Who's Who in Construction

Dave Bernardi

Marin Builders Association

110 Belvedere St.

San Rafael, CA 94901

www.marinba.org

415-456-3233

After 34 years with the City of San Rafael, 24 of them as public works director, Dave Bernardi last May accepted the general manager position at Marin Builders Association. The 46-year-old construction-advocacy group has 1,100 member contractors and building-related professionals, offering members lower-cost workers' compensation and medical insurance and scholarships.

He is on the boards of directors of the Marin County Office of Education Regional Occupation School to Career program and the Bay Planning Coalition.

John Bly

Kirkwood-Bly, Inc.

3345 Industrial Dr., Ste. 10

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

www.kirkwood-bly.com

707-570-3920

John Bly's father, Cass, and Jim Kirkwood started Kirkwood-Bly, Inc. in 1959 as a pipeline contractor, but today, the firm focuses on public works, water and wastewater treatment systems, and pipelines.

Upon graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with an engineering degree in 1981, John Bly started working full-time at the family firm, first as a superintendent and then as a project manager. In 1990, he bought out the other shareholders. Last year, however, he became chairman and appointed as president John McGarva, who is now a major shareholder.

Mr. Bly is past president of the Engineering Contractors Association of Northern California, a member of the North Coast Builders Exchange board, and chairman of the exchange's Government Affairs Committee.

Charlie Carson

Home Builders Association of Northern California, Northern Division

255 Challenger Way, Ste. 107

PO Box 7100

Santa Rosa, CA 95407

www.hbanc.org

707-544-7100

Charlie Carson is executive director and government affairs director of the Home Builders Association of Northern California's Northern Division, which serves Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake counties. He started the division in 1979 and served until 1987 and again from 1990 to the present. After graduating with a master's degree in marketing from the University of California, Los Angeles, he served a year in the Vietnam War, earning a Bronze Star for service. Between Army service and the association, he directed projects for homebuilders Rossmoor and H.C. Elliott and worked for Boise Cascade.

Mr. Carson is a founding board member of Sonoma County Alliance and on the board of nonprofit affordable-housing developer Northbay Family Homes.

Keith Christopherson

Christopherson Homes, Inc.

1315 Airport Blvd.

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

www.christophersonhomes.com

707-524-8222

After working as an apprentice carpenter on the Peninsula after high school, Keith Christopherson started his own residential construction company in Sonoma County in 1979, originally calling it Christopherson Construction. Today, he is CEO of Christopherson Homes, the largest North Bay homebuilder. In all, he has built a few thousand homes in Northern California, most of them in Sonoma County.

He is a member of the boards of the Redwood Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Sonoma County Alliance, and the Home Builders Association of Northern California. He is a past president of the Sonoma County Alliance and co-founder and nonvoting member of the Sonoma County Housing Coalition.

The future for major locally based homebuilders is not encouraging, believes Mr. Christopherson. "It's a declining market, with fewer building permits being issued as urban growth boundaries take hold," he says. "There are few homebuilders around here any longer, because the opportunities are limited."

Dwindling ability to build large subdivisions has prompted Mr. Christopherson to shift home building to Napa and Solano counties, and now Sacramento. Though the company's central support functions are in Santa Rosa, the area's high housing prices, shrinking cluster of local homebuilders, and snarled traffic have made it "nearly impossible to attract new [support] employees," Mr. Christopherson says. Thus, the company has to pay higher wages for support staff than its Sacramento competitors, he notes.

Art Condiotti

Condiotti Enterprises, Inc.

2880 Cleveland Ave.

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

707-544-7194

For five decades, Art Condiotti has been president of Condiotti Enterprises, a residential and commercial development and construction company based in Sonoma County, for all but six of those years. Following service as a naval Lieutenant Commander during World War II, Mr. Condiotti learned the trade as an executive assistant to a home builder.

