January 30, 2023

Association showers members with awards at annual meeting

The AGC of Washington held its 2023 Annual Celebration and Meeting Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle. The event kicked off with a cocktail party and the installation of 2023 officers, board members, trustees and district representatives.

The association also recognized outstanding member firms and individuals at the event, including Contractor of the Year, Specialty Contractor of the Year, Associate of the Year, and 2022 Leader of the PAC.

The Leader of the PAC award went to Star Rentals. It was presented by AGC’s Build PAC, which supports candidates who support the construction industry.

Here are the other winners:

CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

Curt Gimmestad

Gimmestad

Gimmestad is the outgoing immediate past president of AGC of Washington and a vice president at Absher Construction. He was honored this year for his impressive commitment to the AGC of Washington. Due to COVID, Gimmestad served two consecutive terms as the president of AGC in 2020 and 2021. His leadership for the officers and board during the COVID challenges was filled with continual adaptation and Gimmestad was up for the challenge. He served in the AGC officer corps from 2018 to 2023. Gimmestad has been a go-to member for the AGC Government Affairs Committee for several years and has served as a representative on the Project Review Committee for the state Capital Projects Advisory Review Board, among many other AGC leadership accomplishments.

SPECIALTY CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

Todd Kunzman

Kunzman

Kunzman is the general manager at Andgar Corp. He is an active AGC member who continually makes himself, as well as members from his team, available to assist AGC of Washington and the industry. Kunzman is actively involved with AGC in both local and state government affairs, where he is advocating for the construction industry and always willing to participate and contribute to meetings with local elected officials and workgroups with AGC, as well as providing the AGC’s Government Affairs team with valuable perspectives on proposed legislation. Kunzman continually shows his and Andgar’s commitment to developing their current and future workforce.

ASSOCIATE OF THE YEAR

Anthony Burnett

Burnett

Burnett is president of MBD Staffing — a staffing, recruiting and managed resource company with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. MBD’s recruiters and staff are focused on the market demand to see more diversity in the workplace. Burnett has been the chair of the AGC Diversity and Inclusion Committee since 2018. In this role, he has seen the number of certified firms at AGC grow by over 30%. On behalf of AGC, he is constantly looking for ways that AGC can help remove barriers to contracting for certified firms. Through outreach and communications, he spends many hours getting to the root issues of what certified firms need to thrive in the construction industry.

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