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AZBigMedia
It was with a mixture of joy and sadness that I retired from my role as President of the Arizona Builders Alliance. There is joy from knowing that my wife, Jacki, and I will have more time for travel, adventure and grand kids. There is sorrow since I know I will miss the great people and interesting challenges my career has afforded me. A sincere “thank you” to all my friends and colleagues with whom I have worked over the years to improve the commercial construction industry. Arizona has changed dramatically in that 40-year span and the industry has changed with it.
When I started in the 1970’s the construction and development industry was a vastly different entity than what we see today. There were half a dozen major general contractors who dominated the Arizona market. The subcontractor community was exemplified by small businesses with limited geographical scopes. Most of the generals and subs were being run by the local founders, whose name was still on the front door. What a change to today! Billion dollar national and international firms with corporate structure, employee ownership and impressive financial and managerial capabilities dominate today’s market. These firms, collectively, are capable of building increasingly complex projects that their predecessors could only have dreamed of.