Dr. Robert L. Bowen is the founder and CEO of Bowen Engineering Corporation, an Indianapolis-based, multi-market company specializing in water and wastewater treatment plants and energy utility construction.
Dr. Bowen is considered an authority on construction leadership practices and has been instrumental in identifying, documenting, and teaching best practices to construction managers. His business philosophy is simple: “It’s people, not concrete.”
He’s also the co-founder of “Science Bound,” a partnership with Purdue University that encourages IPS students to consider careers in science, engineering, technology, or math/science education - and puts them on the path to earning a Purdue degree.
A Purdue graduate, Dr. Bowen earned a bachelor's of science degree in civil engineering in 1962. In 1994, he completed the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM) Executive Education Program. In May 2007, he was bestowed an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from his alma mater.
After several years as a project manager and stockholder at a California construction
company, Dr. Bowen returned to Indiana to start his own company in 1967. Since then, Bowen Engineering has received five AGC Build America Awards – considered the Oscars of the construction industry. The company has been named along with 50 other companies as one of the top “Best Places to Work in Indiana” by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Bowen and his wife Terry established the Bowen Foundation more than decade ago to provide scholarships to minority students in Indianapolis to help them further their educations beyond high school. More than $750,000 in scholarships has been awarded to about 300 students through the foundation.
In 2002, the Bowens, along with former Purdue President Martin Jischke, founded the “Science Bound” program that mentors IPS students starting in eighth grade through high school. Those IPS students who complete the five-year “Science Bound” program and gain acceptance to Purdue in an approved field receive a full-tuition scholarship to Purdue for eight semesters.