Over the years, his company has built thousands of homes, condominiums, and apartments as well as commercial buildings such as in Lakepoint Business Park in Novato. Mr. Condiotti was inducted into the Construction Building Industry Foundation Hall of Fame in 1994 and has been active in the Building Industry Association, North Coast Builders Exchange, and National Association of Home Builders.

Michael Forsum

Taylor Woodrow Homes, Inc.

15 Cushing

Irvine, CA 92618-4220

www.taylorwoodrow.com

949-341-1200

Michael Forsum is president of the California Division of Taylor Woodrow Homes. Taylor Woodrow is currently building the 51-home Tarrasa community in Sonoma. Other North Bay developments include Chandler's Gate in Tiburon and Traditions at Hamilton in Novato.

Ronald Fedrick

Nova Group, Inc.

7411 Napa-Vallejo Hwy.

PO Box 4050

Napa, CA 94558

www.novagrp.com

707-265-1100

Ron Fedrick is owner and president of Nova Group, Inc., a general engineering contractor in Napa specializing in government hydrant fueling, waterfront, and utility projects around the globe. With about 300 full-time employees worldwide and a 50,000sf fabrication plant in Napa, Nova has annual revenues of nearly $100 million. Prior to founding the firm in 1976, Mr. Fedrick graduated from Arizona State University with a BS in engineering.

The future looks good for federal government work, but it's increasingly occurring outside the United States, says Mr. Fedrick. More defense dollars have been shifting to coastline military bases, and the current administration is putting more emphasis on bolstering the defense infrastructure internationally, especially in the Middle East, he adds. He points to Nova's current project in Israel and a $100 million project it's bidding on in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar as examples.

Mr. Fedrick is a strong proponent of construction management training. Nova employs cutting-edge software and business practices to manage international projects and travel, and managers take a minimum of 40 hours a year to stay abreast of such innovations. One thing they've noticed, he says, is a sizable drop-off in contractors attending such courses, indicating the last recession hit the construction industry hard.

Mr. Fedrick, who is chairman of the Associated General Contractors of America NAVFAC Committee and Design Build Task Force and president of The Beavers, an association for contractors in heavy engineering, also believes contractors should get more involved in industry associations. "For as much as we've participated, we've gotten back much, much more," he says.

Additionally, he is on the adjunct faculty of California State University teaching courses on construction management, and he speaks at construction association and training events.

Mike Ghilotti

Ghilotti Bros., Inc.

525 Jacoby St.

San Rafael, CA 94901

415 454-7011

Mike Ghilotti has been president of Ghilotti Bros., the North Bay's fifth-largest commercial contractor, since 2000. Part of the third generation to run the 90-year-old general engineering contractor, Mr. Ghilotti started with the family business while a college student, lubricating machinery full-time during the summers. Upon graduating from St. Mary's College in 1984 with a degree in construction management, he began managing company operations as a project manager. After two years, he took the helm of the company's North Bay region. Meanwhile, studying at night and on weekends, he earned his MBA from Golden Gate University in 1987.

Mr. Ghilotti was president of the Association of Engineering Contract Employers in 2000 and is co-chair of the California Save the Missions Foundation.

From a revenue peak of $85 million-$90 million in the late 1980s, Ghilotti Bros. scaled back during the recession and savings-and-loan bust around 1990. The most recent recession and cutbacks in public works projects have also slowed workflow, according to Mr. Ghilotti.

For example, the amount of work the company has won from Caltrans in the Bay Area has plummeted 80% in the past three years. What's worse, with cost overruns on bridge projects, Caltrans plans no new road projects this year and has stopped some in progress. These include the $30 million next phase of widening of U.S. 101 in Santa Rosa and the $100 million "gap closure" project on 101 in central San Rafael.

With transportation funds being diverted to cover state and local government budget deficits, Mr. Ghilotti believes it's time for North Bay voters to act. "Taxpayers realize the infrastructure is deteriorating. But there's difficulty in passing bond measures locally when such bonds require a two-thirds majority," he says.

Richard Ghilotti

Ghilotti Construction Company, Inc.

