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Lincoln Park Engineering Firm CEO Named Rotary Club President

 Pedro Cevallos-Candau, president, co-CEO and co-founder of engineering firm Primera, makes his home in Lincoln Park. He's had an impact on the area through Primera, which has worked on parts of Lincoln Park Zoo, the North Pond restaurant and Chicago History Museum, among other projects.
Pedro Cevallos-Candau
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CHICAGO — Lincoln Park resident Pedro Cevallos-Candau sees his company's role in the Lincoln Park Zoo's Regenstein Ape House as an unforgettable start to the many projects his firm has been a part of in the neighborhood.

The president and CEO of engineering design and consulting firm Primera, Cevallos-Candau — who was recently inducted as the first Latino president of the Chicago chapter of service organization Rotary International — said the work he does in Lincoln Park and throughout the city is rewarding.

It all started at the ape house.

"It was the first. There's nothing like it," Cevallos-Candau said. "I went to interview for the project, and I never forgot it."

 Pedro Cevallos-Candau, president and CEO of engineering firm Primera, said his work in Lincoln Park and throughout the city is rewarding.
Pedro Cevallos-Candau, president and CEO of engineering firm Primera, said his work in Lincoln Park and throughout the city is rewarding.
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Courtesy Primera

When the interviewer asked about his firm's experience, Cevallos-Candau joked, "Well, I haven't done a gorilla house, but I have done a couple high schools."

Calling the ape house a "signature project" for the zoo, Ken Panucci, senior vice president of Primera, said Lincoln Park has offered many opportunities for the firm. Primera did work at the Chicago History Museum and North Pond restaurant, among other places, and now Cevallos-Candau's firm is helping develop the Regenstein Macaque Forest.

"Just about anything they're going to do is going to be a big project," Panucci said.

Each project has its own challenges: When working at the ape house, Cevallos-Candau said the team had to rely on welding instead of nuts, bolts or nails the apes could loosen and play with, helped plan an underground series of cages and mazes for zookeepers and the animals, and had to figure out how to control the building's air circulation so the apes wouldn't catch germs from human viewers.

And during a public schools project, Primera developed a ventilation system that would circulate fresh air even during the winter to improve student health.

Projects typically take 15 to 18 months to design and a year to build, Cevallos-Candau said. But, the challenges and time commitment are worth it to him. He said he enjoys seeing people use the projects Primera has worked on. When the firm finished a city project a year ahead of schedule, he was happy to get thankful emails from residents.

Cevallos-Candau said he thinks that dedication has led to the Chicago Park District using Primera for Lincoln Park projects.

"Once you develop the relationship and the experience, they keep coming to you," Cevallos-Candau said.

Cevallos-Candau balances his work with Primera with being a father and husband and president of the Rotary Club of Chicago. His father was a member of Rotary in Ecuador, and Pedro Cevallos-Candau joined 12 years ago so his son, Antonio Cevallos, could take part in the organization's exchange programs.

Though Antonio Cevallos never used the exchange programs, the family hosted visitors from Japan, Mexico and France, and Cevallos-Candau and his wife, Pamela Brockman, became involved in the organization's service work. Brockman focuses on violence reduction in Chicago.

On July 15, Rotary — which was founded in 1905 in Chicago — inducted Cevallos-Candau as its 111th president, making him the first Latino to hold that title in the organization's history.

Cevallos-Candau has also served as a faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was a founder of the Chicago chapter of the Society of Hispanic Engineers and helped form the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement.

Having people Cevallos-Candau can rely on at Primera and Rotary has helped with the balancing act.

"I am pretty busy," Cevallos-Candau said. "You have to have very good people you can delegate to. You cannot micromanage everything."

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