hibbett. “But you have to have more than office locations to succeed. We brought on engineers with an entrepreneurial spirit, and we put them in positions where they could excel.”