246 Ghilotti Ave.

Santa Rosa, CA 95407

www.ghilotti.com

707-585-1221

Richard Ghilotti is owner and president of Ghilotti Construction. After graduating from Santa Clara University in 1968 with a degree in finance, he joined the family business, San Rafael-based Ghilotti Bros., where he rose from a grading foreman to operations manager. Two years after his father, Dino Ghilotti, co-founder of Ghilotti Bros., died in 1990, Richard and his cousin Jim Ghilotti founded Ghilotti Construction in Santa Rosa.

Richard Ghilotti has built the general engineering contractor to be the North Bay's third-largest commercial general contractor, with $70 million in annual revenues and 80 employees (300 during construction).

A former Marine Corps reservist for six years, including six months active duty, Mr. Ghilotti serves on the boards of Transportation California and alma mater Marin Catholic High School.

Joe Keith

Cobblestone Homes

707-528-8703

Joe Keith is the president and CEO of Cobblestone Homes. With more than 30 years experience in land development and construction, he has built approximately 2,000 homes and apartments in Sonoma County. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a BA in philosophy. He is a past president of the Home Builders Association and currently serves on its Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Cobblestone Homes currently has five projects under construction: Washington Creek in Petaluma; Tamalpais Hill in Novato; and Hickory Village, Stony Ranch, and the Prospect Place apartments in Santa Rosa. Cobblestones plans to begin construction of a 70-lot project in Auburn later this year.

David K?h

K?h Construction Company

3388 Regional Pkwy.

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

www.kochconstruction.net

707-575-5608

David K?h is owner and CEO of K?h Construction, a commercial and residential general contractor. Before starting his own company in 1984, he co-founded residential and commercial general contractor Callahan & K?h in 1971 and was vice president. Prior to that, he was a project superintendent for several contractors and grew up around the construction business of his father, Leon. After graduating high school, he studied carpentry in Santa Rosa.

Mr. K?h serves on the North Coast Builders Exchange Workers' Compensation and Health trusts and is a past president.

Craig Lawson

Pinnacle Homes

PO Box 14189

Santa Rosa, CA 95402

www.pinnacle-homes.com

707-538-5949

Craig Lawson is president of Pinnacle Homes, a builder of semicustom homes, mostly selling for $400,000-$1.5 million, in Sonoma, Napa, and Marin counties. He founded Pinnacle in 1993 with vice president Dick Dowd. He has an AA degree from Santa Rosa Junior College plus coursework in management from the University of California, Berkeley and Davis, American Management Association, and National Association of Home Builders. In 1993, he graduated from the Leadership Santa Rosa program.

He started in construction in 1979 as a general and framing contractor for California Homes. In 1988, he was vice president of construction for California Homes. The following year, he was a consulting project manager for a California Homes project in Wikiup. He then devoted himself to building subdivisions and custom homes full-time.

Mr. Lawson is a past president, regional board member, and executive committee chair of the Home Builders Association of Northern California and has been on the Santa Rosa Building Permit Advisory Committee, Sonoma County Alliance Housing Committee, and a member of the Sonoma County Business Consortium.

Jeff Luchetti

Jeff Luchetti Construction

4415 Sonoma Hwy., Ste. A

Santa Rosa, CA 95409

www.jlcinc.com

707-527-5788

Jeff Luchetti is president of Jeff Luchetti Construction, which specializes in office, industrial, retail, hospitality, residential, and tenant improvement projects. Among the company's recent notable projects are Jack London Elementary School and Sonic.net's headquarters, both in Santa Rosa.

Rick McClish

Facility Development Corp.

392 Tesconi Ct.

Santa Rosa, CA 95401

707-523-1722

Rick McClish is president of Facility Development Corporation and was president of BDM Construction. About half of Facility Development's nearly $50 million in revenues comes from North Bay projects. Mr. McClish has more than three decades of experience in developing and building self-storage facilities.

William McDevitt

McDevitt & McDevitt Construction Corp.

