20 under 40 Tag

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30 Jan

Posted at 08:54h in News, United Team

Congratulations to our Manager of Personnel Operations, Sarah Schmidt, for being selected as a winner of Reno Tahoe Young Professionals Network’s Twenty under 40 Award! This award recognizes people for their professional accolades and community involvement in our region. Way to go, Sarah!

More about Sarah and her involvement in our community:

Since 2019, she has been on the committee for the Art of Childhood, an annual fundraiser for the Children’s Cabinet. Each year, they begin planning the event almost at the conclusion of the previous year. They are constantly coming up with innovative ways to promote, fundraise and encourage participation to raise funds for an organization that makes such a large impact on our community. This year, they raised over $700,000 for the Cabinet, surpassing all previous records. She coordinates the building of a playhouse to be auctioned off at the event, this year selling for over $3,700. She also sits on two committees for the AGC, Women in Construction, and the Construction Leadership Council. Both groups do construction and education-based community service and fundraising for the greater Truckee Meadows Area.

Sarah is very active in our community. She has been a member of the Reno Rodeo since 2015. In April of this year, she was voted onto the Board of Directors, one of only two people in Association history to unseat a sitting Director. The Board of 50 oversees association decisions for the membership of over a thousand people. In addition to being a director, she serves as the Chairman for the 50/50 raffle, which donates funds to local charities for each of the ten nights of the Reno Rodeo. Since her appointment to the chair position, they have surpassed yearly records of tickets sold, with over $162,000 in 2022. In addition to the 50/50 committee, she writes for the Reno Rodeo magazine and serves on the Legacy committee which is dedicated to preserving the integrity of western heritage while pursuing a state-of-the-art facility for the Association and regional use. The time and effort dedicated to the Reno Rodeo is huge, but the payback to our community is priceless.

21 Apr

Posted at 11:03h in News, United Team

The Northern Nevada Business Weekly spoke with representatives from four contractors in Northern Nevada, including our very own Michael Russell. Michael spoke about the construction industry as it stands today, especially as the pandemic lingers on, and the opportunities that are imminent. Read his Q&A below, pulled directly from the NNBW article:

Question: What is the biggest difference in how your company assesses a job now versus before the pandemic?
Answer: The biggest difference for us is to focus on communicating our policies and procedures for the COVID response with our customers and incorporating language into our contracts, which allows us to react in unnecessary manner. There have been a few COVID delays in some of our projects, nothing major. But we have had a few impacts on a few projects where people showed up to the job site, and maybe had exposures or came up with COVID. So, we’ve had to do all the things that you’d have to do when you get exposed — sometimes stop the work for a few days till we can contract trace and figure out who’s exposed, who’s been exposed, etc. Really, it’s just communicating with all of our stakeholders and making sure our customers are aware of some of the impacts when they occur.

Q: What are the top challenges and opportunities facing your industry in 2021 and beyond?
A: For opportunities, this year — and probably for 2022 — there’s a very high demand for new industrial buildings, which is the bulk of our type of construction. That demand has been driven by the acceleration due to COVID of more goods being bought online and having to be delivered to people’s houses. That’s been driving our market sector property heavily. We’re as busy as we’ve ever been and we have more projects in the pipeline than we’ve ever had in terms of industrial. The main challenges we’re facing nowadays is steel and wood and plastic products have all become in high demand. Manufacturers right now have way more demand than they can actually manufacture and supply, so lead-time to getting materials to job sites is stretching out. In addition, there are cost escalations going on in the marketplace based on the inverted supply-demand ratio right now. And then thirdly, the top challenges and opportunities we have is finding and hiring quality people. Our business here locally is kind of limited because we have a small population. Companies like ours have to kind of sit back and balance our resources, because we can’t take on necessarily everything we get an opportunity to look at, so we have to look at our resources to make sure that we can perform the work without killing our people with overtime. So, that’s a kind of balancing act right now for a lot of companies here.

Q: With the need for masks, social distancing and other measures, how do you address safety in the workplace differently now?
A: We follow the Washoe County Health Department and CDC guidelines. And additional to the traditional safety items, we also ensure the proper use of personal protection equipment, and social distancing, health assessments, proper sanitation facilities, and cleaning protocols. We’re reducing meeting sizes or changing locations to safely support larger groups, as well as additional documentation to record those efforts and support possible contact tracing as necessary. And we’re communicating that with our field staffs on a regular basis. Our field supervision project control teams are well-versed in these requirements; they’re on top of this stuff every day at the job site.

