The Story
Forty years in. Started in a garage.
Athena Engineering has been in San Dimas, building HVAC and tuning building automation, for forty-one years. The company started before there was an actual Athena. Started with a $5,000 tax refund and Jannie’s “let’s do this.”
The Founding
A garage. A tax refund. And a pregnant co-founder.
Athena Engineering, Inc. was founded in 1984 by Richard and Jannie Chiera as a mechanical construction company. Jannie was pregnant with Athena at the time, making Athena the unofficial third employee from the company’s founding. We were initially based in Covina, CA — specifically in Jannie and Richard’s garage. Lots of good things start in garages.
Anywho. Jannie had received a $5,000 tax refund and said “Let’s do this!” — and Athena Engineering was born (not Athena yet, just the company).
We were initially incorporated as CCE Systems, but our name was changed to Athena Engineering in 1986. To this day, we do not remember what the acronym “CCE” stood for — so it is probably best we changed our name to Athena Engineering.
Second Generation
Family business. Second generation. Still family.
Athena graduated college in 2006 and immediately joined her family in managing the business. Today, all three members of the Chiera clan run the business together, in partnership with some pretty awesome employees.
Core Values
What we hold ourselves to.
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01
Employees first.
Not as a slogan — as the operating system. If the people doing the work aren’t taken care of, nothing else lasts.
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02
Solve the cause, not the symptom.
Anybody can patch a problem. The reason customers stay with us for thirty years is because we go back and find why it broke.
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03
Be humble.
Customers should want to choose us, not have to. Ego doesn’t fit in the truck.
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04
Practice the Golden Rule.
Old. True. Still applies.
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05
Have fun. Embrace the nerd.
We’re in a technical trade. The people who are good at it are the people who genuinely like talking about VFDs and BACnet trunks. Lean in.
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06
Service, quality, and price.
Not pick two. All three. Or we’d rather not bid.
The Practice
The credentials behind the work.
Licenses. Partnerships. Designations. The paper trail behind forty years of mechanical and controls work.
CA License #523044 · Held since 1984
Controls Partners
- Schneider Electric — EcoXpert partner
- Johnson Controls — Facility Explorer authorized installer
- Argus Controls — Certified for controlled-environment agriculture: greenhouses, grow operations, vertical farms, research facilities.
Trade Affiliations
- SMART Local 105 — union sheetmetal signatory
- SMACNA — Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association
Diverse business + small business
- NMSDC MBE — Minority Business Enterprise, certified through SCMSDC (the Southern California regional council of NMSDC).
- California Small Business — SB certification #21805.
- LA County LSBE — Los Angeles County Local Small Business Enterprise.
The Mission
Where we give. Where we keep giving.
The specific organizations change. The three areas of focus haven’t, since Jannie and Richard started the firm in 1984.
Pillar One
Women & Girls
Education, economic empowerment, and pathways into trades and engineering for women and girls in our community. The next generation of HVAC, BAS, and engineering leaders includes more than half the population — we’d like that reflected in who walks the jobsites.
Pillar Two
Health & Well-Being
Children’s health, women’s heart health, foster youth, disaster relief, and the families that take care of all of them. People can’t build, learn, or work if their basic well-being isn’t supported. We pay attention to that.
Pillar Three
Social Entrepreneurship
Leadership education, diverse-owned business development, and the colleges and councils building the next generation of business owners. We’re a 41-year-old small business that knows the road and tries to make it easier for the next one.
Honors
Forty years of nods, plaques, and the occasional engraved trophy.
What’s been recognized about the work — recent, mid-arc, and foundational.
2025 · ICW Group + ISN
Safety Program Recognition
Two recognitions in one year — the ICW Group Safety Program Award from our workers’ comp carrier for safety program maturity and incident-rate performance, plus the ISN RAVS 360 designation for HSE, regulatory, and management system performance. The safety program is now formally recognized from both the insurance and certification sides.
Read the story2021 · Diversity Professional Magazine
Cover Feature
National feature on the Chiera family’s second-generation leadership of a woman- and minority-owned engineering firm.
Read the article2020 · LG HVAC
Nationwide Case Study Feature
The Wilshire Ebell Theatre VRF retrofit — the largest LG AHU project in North America at the time, featured in LG’s national case study.
Read the story2018 · SCMSDC → NMSDC
Minority Supplier of the Year — Regional + National
Nominated by The Walt Disney Company. Won Southern California Minority Supplier of the Year (SCMSDC, Class II) first, then went on to win National Minority Supplier of the Year (NMSDC, Class II) the same year. Regional, then national.
Read more2018 · Kaiser Permanente NFS
Exceptional Partner Award
National Facilities Services partner recognition for sustained delivery across Kaiser’s California healthcare portfolio.
Read more2018 · WBEC West
Woman-Owned Supplier of the Year
Class II recognition from the Women’s Business Enterprise Council West, also nominated by The Walt Disney Company. The second of two Disney-nominated supplier recognitions Athena Engineering won in 2018.
Read more2008 · City of San Dimas
Commercial Building of the Year
Awarded to the Piper Spirit Office Complex — Athena Engineering’s home office. Designed by Jannie Chiera, built by Richard Chiera.
View the projectHeritage · SBA + San Dimas Chamber
Foundational Recognition
1993 — SBA Region IX Small Business of the Year nomination. Nine years in, somebody at the SBA noticed. 2002 — San Dimas Chamber Businesswoman of the Year for Jannie Chiera. Eighteen years in, the founder got her own award by name.
Read the storyWhen Richard and I founded Athena Engineering, it was our dream to build a company to support our family — and the families of our employees. Our American dream. Working hard while giving others a chance at their own success. We’re small, but wow, we’re mighty.
Jannie Chiera · Founder & CEO
