BEI began its history in the late 1960s; it started as Bollinger Electric by its founder David Bollinger. David began by doing electrical work for local new home builders and became instantly successful. Bollinger Electric became known for the great quality of work that was provided for the residential marketplace. David incorporated Bollinger Electric in 1978 and built a business that was highly successful in residential electrical contracting. Dave continued his business through the early 1990s. At this point, due to the decline in the marketplace, he began to think about closing and retiring to Florida, but he wanted to ensure his son had a source of income.

David Bollinger and William Dietrich were both having lunch at the same establishment and happened to meet. They began to chat about business in general. At the time, William (Bill) was working for a contractor in East Stroudsburg and in the finishing stages of a very large project. David mentioned that he was no longer interested in continuing the business, but felt obligated to his son, Robert, who wanted to learn the commercial side of construction. This piqued Bill’s interest as he was looking into acquiring his own business at some point. At one point, he was a one-third owner of another electrical company and enjoyed the experience. He knew this would be a great opportunity given the experience he had. David and Bill continued to talk and finally in April of 1993, Bill became part of Bollinger Electric. The business transformed from a small residential electrical contractor into a major player in the commercial and residential marketplace in the Lehigh Valley.