About Cadmus

A Brief History of Cadmus

When Gene Fax and Ralph Jones founded The Cadmus Group, Inc. in 1983, they shared a commitment to creative multidisciplinary problem-solving. The MIT-trained engineer and the Harvard-educated political scientist had met at Abt Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They quickly found they worked very well together and the experience, skills, and academic background of each complemented those of the other. When the time came to form their own firm, Gene and Ralph made this multidisciplinary approach a central tenet of how their new company would do business.

One reason Ralph and Gene started Cadmus was to take advantage of a change in how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) procured contractor support. In the early 1980s EPA stopped issuing small contracts of fixed scope in favor of hefty mission-support contracts that required large teams of contractors in order to provide all the services the Agency wanted at reasonable prices. Larger companies, with their greater overhead costs and other financial constraints, were suddenly at a competitive disadvantage. When EPA issued a request for proposals on the successor to a contract Gene and Ralph had won while at Abt Associates, the entrepreneurs were ready. Cadmus won the contract, and the EPA Office of Drinking Water (now called the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water) became a major client.

Like many startups, Cadmus had to be nimble in its early years to meet the varied needs of the markets it served. This flexibility meant that staff members were free to pursue work that interested them personally and professionally. (That spirit of enterprise and freedom to build a career in areas that staff members find challenging or otherwise rewarding—so long as the endeavor makes business sense—remains a hallmark of Cadmus.) Much of the company’s early work had a distinctly social sciences bent. The firm’s first big contract was with Massachusetts’ Bay State Skills Corporation, a non-profit organization no longer in existence, to evaluate its performance in providing training and job placement services. Similar work in Arizona soon followed and lasted for several years.

Among the first environmental jobs taken on by Cadmus involved policy work related to small-quantity generators of hazardous waste. EPA wanted to step back from regulating all these so-called SQGs to only those that generated hazardous wastes above a threshold amount. Cadmus was tapped to look at various state programs that oversaw these companies.

In the almost quarter century since our founding, Cadmus has grown to become a leading support contractor for EPA, not only in the area of drinking water but also in voluntary programs, indoor air and radiation, and energy efficiency. We have also grown the sides of our business devoted to private sector and non-profit clients. And we have branched into international development.

As an employee-owned company since 2005, our future looks as bright and promising as our past has been exciting and stimulating. Here are some of the most important milestones we have passed along the way:

1983
Cadmus opens for business in Watertown, Massachusetts.

1986
Cadmus wins its first prime contract (with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

1988
Cadmus opens an office in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, to better serve our federal clients.

1989
Cadmus starts a 401(k) retirement plan.

1990
Cadmus opens an office to serve EPA clients in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

1991
Cadmus acquires Western Aquatics of Laramie, Wyoming.

1994
Cadmus acquires Wade Miller Associates, an established support contractor to the EPA Office of Water.

1997
Cadmus opens a West Coast office in Los Angeles, California.

1998
Cadmus opens an office in Helena, Montana.

2003
Cadmus adopts an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), making the employees of the firm owners as well.

2008
Cadmus merges with Quantec, LLC, of Portland, Oregon.

The Origins of Our Name

Cadmus was a Phoenician prince who vainly searched the Mediterranean for his sister, Europa, who had been taken away by the god Zeus in the form of a bull. Cadmus sought counsel from the oracle at Delphi and was told to abandon his search. He was instead to search for a cow with lunar markings on either side, follow the animal, and found a city on the spot where the cow lay down to rest.

Intending to sacrifice the cow, Cadmus sent some of his men for water from a nearby spring, but they never returned. They were killed by a dragon that guarded the spring. At the goddess Athena’s urging, Cadmus killed the dragon, which was owned by Ares, the god of war. Cadmus planted the teeth of the dragon as Athena directed, and from them sprung up fully armed soldiers. They would have killed Cadmus had he not tricked them into attacking each other by throwing stones at them. Ares’ men fought each other until only five were left. These became known as the Sportoi, or “sown men,” who helped Cadmus found the city of Thebes.

A very wise man, Cadmus brought the alphabet to Greece. Because of his wisdom, people came to Thebes to ask his advice.

The story of Cadmus held definite appeal for our company’s founders, Gene Fax and Ralph Jones, as they and their board of directors considered a name for the new company on the eve of its incorporation. They had already converged on Greek mythology as a source of universally recognized names that have positive connotations, and after a time came to the story of Cadmus. As Gene later wrote, “There was a lot more to the myth . . ., but that was enough for us: a wise man who founded his own city and gave advice. ‘Cadmus’ it was to be.”

“Vindication of our choice came about 2 months later, when I arrived at EPA’s Waterside Mall headquarters for a meeting,” Gene later recalled. “While people were getting settled, a fellow from another research firm whom I had met a few weeks earlier approached me. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘I can’t remember your name, but aren’t you with Cadmus?’”