About PAE

Edward Shay founded Pacific Architects and Engineers Incorporated in 1955. Shay recognized the chance to provide critical services to the U.S. government as it worked to rebuild parts of Asia in the wake of World War II.

When the United States entered the conflict in Southeast Asia, the government selected PAE as one of the primary design firms supporting construction of infrastructure in the region. PAE began providing operations and maintenance services for the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam. At this point,PAE employed 30,000 American, third-country and locals in Vietnam and Thailand.

PAE expands into Europe to provide civil and facilities engineering services for U.S. military installations while maintaining support for the International Commission on Control and Supervision in Vietnam.

• 1973 –The International Commission of Control and Supervision engages PAE to support its 1,200 people working in Vietnam as part of the Paris Peace Accords
• 1975 – PAE employees are among the last Americans to evacuate by helicopter as Saigon falls.

By the 1980s, PAE begins work in Latin America and Africa that expands its portfolio of diversified government services around the world.

• PAE expands to Latin America by winning a contract to provide operations, maintenance and food services to the Regional Military Training Center in Trujillo, Honduras.
• 1987 – As a services provider to the U.S. Department of State in Moscow, PAE helps identify, locate and neutralize hundreds of surveillance devices implanted in the newly built U.S. Embassy in Moscow. It has held the contract to support that embassy ever since.

PAE focused on aligning with U.S. Department of Defense and Department of State missions. The company also expanded its customer base to include governments and international organizations engaged in peacekeeping in Africa and capacity-building missions in the Balkans.

• 1995 - PAE launched operations in Africa on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and went on to provide extensive logistical support for tens of thousands of regional peacekeepers in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
• 1996 - PAE engages in its first capacity-building activities for the U.S. Department of State by recruiting, deploying and sustaining election monitors and other governance experts to help establish democratic institutions in the Balkan states.

PAE’s contributions to peacekeeping efforts grew in Africa and in the Middle East in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In addition to maintaining 36 camps in Sudan in response to the crisis in Darfur, PAE worked to stabilize Baghdad and Kabul.

• 2001 - PAE supports the U.S. Department of State and NATO with peacekeeping in Liberia, Sierra Leone, East Congo, Guinea.
• 2004 - PAE supports U.S. military and peacekeepers in Kabul with construction, logistical and other efforts.

The company focuses on expanding its portfolio of services and expertise through a series of acquisitions of companies with complementary capabilities and similar customer-focused culture. Under the ownership of Platinum Equity, PAE broadened its scope of services.

• 2012 – PAE wins contract to support the National Science Foundation in Antarctica.
• 2014 – PAE wins U.S. Agency for International Development contract to fight Ebola in Liberia.
• 2017 – PAE-ISR adds unmanned air systems to its portfolio.