In 1984, Ablade Odoi-Atsem immigrated to the United States from Ghana. Fourteen years later he founded Odoi Associates Inc., which started as a one-man construction management firm and grew to more than $8 million in sales in 2006. Based in Greenbelt, it earned a spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s “Hot 500” list of the fastest-growing new businesses in 2007.

Though initially offering only construction management services to his clients, Odoi-Atsem realized there was a market for a comprehensive services company. Such a company would not just handle the construction process, but also provide oversight, maintenance and energy management of the facilities once the client’s operation was up and running.