1320 Industrial Ave. Ste. J

Petaluma, CA 94952

www.mcdevittandmcdevitt.com

707-763-3000

William McDevitt is president and CEO of McDevitt & McDevitt, a commercial general contracting company he and brother Mike started in 1976. Son of well-known residential and later commercial contractor William H. McDevitt, Mr. McDevitt got into the industry as a carpenter's apprentice in Marin and Sonoma counties.

Mr. McDevitt was on the board of Bank of Petaluma for 17 years until earlier this month when the bank completed its merger with its parent Greater Bay Bancorp.

Tim McDonald

Ryan Associates General Contractors

1310 Oak Ave.

St. Helena, CA 94574

www.ryanassociates.com

707-967-1938

In 1998, Tim McDonald joined the San Francisco-based builder Ryan Associates General Contractors as vice president, developing Ryan's North Bay business and opening its St. Helena office. Ryan focuses on winery and high-end residential projects in Napa and Sonoma counties. Mr. McDonald graduated with a BS in agricultural business from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo then ran a local construction company for several years. He is on the board of the Napa-Solano Builders Exchange.

Jerry McKinley

DPR Construction

1050 Sansome St., Ste. 600

San Francisco, CA 94111

www.dprinc.com

415-782-3700

Jerry McKinley is a regional leader and general superintendent of Redwood City-based commercial general contractor DPR Construction, heading up its North Bay business development and field operations. DPR formed its San Francisco office in 1996, and North Bay native Mr. McKinley took over local business development shortly thereafter. DPR's $21 million in current North Bay projects include construction and renovation of Kaiser Permanente facilities, a new Lola's Market location, and work for Skywalker Properties and Apple Computer.

He grew up in Marin and completed a carpentry apprenticeship at College of Marin. His 26-year construction background includes high rises in San Francisco, high-technology facilities for Chiron and Bayer, and the upscale Blackhawk Plaza mall in Danville.

Jim Murphy

Jim Murphy & Associates

464 Kenwood Ct., Ste. B

Santa Rosa, CA 95407

www.j-m-a.com

707-576-7337

Jim Murphy is president and co-owner of Jim Murphy & Associates, a design-builder of educational, medical, and commercial buildings; wineries; and luxury homes. A large recent project is the $5.3 million Redwood Covenant Church complex in southwest Santa Rosa. He started JMA more than three decades ago.

When he's not building, Mr. Murphy enjoys drag racing. His WW2 Racing crew competes in several races each year.

Roger Nelson

Midstate Construction

1180 Holm Rd.

Petaluma, CA 94954

www.midstateconstruction.com

707-762-3200

For the past 28 years, Roger Nelson has been president and owner of 69-year-old Midstate Construction, the second-largest commercial general contractor in the North Bay. For six years before that, he was project manager of O.K. Earl Construction, then vice president and part owner of Crowell Planning & Construction. He has a bachelor's degree in economics from Claremont Men's College plus undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University in civil and industrial engineering and construction management.

Mr. Nelson serves on the board of Sonoma County Day School and has been on the boards of Kenwood School District, North Bay Industries, and Associated General Contractors of California.

James Nolan

James Nolan Construction, Inc.

1030 Main St., Ste. 300

PO Box 90

St. Helena, CA 94574

www.jnc-construction.com

707-963-3222

James Nolan is president of James Nolan Construction, which he started 18 years ago after five years as a construction manager for Newton Vineyard and two years as a project engineer at hotel sites in French Polynesia. He graduated from the University of California, Davis with a BS in landscape architecture.

Mr. Nolan says he has yet to see an impact on his business from the recent recession. "We are still experiencing steady growth and continue to build at a constant rate," he says. "When we first heard about gloom and doom in the winery segment, we diversified into public works. But the downturn predicted in the winery category never materialized for us, and this is a major source of both current and future business for us."

Three-quarters of James Nolan Construction's work is multimillion-dollar homes, while the rest is commercial projects, especially in the wine industry.

