There are plenty of issues keeping construction industry leaders up at night right now, but Adam Jelen, the new CEO of Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co., is ready to tackle them.
Jelen has worked his way up through all levels of the company, starting 19 years ago in the heavy labor and highway trades to become chief operating officer before being named CEO this year of the company, the number 12 construction company in the country. by income (Thomas Gilbane Jr. retains his role as president and CEO of Gilbane, Inc., the parent company of Gilbane Building Co.)
Jelen takes over as Gilbane Building Co. faces the challenges that all contractors face, including labor shortages, fluctuating material prices and economic headwinds.
Here, Jelen talks to Construction Dive about his plans for the new year, which markets the company will focus on, and his commitment to employee development.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Immersion in Construction – Congratulations on being appointed as the new Managing Director of Gilbane’s Building Co. How has the transition been?
ADAM PRESENTS: The transition has been perfect. I am starting my 19th year and I love history. I am lucky and fortunate to have started in the trades and worked my way up through the ranks.
Adam Jelen
Permission granted by Gilbane Building Co.
It’s been a fun transition. In my first eight days, I’ve been to seven cities. I’ve been in offices and projects and that’s what it’s all about, being with our people, being with our partners and being in the community, making an impact. It’s a tough business, and it’s something that requires hands-on connection and collaboration.
From 2022, Gilbane Building Co. has had three different CEOs. Mike McKelvey left to lead McDermott, before Tom Laird, who is now chairman, stepped in. And now you’re in charge. Can we expect more stability in the future with you in this position?
Succession is very intentional. And this leadership team has been purposefully built, and I feel fortunate to be a part of it. I have more energy than ever for our leadership team. We have been together for a long time, more than a decade, working together and moving together.
My leadership style is based on an integrated, aligned and connected team, winning and moving forward together.
One of my main roles as COO was to help connect the company, work on our operations baseline to be able to deliver that ultimate construction experience and deliver maximum value to our customers across world
I feel very fortunate, Gilbane and our approach is to build people, build talent.
What do you think about 2024? Which sectors will the company target?
We have been fortunate to have a very strong year in 2023 and are well positioned for steady and consistent growth from the record backlog foundation that will fuel 2024, 2025 and 2026. The life cycle of our project is, on average, 24 to 36 months. We see a very strong trajectory going forward in our market sectors and geographies around the world.
As you know, in a traded market, these markets are traditionally bearish due to lending and current economic conditions. We must stay focused, as we are a local company, on supporting our communities, true to our values.
We need to support our educational institutions, our commercial customers and continue to support them at the appropriate scale, while deepening our work in the industrialized space. We are very fortunate to work in multiple locations across the US
Just because the market is down doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon our core customers in the community.
We’ll stay focused, so be it [something as small as] change a door, either to support pre-construction for the future or to build a facility. We’re not going to pivot and focus solely on advanced manufacturing. It’s very important as a community-advancing builder that we stay focused on the communities where people work, live, thrive and ultimately play every day.
We are still seeing the fallout from the pandemic and a host of other issues that are hurting the industry. How does Gilbane plan to deal with these issues?
I see what you know as “core issues” as opportunities.
On the workforce front, I see this as an opportunity to double down on the great people we have and build more capacity. That’s why we focus on building our talent at all levels of the organization and creating diverse and dynamic teams.
We have extraordinary resources, and we’ve doubled down in the supply chain space, our training in the craft space or the specialty craft space.
Let’s take technology. We are focused on providing the best technology and being at the forefront of technology and innovation. Right now, we are working on our target state data infrastructure. And we are working on test pilots in the AI space.
Another example would be the creation of diverse and dynamic teams. I can cite many things in this regard, whether it remains an integral part of the ACE Mentor program, our employee resource groups, our growing contractor program, and then partnering with our workforce partners local work to build this sustainable capacity in the workforce space.
