texas type public traded as nyse flr s & p 500 component industry engineering and construction founded santa ana california 1912 founder john simon fluor headquarters irving texas united states key people david t. seaton chairman and chief executive officer revenue 21.53 billion 2014 1 operating income 1.2 billion 1 net income n a number of employees 44 000 employees website www.fluor.com fluor corporation is a multinational engineering and construction firm headquartered in irving texas . it is a holding company that provides services through its subsidiaries in the following areas oil and gas industrial and infrastructure government and power . it is the largest engineering & construction company in the fortune 500 rankings and lists 136th overall in the same rankings . fluor was founded in 1912 by john simon fluor as fluor construction company . it grew quickly predominantly by building oil refineries pipelines and other facilities for the oil and gas industry at first in california and then in the middle east and globally . in the late 1960s it began diversifying into oil drilling coal mining and other raw materials like lead . a global recession in the oil and gas industry and losses from its mining operation led to restructuring and layoffs in the 1980s . fluor sold its oil operations and diversified its construction work into a broader range of services and industries . in the 1990s fluor introduced new services like equipment rentals and staffing . nuclear waste cleanup projects and other environmental work became a significant portion of fluor s revenues . the company also did projects related to the manhattan project rebuilding after the iraq war recovering from hurricane katrina and building the trans alaska pipeline system . contents 1 corporate history 1.1 early history 1.2 diversification and restructuring 1.3 recent history 2 organization 3 services 4 notable projects 5 see also 6 references 7 external links corporate history edit early history edit headquarters of fluor bros construction in the early 1900s fluor corporation s predecessor rudolph fluor & brother was founded in 1890 by john simon fluor 2 and his two brothers in oshkosh wisconsin 3 as a saw and paper mill . 2 john fluor acted as its president 2 and contributed 100 in personal savings to help the business get started . 4 the company was renamed fluor bros. construction co. in 1903 . 2 in 1912 john fluor moved to santa ana california for health reasons without his brothers 5 and founded fluor corporation out of his garage 6 under the name fluor construction company . 5 7 by 1924 the business had annual revenues of 100 000 1.36 million in 2013 dollars 2 and a staff of 100 employees . john fluor delegated most of the company s operations to his sons peter and simon fluor . 8 a 100 000 capital investment was made that year and it was incorporated . 2 john s eldest son peter served as head of sales and grew the company to 1.5 million 20.4 million in 2013 dollars in revenues by 1929 . 8 in 1929 the company re incorporated as fluor corporation . 2 by the 1930s fluor had operations in europe the middle east and australia . 4 9 business declined rapidly during the great depression but picked up again during world war ii . during the war fluor manufactured synthetic rubber and was responsible for a substantial portion of high octane gasoline production in the united states . 4 a gas gasoline division of fluor was created in houston in 1948 . 2 fluor s headquarters were moved to los angeles in 1940 in order to be closer to its oil and gas clients before moving again to orange county california in the 1960s due to concerns about the cost of living and traffic . 6 john simon fluor died in 1944 . he was succeeded by his son peter fluor who died three years later . peter was followed by shirley meserve 1947 and donald darnell 1949 then john simon si fluor jr. in 1952 and j. robert bob fluor in 1962 . 2 10 fluor was listed on the new york stock exchange in the 1950s . 11 in 1961 fluor acquired an interest in construction design and contracting firm william j. moran . 12 diversification and restructuring edit fluor diversified its business more extensively in 1967 when five companies were merged into a division called coral drilling and it started a deep water oil exploration business in houston called deep oil technology . it also created fluor ocean services in houston in 1968 2 and acquired an interest in other fossil fuel operations in the 1970s . 11 fluor acquired a construction company pike corp. of america 2 and the engineering division of its prior partner in australia utah construction . 10 13 in 1972 fluor bought land in irvine california and started building its new headquarters on it . 6 the following year the company s oil and gas operations were consolidated under a new entity fluor oil and gas corp. 2 in 1977 fluor acquired daniel international corporation . 14 fluor s business had become predominantly international while daniel international s 1 billion construction business was mostly domestic . the acquisition allowed the company to use union labor at fluor or non union labor at daniel for each client . 11 fluor made a 2.9 billion acquisition of a zinc gold lead and coal mining operation st. joe minerals in 1981 15 after a bidding competition for the business with seagram . 16 17 by the 1980s fluor s primary business was building large refineries petrochemical plants oil pipelines and other facilities for the gas and oil industry 18 especially in the middle east . 18 19 by 1981 fluor s staff had grown to 29 000 and revenue backlog and profits had each increased more than 30 percent over the prior year . 