Paul Jenkins

Paul Jenkins, from a military family in which every male for five generations has served in the military, was appointed to the US Naval Academy from Chicago in 1981. He graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and was commissioned an ensign in the US Navy in 1985.

After commissioning, Jenkins earned his Special Forces Officer designations both with the US Navy and the US Marine Corps, and subsequently earned his wings as a Naval Aviator. Throughout his years in the fleet, he was forward deployed around the world with a variety of operational units assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command (as a SEAL) and the Commander of Naval Air Forces, US Atlantic Fleet (as a fighter and attack pilot). He was involved in every conflict the country was engaged in during his time in active service.

Injured several times in the line of duty in the course of his career, Jenkins was medically retired in 1995 and has since gone on to serve as Director of the Chicago Police Department, the Vice Chairman of the Illinois International Port District (and its Director for Homeland Security), and the chief executive of several privately-held companies in a broad array of fields, including specialized security.

In addition to his undergraduate degree, Jenkins holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and is prepared to defend as a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Colorado State University.

2012

Bancroft Purchases - Facility Solution Group

The global recession left an economic environment that was difficult for design firms in the Midwestern United States. Bancroft collaborated with several struggling architectural partners through this period and ultimately acquired one such firm. This addition expanded the Bancroft's offerings to include architecture and facility planning. In the years subsequent to that acquisition, Bancroft has designed hundreds of projects in 35 states and multiple foreign countries. With a full-time staff of 50, working from regional design studios around the country, most of the firm's work is complex, highly technical spaces for clients in the life sciences, healthcare, manufacturing, and defense industries.

Bancroft has since become a firm with architects, engineers and construction professionals situated throughout the country delivering the same excellent service, with a broad portfolio of experience in providing architecture, design, and engineering services for highly technical projects on four continents. We have comprehensive experience providing remodeling/renovation for a variety of industries including natural resource centers, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and research and development centers, including some of the most prestigious learning centers in the world. Bancroft has volumes of successful experience providing design services for facility creation, modernization, addition, renovation, construction management and maintenance projects.

Frequent Teaming Partners

2000

Founding and Namesake

Founded in 2000, Bancroft began as a group of consulting engineers, providing MEP and civil engineering. At the time, every engineer was a disabled Veteran graduate of the US Naval Academy. The group decided to name the firm after the Secretary of the Navy who, in 1845, founded the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Jenkins received approval from the only two known decedents of Navy Secretary George Bancroft to use his name and signature as the company’s logo. The firm opened its doors as Geo. Bancroft Engineering, LLC. When Jenkins purchased a local architectural design company in 2012, Bancroft dropped "Geo." from its logo and added "Architects + Engineers" to the new brand.

Bancroft was the first engineering firm to be certified as a service-disabled Veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB). Through mentorship, Jenkins has helped several other disabled Veteran owners start competing firms. From the onset, one of Bancroft’s foundational goals has been to provide world-class healthcare environments that contribute positively to Veteran healing and wellbeing.

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2021

Bancroft Purchases - SEA

Founded in 1909 and acquired by Bancroft Architects + Engineers in 2021, Structural Engineering Associates (SEA)is the nation’s oldest, continuously operating structural engineering company. The company’s history reads like an almanac of the built landscape across the central part of the country. SEA has worked on projects from downtown landmarks, suburban schools, college campuses, hospitals, cultural centers and more throughout the greater Kansas City area along with projects with business owners, cities and universities across the Midwest.