15 Apr

Posted at 10:54h in News, United Team

As we all know, Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction, was announced as a winner of the 2020 Twenty Under 40 Awards, hosted by the Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network. When he was (very deservedly!) selected among the 20 leaders under 40 in the northern Nevada, the Northern Nevada Business Weekly (NNBW) asked him to share his thoughts on the economy and community leadership. Check out his responses below, copied from the NNBW article:

Q: What do you see as the top one or two economic development opportunities in Northern Nevada in 2021 and beyond?
Casey Gunther: We will continue to grow in our role as a major distribution hub for a wide range of goods, including products manufactured and assembled here. The opportunity for tourism is very bright given our vast public lands and the increased desire for outdoor recreation. It would be great to see entrepreneurs further facilitate the … responsible use of our public lands for the outdoor activities like horseback riding, hiking, camping, bird watching and more.

Q: Why is it important for young professionals to have a seat at the table when it comes to the business community in Northern Nevada?
Gunther: It would be great to have more young people at the table who are inclusive and open-minded. Because our political parties have become so polarized, we need new leadership that is respectful of differing points of view and willing to seek compromise.

Q: What under the radar businesses have the biggest opportunity for growth in Northern Nevada?
Gunther: The healthy food processing industry … I think we will continue to see quality food and nutraceutical manufacturers move to Northern Nevada or expand their operations here. We are also seeing recreational equipment startups, and I think that trend will continue in support of outdoor enthusiasts nationwide.

Q: Where do you see the greater Reno-Sparks region in 5 years?
Gunther: We will have greater economic diversity as businesses from California and other states continue to relocate here for our favorable business environment. I have faith our school districts, our regional transportation commission and governing agencies will continue to responsibly respond to this growth.

Q: If you could change one thing for the better about your community, what would it be?
Gunther: I wish we could build homes that are more affordable. Our employees want to live in a community where their children will be able to buy homes and live comfortably in the future. Residential prices are on a trajectory that makes home ownership less likely in the future for young professionals.

Q: Why do you feel this region is better positioned to bounce back from the COVID recession than other parts of the state and country?
Gunther: As a major distribution hub, Reno-Sparks is seeing substantial growth in industrial, e-commerce, food processing and last-mile demand, because people are staying home and ordering online the goods and foods they can have delivered. This online product demand is driving distribution construction and employment. I think the convenience of online shopping will be the norm long past COVID.

08 Dec

Posted at 12:03h in News, United Team

Being named among the 20 under 40 allows Casey Gunther to urge disabled veterans to aim high when rebuilding their careers. “I am grateful the Reno Tahoe Young Professionals Network selected me as a 2020 recipient of this distinction,” says Casey, Operations Manager at United Construction Company. “It gives me a chance to tell my story and give hope to others who need to reboot for whatever reason.”

AIM HIGH

Casey first visited a Marine recruiting office at age 11 and enlisted at 17. “There is no greater honor than serving your country and leading people,” he explains. But an honorable medical discharge left Casey at a loss for his next move. “I turned wrenches to put food on the table for my family. I was working as the yard boy for a general contractor, but I knew that working as a laborer was further trashing my knees.” Never lacking courage, Casey walked into the vice president’s office and asked for career advice. Aim high, was the answer.

Casey set out on a dual path of being a fulltime student and fulltime project administrator and then project engineer. He got started at TMCC through Veterans Upward Bound studying construction and then attended UNR. When he was laid off in 2009, like many of his colleagues, he was unable to find a construction job for 72 weeks, but stayed in school and “found ways to earn a living and take care of my family. I did mobile ranch butchering. I logged and sold firewood, and I cowboyed.” He also earned his civil engineering degree from UNR.

When Casey returned to construction, he expanded his expertise by working as superintendent, project manager, estimator and senior project manager. He developed his ability to lead large projects. He has built facilities as large as 663,000 sf range and up to $30 Million. Today, Casey oversees 35 project professionals at United Construction in Reno and California.

SERVANT LEADER

Casey is a servant leader. His main goal is to serve those who report to him. “It involves putting people ahead of power,” explains Casey.  When he asks his coworkers what he can do to help them, they excel as a team.

Leadership a strength that disabled veterans can bring to an organization, says Casey. “I had numerous opportunities to grow as a leader in the Marines.” Casey received multiple meritorious promotions, Marine of the Quarter awards for his unit, Marine of the Year candidate and runner up for the 1st Marine Division, the Meritorious Mast award, and Certificates of Commendation. As a Corporal, he held the billet of a Staff NCO and was directly charged with leadership of 90 Marines.

Construction has been a good second career for Casey. Like the military, it involves special projects with teams of talent coming together to master a challenge. “Veterans who appreciate the rapport that goes with working on a mission will feel at home in construction. I’ve had the pleasure of working with several veterans in construction, and they always impress me with how they encourage teamwork.”

Teamwork and Community service remain Casey’s guiding principles. In his hometown of Battle Mountain, he volunteers for rodeos, parades and more. He served as board member and chairman of the Battle Mountain Livestock Board. Casey lobbies on complicated land issues and knows the challenges of dealing with wildfire devastation. As a member of Disabled American Veterans, he has supported various veteran initiatives.