OUR STORY

Dry Utility Experts started with a desire to lift up client needs along with a team doing the work.

Ian

Alvin and I did everything together during our younger days. Be it basketball, sharing a fascination with cars, a mutual love for Jollibee (a Filipino fast food restaurant), or working together throughout college, we were truly best friends. It only made sense to convince Alvin to apply at the dry utility design firm I was managing.  I remember Alvin would work a 7 to 4 shift at his hotel concierge job and train on AutoCAD after work until the evening.  

A couple of years later, we were all hit with the ‘06/’07 financial crisis, which ultimately liquidated my management position.  Upset and unsure of the future, I shifted to the sales and marketing field, where I learned marketing strategy that translated into multiple positions in a completely different field.

During this time, Alvin and I remained the best of friends and both started growing our families. Alvin continued in the dry utility design field, which ultimately led him to reach out to me in 2014 for assistance on a project.  We reconnected and created a dry utility division at our previous firm.  We grew that business exponentially and built incredible relationships in the process.

Our dreams of opening DUEx came to fruition in 2019, when we kickstarted the DUEx venture.  It has been an amazing journey and we are looking forward to growth for many years to come.

Alvin

I came here to the U.S. in 2000, where I met Ian through family friends. We immediately clicked and have been inseparable ever since. It was Ian who introduced and mentored me in the dry utility industry. We worked together at Moote and Al Hoyo Utilities in 2005, during which I was an Assistant Design Project Manager.

During the recession in 2008, we ended up pursuing different paths. I remained in the industry and Ian moved onto another field. But fate had a way of reconnecting us and sure enough, we ended up working together again at Murow|CM in 2015.  We built a dry utility division, where we honed in on our skills and acquired a substantial amount of experience. 

Eventually, we both felt the ache to explore more possibilities and decided to combine our expertise to share with a wider audience and break new grounds. 

In January 2019, our brainchild DUEx (Dry Utility Experts) was born. Our humble beginning took place at the Starbucks in Orange Circle, which became our office for a few weeks, while we shared too many cups of coffee. We have rapidly expanded and what was once a dream has become a rewardingly sweet reality for us.