Construction Genius 14 - One Woman's Construction Career Journey: From Job Site Laborer to High-Level Executive Leadership
Alecia Wilmeth is the V.P. and General Manager of Alston Construction Company in Northern California. Alston is an ENR top 100 contractor, corporately based in Atlanta, GA. Alecia started her thirty-year career shoveling dirt on the job site. She has been a foreman, Superintendent, Project Engineer, Project Manager, and now VP and General Manager.
Highlights of our interview include:
- 00:01:04 Alecia's rough and tumble West Texas roots
- 00:02:50 Her "horrific" first day on a construction job site
- 00:03:53 Why she rose in just three months to running the job site
- 00:04:59 How Alecia survived the recession in the 1980s
- 00:06:28 The one skill that set Alecia apart, and enabled her to excel
- 00:08:41 How she succeeded by concentrating on performance, and staying away from politics.
- 00:09:25 How she handled her shift of role from Project Engineer to Project Manager by focusing on responsibility and accountability
- 00:10:48 Thriving in the "Great Recession" by combining Superintendent and Project Manager roles
- 00:14:14 Alecia's move into senior leadership
- 00:17:33 How Alecia is mentoring young women to succeed in construction
- 00:21:10 The benefit of working in California, the state at the leading edge of societal change
- 00:22:39 Alecia's perspective on the discomfort some men feel with her being in a leadership role
- 00:25:36 Alecia's focus: not leaving a "legacy" of projects built, but rather of lives impacted.
- 00:28:04 Alecia's favorite restaurant: Rey Azteca in Carmichael, California
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