Ingram's May 2024

David Gaboury When David Gaboury signed on with Terracon Consul tants in 1997, it was a regional engineering firm specializing in environmental services. That status would quickly change, especially after Gaboury was named CEO in 2002. He under stood that the nation’s fragmented design-services ecosystem was about to enter a consolidation phase, and he positioned the company to capitalize on that with a long-term, aggres sive acquisition strategy. But Terracon didn’t buy its way to prominence; it leveraged those acquisitions—pacing new additions roughly every 90 days—with organic growth in its service lines. By 2019, when he turned over the leadership reins, Terracon was a national power: an employee-owned engineering consulting firm with more than 4,500 employees operating from 150 office in all 50 states. “Consistent, prosper ous growth of the company,” he said, were points of personal pride in his leadership, as were “personal commitment to everyone going home safe every day based on genuine care and concern for employees and their families. Applying this care and concern to all we do.” His leadership spanned one of the most challenging times the construction-design sector has ever seen: The Great Recession of 2007-09 and its aftermath. Dealing with both the anticipated and actual impacts on the firm’s business, he said, “I learned the importance of strong and caring leadership, the need to be decisive and make the hard decisions to protect and continue to develop your most important resources.” Before Terracon pulled him into its or bit, Gaboury was the COO for Denver-based Woodward Clyde Consultants, which operated in that same engineering space, and had previously worked for CDM Smith in Cambridge, Mass. He earned his degree in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, then secured a slot at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his master’s in the same field, and followed that up by completing the advanced management program at Harvard Business School. Assessing his own leadership style, Gaboury said there’s no substitute for authenticity, a message he would impart on rising young executives. “Be authentic,” he said. “Whatever business you are in, you are in the people business. … The most important qualities of an entrepreneur are strong character and persis tence. This is true in the context of a start-up entrepreneur or growing an established company. My best advice is to enjoy the journey.”

Pat McCown So … Start-Up World is a game for young entrepreneurs? Not exclusively. Pat McCown is your proof of that. “I was 47 years old when we started McCownGordon Construction,” he muses. “Four children, with my oldest getting ready to start college and my youngest in middle school. Many thought and said that 47 was pretty old to be starting a new enterprise. It was the perfect time.” The beauty of starting a company in your forties, he says, “is that you bring 20 to 25 years of experi ence, understanding, business knowledge, wisdom, skills and relationships. And, hopefully, a bit of a recognizable name and reputation.” Teaming with construction veteran Brett Gordon, they found a shared impetus: to build a different kind of company. “Not just a different kind of construction company. A company that was focused on relationships, not just transac tions, a company that approached work as partners with our clients, trade contractors, suppliers, and associates within the company. We believed that KC was ready for a different kind of construction company. Fortunately, we were right.” Mc Cown, who retired at the end of 2017, said they also believed Kansas City was ready for another construction company that could perform large-scale, high-end projects. They marketed their services that way, and the community embraced their vision. “We constantly talked about multiple strategic bottom lines, the value of long-term relationships over short-term profits, the opportunity to serve the community, the chance to build a team of associates that were all for one and one for all, and an esprit de corp environment. Little did we know in those early years that it was setting the stage for an employee-owned company.” He traces his own leadership to success to his St. Louis roots, inspired by a World War II veteran father who went back to high school when Pat himself was a student and who infused in him the value of hard work. “The character traits he imparted to me growing up were integrity: do what you say you are going to do. Honesty: above all else, tell the truth even when it is to your own detriment. High work ethic. I was encouraged to start working when I was 12 at a small grocer market. My Dad taught me the joy of helping others and not being fearful of trying new things. My uncle, who was 20 years older than my Dad, was really the one who encour aged me to be entrepreneurial.” Among the defining moments in the company’s history, he says, the most important was moving to 100 percent employee ownership in 2015.

28 I ng r am ’ s

May 2024

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