Jun 01, 2022

Absher Construction Co.

Family owned for 82 years, Absher Construction Co. has transitioned to an employee-owned company through an employee stock ownership plan. CEO Dan Absher said in a news release: “Trusting and believing in the talent and commitment of our employees is part of our DNA at Absher. When he reached the end of his career, my grandfather — company founder Barney Absher — passed the company to his son Tom and his top employee at the time, Clark Helle Sr. For more than five decades, the company was owned by our two families, the Abshers and the Helles. As we engaged in succession planning over the past several years, deciding to transition to an employee-owned company aligned with our company culture and values, and deepens our commitment to our team members who are responsible for the success of our projects throughout the region.” The current executive team will stay in place, with Dan Absher as CEO, Jeff Richards as president, James Christianson as vice president of operations, Curt Gimmestad as vice president, and Billie Otto as chief strategy and risk officer. Absher has offices in Puyallup and Bellevue.

Concrete Strategies

Zabel

St. Louis-based Concrete Strategies, which announced last week it opened a local office in Marysville, said it is looking to expand its staff in the area under the leadership of Johnnie Zabel, a 20-year industry veteran. Zabel is vice president of operations for the Northwest region, and has been with Concrete Strategies since last August, according to his Linkedin profile. Zabel has worked as an estimator and project manager for LangCo Northwest, and as a project manager for Salinas Construction and Mowat Construction. Concrete Strategies is a design-build concrete contractor.

APA — The Engineered Wood Association

In Tacoma, APA — The Engineered Wood Association added two members to its board of trustees: Jimmy Mason, executive vice president of OSB for LP; and Matt Tobin, vice president of sales and marketing for West Fraser. Mason has over 20 years of manufacturing operations and leadership experience. He was elected to the seat vacated by Jason Ringblom's changed role with LP. Tobin has 16 years of progressive experience, predominantly in West Fraser's Canadian lumber business. He was elected to the seat vacated by Mark Dubois-Phillips' departure. APA represents about 175 plywood, oriented strand board, glulam timber, wood I-joist, Rim Board, cross-laminated timber and structural composite lumber mills throughout North America.

Build Group

As part of a long-planned executive transition, San Francisco-based Build Group promoted Nathan Rundel to chief executive officer. Rundel succeeds longtime CEO Ross Edwards, who has served in the role since Build Group's inception 15 years ago. Rundel joined Build Group in its first year of operations and has served as president for the past six years. Build Group primarily operates in the Bay Area but has a Seattle office. It builds multifamily, office, high-end retail, restaurant, hotel, student and senior housing, health care, life science, seismic upgrade, and parking garage projects.

May 24, 2022

Trico Companies

Vick

Kniffin

Burlington-based Trico Companies hired Greg Kniffin as senior project engineer and Hunter Vick as civil project manager. Kniffin has 16 years of construction experience as a project manager and as a QA/QC manager. He has worked for companies across the country. Vick has 20 years of experience in the construction industry, beginning as a laborer in the pipeline/energy and building trades fields. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Louisiana Tech University.

McKinstry

Seattle-based McKinstry is partnering with AkitaBox to deliver facility condition assessment software. McKinstry says it is partnering with AkitaBox to enhance its facility condition assessment and asset data collection, analysis and reporting. AkitaBox's software digitizes a facility's floor plans and maps the location of each asset to the plan, creating a digital twin. Assessment data is collected and incorporated directly into the digital twin. This data can continue to be updated for an always current view of facility condition. AkitaBox is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

ABC of Western Washington

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington has three new members: Spec Drywall of Burlington; All City Fence of Seattle; and the WEX Chevron/Texaco business gas card program. Spec Drywall provides light-gauge metal framing, and drywall installation and finishing. All City installs fences and gates, and sells materials.