Meet New Westwood Associate Matthew Hildreth

Get to know our newest associates! We are excited to have them on our team and helping to lead Westwood forward. The associate designation at Westwood represents a team member who provides considerable value to the firm through their leadership traits and technical expertise.

Matthew Hildreth, Water Resource Project Manager, at Westwood, is nominated as a 2021 associate. He joins 25 of his colleagues in earning the distinction given to employees who dedicate themselves to Westwood’s leadership.

Becoming an associate challenges Matthew to continue growing as a leader in his team and beyond. He says, “Being recognized as an associate challenges and empowers me to continue to grow as a leader and mentor, both to water resources employees, and other people in the company as well.”

Promoting Westwood’s culture is also something Matthew knows is an important part of the associate role. “Westwood has a great culture, which has allowed us to succeed as a company. I need to keep promoting the “work hard, play hard” mantra,” he says.

He continues, “It fits well with how I live my life, and it correlates to the success Westwood has had by adopting it.”

In Matthew’s role, developing strong relationships has been one of the key Westwood core values he lives by. He says, “One of the best ways we can succeed is by creating great relationships with our teams, clients, and other co-workers.”

He continues, “Open communication between these groups allows us to collaborate, innovate, and take initiative to work together, which increases our collective dedication to each other. This builds the solid relationships we want.”

Matthew’s motivation comes from overcoming challenges in his work and projects. “I’ve worked on a variety of wind projects that all come with their challenges. The project challenges I face motivate me to find a solution for clients that goes above and beyond what they expect,” says Matthew.

“Using knowledge gained from successes and failures to innovate is a great way to overcome those challenges,” says Matthew.

As a testament to being motivated by challenges, Matthew spent just over two years in one of  Westwood's Denver, Colorado locations after it opened. He worked on developing and establishing their water resource team before moving back to Westwood's corporate office location in Minneapolis.

Westwood is growing rapidly, and with that growth comes many changes. Matthew’s advice to people early in their career at Westwood is to be open to change and strive to innovate. “Just because we’ve done something a certain way doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. There may be a better way to do something,” says Matthew.

“Also, take advantage of all the networking opportunities we have with different offices and groups. Get to know people across divisions and markets so you can work more effectively together,” he says.

Congratulations, Matthew, and thank you for your contributions to Westwood!