page_title: Hill International
section_title: International expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Hill International / History / International expansion
caption_attribution_description: construction of Latvian National Library
context_page_description: Hill International, Inc. is an American construction consulting firm. Founded in 1976, the company's corporate headquarters are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Hill provides program and project management, construction management, cost engineering and estimating, quality assurance, inspection, scheduling, risk management, and claims avoidance services to clients with major construction projects worldwide.
  Hill has participated in over 10,000 project assignments with a total construction value of more than $500 billion. The firm was ranked as the 8th largest construction management firm-for-fee in the United States according to Engineering News-Record magazine in 2018. and the 8th largest program management firm in the U.S.
  Many of the company's projects have been outside the U.S. It is a majority owner in HillStone, a subsidiary that launched a failed housing development project in Iraq. James Biden, the brother of U.S. political figure Joe Biden is on HillStone's board.
context_section_description: Hill has been "International" since its beginnings. Some CMS clients who became Hill clients were involved with projects in Europe and Africa, including an early iron pellet plant project (in the late 1970s).
  In 1981, Hill represented a Filipino labor contractor providing on-site claims and dispute resolution services at King Khalid Military City, a project being built in Saudi Arabia by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The form of contract was the FAR.
  Hill first attempted to open a non-field overseas office in London in 1981 when it hired John A.W. Tanner, an executive with Pullman Swindell (now Swindell Dressler International Co.) The venture was ultimately unsuccessful and the office closed in 1985.
  However, Hill continued to expand its international claims work. Its contacts in the nuclear plant claims arena included General Electric (who used Hill services on its Boiling Water Reactor). GE’s overseas subsidiaries also used Hill's services on several claims in Egypt, including the Abu Sultan Power Plant and other projects in the early 1980s. The firm assisted a Spanish joint venture in evaluating their potential claims against the government of Kuwait on a major road modernization project in Kuwait City. This continued business in the Middle East led Hill's management to target this region for an overseas office.
  By this time, in 1983, Richter had authored a book, International Construction Claims, Avoiding and Resolving Disputes and the international momentum landed Hill in Abu Dhabi with an independent overseas office that was turning a profit from the start. Hill had landed the role as a lead consultant for the Abu Dhabi Claims Committee.
  
  Hill continued to pursue offices elsewhere. In the early 1990s, it was selected by Bechtel to help guide the completion of the Channel Tunnel Project that had begun in 1986. But as work progressed, the owner, Eurotunnel, and the Anglo-French consortium responsible for design and construction, TransManche Link, were plagued by severe cost, schedule, and safety problems. In 1990, the banks funding the project became involved. When it became clear the project was at risk, Eurotunnel called on Bechtel to get the project back on track. Hill was hired by this project rescue team to perform claims analysis and mitigation, and had a project team working with Eurotunnel for several years and eventually opened an independent office in London.
   Hill sought to bring in qualified European staff to run their European offices. It hired Raouf Ghali, who was educated in the U.S. Ghali had recently been hired by Hill and had worked leading Hill on the Petronas Twin Tower Project in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Ghali, then working in the London office (but also working from his home base of Athens, Greece),  expanded the Construction Management group of Hill. For example, thefirm began work on the Athens Metro, the National Library of Latvia, and, in 2002, the Palm Islands Project in Dubai. Hill moved its corporate headquarters from Willingboro to Marlton, NJ, in 2002. By 2004, Hill had about 500 professionals working in 25 offices worldwide. 
  From 2002 to 2006, Hill's revenue rose from $73 million to $197 million, a 170% increase, with 55% percent of its revenue coming from Europe and the Middle East.
caption: Hill provided CM services at the National Library of Latvia in Riga.
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