Wendell Nordby

Nordby Construction Company

1550 Airport Blvd., Ste. 201

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

www.nordby.net

707-526-4500

Wendell Nordby is chairman of Nordby Construction, which he founded with Al Traversi in 1977 as Traversi & Nordby. Five years later, Mr. Traversi left the company to pursue homebuilding. Before starting the company, Mr. Nordby was with San Francisco-based Cahill Construction for 17 years as a carpenter, foreman, and superintendent. In the past few years, Mr. Nordby has been turning over operation of the company to his sons, Del and Craig.

Del Nordby earned a construction management degree from Chico State University in 1987 and joined Nordby Construction as an estimator and project manager, quickly moving into management. He was appointed president in 2001. Craig Nordby, vice president, has a business degree from Sonoma State University and is president of Nordby Wine Caves and Signature Homes, which specializes in estate homes.

Wendell Nordby is chairman of the Salvation Army advisory board for Santa Rosa and started the organization's Nordby Golf Tournament 15 years ago. Also, he is co-chair of Sonoma County Prayer Breakfast and incoming president of Becoming Independent. In previous years, he was president of North Coast Builders Exchange and Associated Builders and Contractors.

Chris Peterson

Rivendale Homes, Inc.

PO Box 2217

Santa Rosa, CA 95405

www.rivendalehomes.com

Chris Peterson is president of Rivendale Homes and Builders Marketing Group. Through Builders Marketing Group, which was founded in 1983, he has promoted about $700 million worth of North Bay homes for various builders, including Rivendale and Pinnacle Homes. Rivendale has built a dozen developments in the Santa Rosa area, including the Stonebriar community just under way in west Santa Rosa. Rivendale is building four other communities in Vacaville and Dixon.

Mr. Peterson has also helped Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa on various building projects.

Mike Smith Sr.

Argonaut Constructors

1236 Central Ave.

Santa Rosa, CA 95401

707-542-4862

Mike Smith is president of Argonaut Constructors, a general engineering contracting company with 200 year-round employees and nearly $40 million in revenues. A large recent project was $5.5 million in work at Delco's 154-home Atherton Ranch development in Novato.

Orrin Thiessen

Thiessen Homes, Town Green Village

9030 Windsor Rd.

Windsor, CA 95492

707-836-9112

Orrin Thiessen is owner of Thiessen Homes and managing partner of the $120 million Town Green Village mixed-use project in Windsor and similar, smaller-scale projects slated for Cotati and Forestville.

A Sonoma State University senior project for his biology and ecology major to build a home out of recycled materials for $1,000 and his having to rebuild his home after a 1974 fire prompted Mr. Thiessen to pursue architecture and construction. He started his own firm in 1975, building several speculative homes and small subdivisions. In 1994, he got into mixed-use development and historical restoration, when he bought nine run-down properties in Graton and created 12 homes and 10 commercial spaces.

His Windsor and Graton projects have won awards from the West County and Sonoma County historical societies. In 2001, the Windsor Chamber of Commerce named him Businessperson of the Year, and he received the Sonoma County Spirit Award from the county Board of Supervisors.

Paul Thompson

West Bay Builders, Inc.

615 Lindaro St.

San Rafael, CA 94901

415-456-8972

Paul Thompson is president of West Bay Builders, which specializes in bridges, parking structures, and schools. Most of the company's $80 million in annual revenues come from projects outside the North Bay, such as a $25 million project on the west tower of the Bay Bridge.

Tom Thornley

Andrews & Thornley General Contractors, Inc.

2310 Laurel St., Ste. 1

Napa, CA 94559

707-252-3478

Tom Thornley is president of Andrews & Thornley, a commercial general contractor specializing in churches, hotels, office buildings, resorts, schools, and wineries. A major recent project was the new $32 million Carneros Inn in Napa.

Robert Valentine

Valentine Corp.

111 Pelican Way

San Rafael, CA 94901

www.valentinecorp.com

415-453-3732

Robert Valentine is president and general manager of Valentine Corp., a general engineering contracting company he started in 1964.