More than 30 years after Ken Surprenant co-founded I&S Engineers and Architects, Inc., his son, Chad, is the Mankato firm’s president. The second Suprenant, who became president in 2002, has high goals for the company’s future.

“I got brought up in the business pretty quickly,” Chad says from his office in I&S’ headquarters on North Riverfront Drive. “The line between family and business was pretty blurry, but it gave us something interesting to talk about. It’s been a darn good industry, and we’ve enjoyed being a part of it.”

Being a medium-sized firm in a medium-sized Minnesota town suits Surprenant as both a family man and a businessman. “I like what’s happening in Mankato,” he says. “I love the fact that we have a lot of citizen involvement and people who truly care about the area. We do a lot of traveling, and very rarely do we find a place we think is better than Mankato. This is a great place to raise a family.”

Q: Tell me about the history of I&S.

A: The company started back in 1973. My dad started it up with another gentlemen (Gene Isakson). It was a relatively small engineering outfit, specializing in structural, civil and a little bit of mechanical engineering. For various reasons, in 1974, Gene wanted to get out of the business. So it’s really been our family business for quite some time.

Q: How did you become involved in the business?

A: It was something I naturally gravitated towards. It was never something that was forced upon me. I’d follow my dad and see the things that he was involved in. We had a really tight relationship. … But it wasn’t until I got down to Iowa State that I realized this is truly what I like to do. The nice thing was I’d learn stuff during the school year and I’d come back here during the summer and do some interning and see the real-life aspect of what it is you’re learning.

Q: How involved is your dad currently?

A: He’s more project-oriented that I am. We’d always stayed a relatively small company when he was totally at the helm. Partly, it was the economics and the times, before Mankato had gone on any kind of growth spurt. You couple that with the fact that my dad has never been a guy who wants to manage a whole bunch of people. He’s a pure engineer, in the sense of ‘Give me a problem and I’ll solve the problem.’ Management and human resources and those types of things aren’t where he necessarily wants to spend his time.