When you think of folks that get “face time” with our clients, it is typically the President, Business Development or Marketing Director, Project Managers and Superintendents. These folks are on the front lines of projects from closing the deal to carrying the project through to close out. Many times these individuals are also the face of the company and the ones always in the spotlight. Although when you peek behind the curtain, you will find a world that is rarely seen. A world that includes strategic staff members who really make or break a project.
Our firm employs twenty-four full time associates. Among our talented staff, we have an estimating team and an administration team that play an extremely important role in bringing a construction project to fruition.
Our administration team is headed up by our Vice President of Finance and Administration, Julie DePiro. Julie is our CFO and Human Resources Manager. She facilitates all hiring paperwork and upfront new employee matters. Julie is also responsible for all invoicing, billing, accounts payable and receivable, payroll and facilitation close out. Her staff of Assistant Project Managers and Front Office associates ensure that each and every project is completed on time and without any hitches. They are equipped with the knowledge and the professionalism to handle any and all emergencies and enable the project to stay on tract. Our Assistant Project Managers, Brandi Schulte (all projects $2 million and over) and Emily Kinsey (all projects under $2 million) assist with all bid documents, bid invitations to subcontractors and suppliers, organizing submittals and RFI’s, close out documents and booklets, subcontractor invoicing and contracts, and permitting. Latisha Golay (our Front Office gatekeeper) is responsible for the compliance management of our suppliers and subcontractors ensuring they have proper licensing, registrations and bonding information to perform on our jobs. This involves her verifying the municipal and state requirements for each vendor we utilize. The functions of our administrative team at times go unnoticed to the common client, however we know that without their diligence and organization, our projects would not go as smoothly or accurately as they need to.
Our preconstruction/estimating department is headed up by Joe Pressler, Manager of Preconstruction and Estimating. Their in-depth knowledge of real-market costing is an extremely valuable tool for the front line. These unsung heroes work tediously on schematic and concept budgets enabling the clients to see what the project really costs through fair pricing and allows the design teams to make educated decisions during preconstruction that not only can shave dollars off the bottom line, but in most cases will reveal strategic time savings measures for the project. Their services can carry on throughout the project providing value engineering and cost analysis if necessary.
There are many, many other reasons why this behind-the-scenes team is so imperative to a construction project’s success. On most occasions, no one sees the real work behind getting things done, but at Chris-Tel Construction, our work would be moot without the necessary and thankless work our administrative and estimating teams do on a daily basis. Completing a construction project on time and within budget is the goal each and every time. It takes a great team to make this happen and we are thankful we have the best in the business. We are happy to pull back the curtain and show everyone how our wizards work.