EMJNA has its roots with McFarland Johnson, MJ, a planning, engineering and construction administration firm founded in 1946. McFarland Johnson joined forces with UK-based Electrack to become EMJ.
Robert Spatny, a civil engineer, along with David Whitehead, an architect at McFarland Johnson, purchased the construction consulting arm of EMJ to spin off EMJ North America, known as EMJNA today.