On Wednesday, Wilbur Milhouse III was appointed to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Milhouse graduated from the University of Illinois in 1995 with master’s degrees in both civil and structural engineering. In 2001, he founded Milhouse Engineering and Construction, one of the largest Black-owned engineering firms in the United States.

Milhouse did not run for the position of trustee but was directly appointed by the governor for a term that will last until 2029.

In a wide-ranging interview, Milhouse spoke about his upcoming tenure as a trustee and his business interests.

Milhouse also responded to questions concerning his firm’s projects, including the Bally’s Casino in Chicago and his company’s possible coal plant in Southern Nigeria.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What experiences did you have at U of I that shaped your career or life?

A lot of them! I was an unusual student. … I got married my freshman year, my second semester there. I had an extended amount of time (at the University), not the four years that most students would have, because I did my bachelor’s, master’s and then a co-op. … I was raising my two girls as well. I couldn’t take full class loads many times, so I was there for a lot of years. 

(The University) shaped the world I wanted to see today, which is a world of diversity. Different cultures, different ethnic backgrounds and different people from different places around the world as well as throughout the United States coming together.

How will you use the experience and knowledge you gained from working in the engineering field in your capacity as trustee?

As you know, as a trustee, we approve … different rehabs and upkeep (of all) three campuses. I hope to be able to … look at the dollars which we spend and making sure that they’re being spent in the most efficient way … the work that has to get done in order for engineers, technicians, scientists and the different folks who work for us to make good decisions. … (I know) how the markets are in my industry, and (once I learn) what could help reduce some of those costs.

What are your goals for your tenure? Do you have any specific action items already planned? 

I just (want) to make our University better, whether that’s better in the way we procure work and how we exercise that work and how we maybe reduce costs … related to how we do things. That would definitely be something (where) I want to use my experiences. 

I haven’t honestly figured out if we’re being wasteful; we could be extremely efficient. So, I would say I’d be looking at those things to make sure that we are being efficient, as well as … wanting to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in what I do and create that harmonious feeling that I had when I was on campus.

Do you intend to work to increase the amount of underrepresented minorities in STEM?

I would definitely welcome help to figure out how we increase our numbers in various facets. It’s not … just with STEM. … And also, with other underrepresented groups like women as well. … Half of our population is built of women, and I think especially in the College of Engineering, having somewhere closer to those numbers is definitely something that we try to inspire today in our company, and just the world itself. Those are things that we look to do and look to encourage for sure. 

You have to have a story to tell, and you have to have people feel welcome. … We have to do a great job at letting all people know, especially the people that live in Illinois, that this is a great institution, and they should come to the University. … We go see a movie because someone said it was great. We go to a restaurant because it has great reviews. I want people to want to come because the experience is great, and they know they’re coming to a place that is opening its arms to people from all walks of life.

Could you tell us about the development of Bally’s Casino?

Note: “Bally’s Casino” refers to the ongoing development of a casino resort in the River West neighborhood of Chicago by gaming and entertainment company Bally’s Corporation. 

In May of 2022, Bally’s Corporation was chosen by Mayor Lori Lightfoot from a group of peer corporations bidding to build the casino. The speed of the casino’s approval process was criticized by River West residents and Chicago elected officials alike, as Chicago Alderpeople were reportedly given less than 2 weeks to read and approve the contract. 

Bally’s chose the Chicago Community Builder’s Collective, a coalition of minority-owned construction companies, including Milhouse, to oversee the project.

It’s a casino, it’s a hotel and there’s a temporary casino on which we’re (Milhouse Inc.) working. It’s a big undertaking for Bally’s … and we help them navigate all of the different pieces of how that works and (how to) get things done from a construction standpoint, from a work employment standpoint, from all facets to make sure that it’s not just one-sided. I like to … do projects where there’s a win-win. … I think Bally’s is … (trying to) be impactful in the community in which they want to make money, and it’s similar to the goals that we have as a company – when we come into a city we look to give back and inspire that city by some of the philanthropic things that we do.

Could you comment on your energy ventures in Nigeria, specifically the Enugu power plant? Is that project still going? What type of energy would that power plant be producing?

Note: “Nigerian energy venture” in this question refers to a Milhouse-sponsored power station project in South-Central Nigeria, a proposed coal plant that was in its early stages of development and approval from 2015 to 2018 and has since stalled. 

