Barry Chasse in front of the welcome desk at his headquarters office. (Dennis Murphy/Submitted Photo)
Dream ‘Chasser’
Barry Chasse makes heart-based leadership the key to his career
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By Alison Bailin Batz or 15 years, longtime Airpark resident Barry Chasse has worked to build Chasse Building Team into one of the preeminent general contractors in Arizona. The business — which leads new construction and renovations in K-12 education, higher education, multifamily, municipal, commercial, health care and nonprofit — has completed dozens of projects in the Northeast Valley, including Formation Scottsdale, Cheyenne Traditional School, the Hohokam Elementary School rebuild and Novel Midtown. In the industry for 30-plus years, Chasse is celebrating the business’ success by giving it all away.
Pouring the foundation
The ASU graduate is a member of the Sun Devil 100 that celebrates the achievements of Sun Devil-owned and -led businesses across the globe, and a life member of the Arizona Builders Alliance.
He got his professional start in 1988 with a large national contractor looking to put down roots in the Valley of the Sun. He spent 17 years with the business, growing it to more than 150 employees across Arizona. He built a reputation as a teambuilder, team player and innovator. “Those were special years, as much meeting and marrying my wife of 26 years, Rikki, and having our two daughters, Rylee and Sydney,” Chasse adds. By the mid-2000s, Chasse dreamed of building his own business. “I wanted to do things differently than (what) was the norm at the time in our industry,” Chasse says. “Certainly, I wanted to responsibly build projects across Arizona, but I also wanted to help my teammates build lives they could be proud of, build up our community and make clients’ loftiest of visions a reality.” Armed with ambition, great relationships and a handful of colleagues who believed in
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him, Chasse founded Chasse Building Team in 2007. “Just in time for the Great Recession,” Chasse says. “No one could have guessed what the next five years would look like for our industry. Every single person who worked for us, with us or around us was impacted.” And while those first years were far from smooth sailing, they helped Chasse to understand that company culture — especially morale — were more than just part of a mission statement or “dream”; they were essential to moving from surviving to thriving. “You cannot run a business in a silo, especially one that requires so much interconnectivity to fire on all cylinders,” says Chasse, who developed what he calls a “heart-based” leadership mentality. “Every single person willing to give our team eight to 10 hours of their day away from their families deserves a voice, both in what we build and how we do it.”
