There is every likelihood that Beverly Tapp, a 59-year-old Guyanese woman with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a master’s degree in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, along with her daughter, Josephine, an attorney-at-law and tax advisor, are the owners of the only women-owned road engineering firm in Guyana.
It didn’t begin that way. Back in July 1993, B&J Civil Works had been established at 135-137 ‘A’ Triumph, East Coast Demerara, and was being run by Josephine and her German-born husband, Jochen, a mechanical engineer. They had met when Jochen had come to Guyana as an independent contractor, providing transportation services for a company executing a contract here. At the time, Beverley was employed as an engineer with Hinterland Roads Construction Company Ltd (HRCCL).