20 however by 1984 the mining operation was causing heavy losses 21 and the oil and gas industry fluor served was in a worldwide recession 22 due to declining oil prices . 18 23 from 1981 to 1984 fluor s backlog went from 16 billion to 4 billion . 18 in 1985 it reported 633 million in losses . 24 david tappan took bob fluor s place as ceo in 1984 after bob died from cancer 18 25 26 and led a difficult restructuring . 27 the company sold 750 million in assets including fluor s headquarters in irvine in order to pay 1 billion in debt . 26 27 staff were reduced from 32 000 to 14 000 . 18 in 1986 fluor sold all of its oil assets and some of its gold mining operations . 2 28 fluor engineers inc. and daniel international were merged forming fluor daniel . 2 by 1987 fluor had returned to profitability with 26.6 million in profits 29 and 108.5 million by 1989 . 26 by the end of the restructuring fluor had three major divisions fluor daniel fluor construction international and st. joe minerals corp. each division had its own smaller subsidiaries . 2 fluor started being named by engineering news as the largest construction and engineering company in the united states . 18 22 fluor s international revenues rebounded . 30 having postponed his retirement to help fluor tappan stepped down at the end of 1989 and was replaced by leslie mccraw . 22 31 recent history edit during the restructuring fluor s core construction and engineering work was diversified into 30 industries including food paper manufacturers prisons and others to reduce its vulnerability to market changes in the oil and gas market . 18 22 in the 1990s the company tried to change its image calling itself a diversified technical services firm . 18 32 it started offering equipment rentals staffing services and financing for construction projects . 18 32 the company began offering environmental cleanup and pollution control services which grew to half of its new business by 1992 . 21 fluor s mining business grew from 300 million in 1990 to 1 billion in 1994 . 33 the us government passed environmental regulations in 1995 that led to growth for the massey coal co. business because it had large reserves of low sulfur coal . 34 in 1992 fluor sold its ownership of doe run company the world s largest producer of refined lead which was losing money at the time due to declining lead prices . 35 by 1993 fluor had revenues of 4.17 billion and 22 000 staff . 2 in 1997 fluor s revenues fell almost 50 percent in part due to the asian financial crisis 36 and a decrease in overseas business . 30 37 additionally it suffered losses from an over budget power plant project 38 in rabigh saudi arabia . fluor was a sub contractor to general electric for the project . fluor s subsidiaries sued ge alleging that it misrepresented the complexity of the project . 39 though revenues declined further the following year profits were increasing . 2 in 1999 nearly 5 000 workers were laid off from fluor daniel and 15 offices were closed . fluor daniel was re structured into four business groups an engineering and construction firm called fluor daniel ; an equipment rental staffing and telecommunications division called fluor global services ; a coal mining business called a.t. massey coal co. and an administrative and support division called fluor signature services . 36 40 in january 1998 mccraw age 63 resigned after being diagnosed with bladder cancer 41 42 and was replaced by former shell president philip j. carroll . 43 that same year it group purchased a 54 percent interest in fluor daniel gti fluor s environmental division for 36.3 million . 2 two years later the coal mining operation under the a.t. massey coal co. name part of st. joe was spun off into its own business . 36 in 2001 fluor s four primary subsidiaries were consolidated into a single fluor corporation . 10 in 2002 alan boeckmann was appointed as the ceo followed by david seaton in 2011 . 10 in 2005 fluor s headquarters were moved to the las colinas area in irving texas . 9 in december 2015 fluor announced that it would take over dutch industrial services company stork . 44 the acquisition of this company which modifies and maintains large power plants was completed in march 2016 in a stock purchase worth 755 million . 45 organization edit fluor is the largest construction and engineering company in the fortune 500 46 and the 136th largest company in the ranking overall . 47 it has offices in 25 countries . many of fluor s operations are located near natural resources such as uranium in canada oil reserves in the middle east and mines in australia . about 30 percent of fluor s revenues are based in the united states as of 2011 . 48 the fluor family owns a 3.5 percent interest in the company while employees own six percent through its profit sharing program . 11 fluor s board of directors has 12 independent directors and the ceo . the independent directors elect a lead independent director every three years that acts as a liaison to the ceo . 49 each independent director is on two or more of four committees audit executive governance and organization & compensation . 50 directors serve a three year term and are elected by shareholders . 49 corporate officers such as the ceo are elected each year by a vote of the board . 51 fluor received an a ranking in transparency international s 2012 anti corruption study . 52 the company hosts online and in person anti corruption training sessions for staff and operates an ethics hotline . former ceo alan boeckmann helped create the partnering against corruption initiative paci whereby companies agree to a set of