Many Nigerian lawmakers believe that new energy projects will increase citizens’ access to electricity and have expressed their dissatisfaction with the number of developments that have stalled since being granted mining licenses in 2015. According to the World Bank Global Electrification Database, 55.4% of the Nigerian population had access to electricity in their homes in 2020. For comparison, in the United States, 100% of the population has access to electricity in their homes. 

Some coal projects in Nigeria have stalled or abandoned development due to concerns surrounding climate change, which is primarily driven by coal and fossil fuel usage. Coal was first discovered in Nigeria in the Enugu region in the early 1900s, and mining and its aftermath have since subjected some residents of the Enugu region to health and environmental hazards.  

Milhouse said in this interview that his company’s project is stalled “but not completely off the table.” 

So, I started going to Nigeria back in 2013 looking to find if we could do work or lend our skills. … What I found is that many different things needed help. … We consider ourselves to be city or country builders, so … we feel we can lend a hand. The issue is having development (in Nigeria) move in that way. … I started to think about how first to build or help that country. (There are) 200 million people and a very high amount of unemployment. 

The first thing you have to do is to create a middle class or create jobs for people. The only way you can do that is to create an industry. … Having many people, not a whole lot of industry, it’s hard to create that middle class. 

Because of the lack of power, a country with 200 million people only produces about 3000 megawatts of power. … The power plant in Champaign produces (at least that much power). So, most of the country uses unregulated generation fueled by diesel fuel. Which, if you’ve seen a diesel truck driving, a black plume comes out of it. It’s dirty fuel. 

Many people feel that any fossil fuel is dirty. You know, I’m 100% behind figuring out ways to create power that is definitely clean, stable and sustainable, but like with any developing country, Nigeria is about 100 years behind America. We built our country on being able to find ways to utilize fossil fuels. 

We looked at … different opportunities of creating power. … Unless you have power in any country, it’s going to be a poor country. And we’ve looked at water or hydro, solar, wind, geothermal … We came to one of the key components of being able to have a good mix. … Having a mixture (like in the U.S.) keeps those costs down. Right now, most of the renewable power that we have is … very expensive to produce, but it will continue to (decrease in price) as we mature and learn more sciences, and figure out more ways of how to produce power cheaply, expressly using renewables, but today, if we had to live off of our renewable power as Americans, we … wouldn’t be able to afford the power, simply put. So when you have a third-world country, like Nigeria, which is very, very poor, it’s hard to produce it (power) unless you have outside resources that are giving you those different things. 

One of the natural resources that they have in that area there is coal. We elected to find that coal and to try to mine that coal to produce power. We have not produced power to date, using coal. We have found coal, but we don’t use the coal to produce power or anything else. We basically have our mining license and our mine as an option to be able to create power. We are still identifying … different sources to possibly produce power, but we’re not doing that at this current moment. 

So, the Enugu plant is stalled, but it’s not completely …

It’s not completely off the table, correct.

In your view of this project, is it more of a philanthropic or business venture for your company?

A combination. From a philanthropic standpoint, I want to help people. When you see the intense poverty there, you want to figure out, well, how can we help it (Nigeria) grow? You look for ways to be able to do that and — frankly — there’s a lot of money to be made in producing power, producing development.

So, I think there can be a marrying of both things. The village in which we’re operating, in Enugu, it’s a very, very poor village. Most of the villagers don’t have power. Each and every individual has their own independent diesel jet, so when they can afford to buy diesel, they have power in their home. Normally they don’t have power in their home. If the grid comes on, it probably comes on for about two hours, three hours a day (or) week.

Most people don’t have large refrigerators. Actually, when I first went there, (residents used) the same size refrigerator that I had in my dorm. … I was really amazed. They were like, “We don’t even try to keep things cold because we can’t afford to run on diesel jets all of the time.”

Finding ways to be able to influence or upgrade those folks … is philanthropic, but I think it can also be financially rewarding as well.

How, if at all, will your capacity in your entrepreneurial ventures change while you’re a trustee? Will the board compromise your business ventures?

I don’t think it will compromise my business ventures. I have an incredible team here, so they kind of run a lot of the things that we do on a day-to-day basis. Like, I’m here right now. … I was thinking of taking off early, but I had a whole bunch of stuff going on. It’s really exciting. I kind of love what I do, so I don’t necessarily feel that I’m working. … I may step down from some of the other boards that I sit on, just to make sure that there’s no conflicts. … But I haven’t made final decisions. 

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