BACK ON SITE IN 2022

AGC of Alaska celebrates excellence in construction

By Scott Rhode

Excitement was building. Members of the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Alaska missed their annual conference in 2020, when it was cancelled because of COVID-19. The event in November 2021 was split into two, with the in-person activities postponed as well. When the conference finally took place in January at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, AGC members were in a mood to party. The room was a little emptier than usual for the statewide conference, but the construction industry professionals who attended were eager to catch up with their colleagues and to honor this year’s awardees.

Due to skipping a year, AGC had two of its annual Hard Hat awards to hand out. As it happens, both honorees are past presidents of the trade group. For one of them, the year-plus delay makes his award posthumous.

Hard Hat John

C. John Eng was still alive when he was selected for AGC’s Hard Hat award in September 2020. However, he died unexpectedly of natural causes in July 2021 at age 74. Accepting the award on his behalf, his widow Lynn Ann Eng brought a pair of his size-14 cowboy boots up to the podium, so John could be there in spirit. Being there in his place, she later said, gave her some big shoes to fill.

“We’ve awarded the Hard Hat award since 1964, and I’ve been pretty active since the early ‘90s,” says Robby Capps of F&W Construction Company, “and I can’t think of a more worthy recipient than John.”

Capps, who was AGC president in 2006, presented the Hard Hat to Lynn. “The policy with AGC has always been that you check your individual company’s business at the door and it’s all about the industry,” Capps says. “The Hard Hat goes a little bit beyond that. The Hard Hat recipient isn’t just a contractor but is involved in the community.”

John moved to Alaska in 1980 from Nebraska, where he grew up as the son of a contractor and earned a degree in construction management from the University of Nebraska. In 1993, he co-founded Cornerstone Construction, now Cornerstone General Contractors, builders of the Veterans Hospital at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and the Alaska Airlines Center arena at UAA.

After his term as AGC president in 2013, John sold his interest in Cornerstone. He and Lynn stayed busy, though, with further construction ventures in Alaska and in South Dakota, where his grandfather settled after emigrating from Norway. Semiretirement also saw John spend a month in Africa and, as president of Anchorage Rotary Club, he went to India to help eradicate polio.

His legacy also includes endowing the C. John and Lynn Ann Eng Construction Management Scholarship for the University of Alaska. Capps says John was “unselfish with his time” when it came to mentoring.

“Wouldn’t he have so much fun here tonight?” Lynn said while accepting the award. “He loved you people. You were everything to him.” She says she’ll put the commemorative hard hat, emblazoned with John’s name, in a place of honor.

Hard Hat 2021 winner Meg Nordale, president of GHEMM Company in Fairbanks. Hard Hat Meg

The qualities of a Hard Hat winner are skill, responsibility, integrity, and a distinguished record of giving time and talent for the betterment of the industry and community. They don’t have to be past AGC presidents, Capps explains; it just worked out that way.

Meg Nordale was AGC president in 2015, shortly after she became president and majority owner of GHEMM Company (pronounced “gem”), a vertical construction company in Fairbanks. GHEMM itself was honored at this year’s conference for a 50-year affiliation with AGC (as was insurance firm Parker, Smith & Feek). The company is responsible for building Bassett Army Community Hospital at Fort Wainwright; new surgery and imaging centers at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital; and the Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center eight years ago. That facility is now undergoing a 108,000-squarefoot expansion, set to finish this summer after two and a half years of work.

Nordale started working for GHEMM in 1994 as an office manager and accountant. The original owners, who founded the company in the ‘50s, were still there. “I’m particularly grateful for the opportunities they gave to me, the confidence they had in me,” she says. “They taught me what I know, and they let me make my own mistakes. They did not stop any of my ambitions.”

She worked her way up to chief financial officer and, ultimately, began leading the whole company. “I’m particularly proud of the people that work for me,” Nordale says. “It’s not just me. It takes a whole team, every facet of the person that works there.”

Nordale also takes pride in promoting careers for women in the construction industry. “The innate skills and talents that women bring to the table are very much valued in this industry,” she says. “There’s a whole vast world of opportunity, specifically for women.”

From Fairbanks originally, Nordale studied marketing and finance at the University of Denver. She was working in insurance at Willis Corroon Corporation when she transitioned to the construction sector. Now, “Through her leadership and professionalism in community and in construction, Meg Nordale exemplifies all the best traits of the construction industry,” according to the plaque she was given.

“I can think of no better career for someone to have, or specifically a single mom who started out all by myself,” says Nordale. “It’s been absolutely wonderful, and no I’m not retiring. I look forward to doing it for a really long time.”

Lynn Ann Eng brought a pair of her late husband’s size-14 boots to accept the 2020 Hard Hat award on behalf of C. John Eng.

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business

Associate and Volunteer

Insurance and risk management is a natural ally of the construction industry, judging by Nordale’s career path—and by the sponsor of the awards reception.

Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA) has been a major sponsor of all AGC events, and its employees participate in AGC committees and help organize events.

That involvement earned MMA the Associate of the Year award.

Presenting the honor, AGC Executive Director Alicia Amberg said MMA “really just go above and beyond, all the way around, with the best sponsorships, committee participation, and they’re always all-in. They’re always supporting us, always coming to our events. They have a great presence.”

Accepting on behalf of the firm was Dax Lauwers, a client executive focusing on construction and transportation. “I get along well with contractors,” he says. He started volunteering with AGC about three years ago and chairs the Construction Leadership Council (CLC).

What makes his company worthy of AGC’s recognition? “We do a good job of listening to the needs of our clients, not pretending to know what they are,” says Lauwers. “We ask good questions.”

Another CLC co-chair is the winner of the Stan Smith Volunteer of the Year award, chosen by AGC staff. Kiersten Russell slowly recognized herself as the winner was being described, and she declared herself “shocked” to be named.

Like her friend Lauwers, Russell has also been giving her spare time to AGC for three years, in addition to her day job as a commercial loan officer at Northrim Bank. “I looked for a niche that I wanted to get involved with,” she says, “and I loved the people that are associated with AGC.”

Russell is familiar with construction through her work with financing building projects, extending lines of credit, and arranging loans for equipment. Her proudest achievement for AGC is securing Northrim’s signature-level sponsorship of the CLC reception. The bank also donated door prizes for the Construction Leadership Council Grill & Chill.

“The construction industry is incredibly important to the state of Alaska,” says Russell, “and that encouraged my involvement to volunteer for different events with Associated General Contractors.”

Russell also co-chairs the Dinner Dance Committee. The soirée would have followed the night after the reception, but unfortunately it was cancelled entirely for the weekend. More time to plan for the dance at the next AGC conference.

AGC Executive Director Alicia Amberg (right) with Kirstie Gray (left), an AGC All Star recognized for her efforts to educate others about the benefits of AGC of Alaska membership.

Past Hard Hat honorees line up for the presentation of two new awards.

Carter Damaska | Alaska Business