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Doug Barnhart Mr. Future 2008 AGC President Doug Barnhart envisions a better industry By Mark Shaw
This year, when San Diego contractor Douglas Barnhart tells his AGC colleagues, “Let’s build,” he isn’t just talking about construction projects. Barnhart, CEO of Douglas E. Barnhart Inc., San Diego, assumed the mantle of AGC’s 2008 presidency at the association’s annual convention in Las Vegas in March. The 61-year-old leader says he wants use his presidential year to “stir things up a bit.” “On the surface, ‘Let’s build’ sounds like a simple slogan, but it’s actually complex,” Barnhart says. “I do want contractors to continue building successful, quality projects, of course, but also to work harder on reshaping the industry. We need to work together on issues such as workforce, industry image, technology, infrastructure, pushing for a more productive political environment, earning the respect of the American public and creating stronger relationships with other associations,” he adds. Barnhart credits the inspiration for his presidential theme to his 4-year-old grandson, Jake, “who is always asking to help build whatever he can get his hands on,” he says. “If we can take that kind of enthusiasm and channel it into industry leadership, we’ll see some positive changes going forward.” Looking Ahead It is no surprise that Barnhart’s AGC leadership goals are focused on the future. The same forward-thinking outlook helped him build his own career and company.
Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. is one of southern California’s most prolific constructors of schools and military facilities, booking $532 million in revenue last year. The company employs nearly 500 people across its five locations and is the “go-to” contractor for several of the biggest school districts in the San Diego area. “Doug is successful because he’s focused as much on process as on product,” Billings says. “He looks beyond the immediate work to develop visions for the future, and his word is golden. We have established the quintessential partnering relationship with his firm.” Steve Martin, who has been Barnhart’s accountant since March 1983, says, “If Doug were a professional athlete, you’d call him a ‘student of the game.’ Instead, he’s a ‘student of the business.’ He’s always in tune with what the customer wants, sometimes even before the customer knows what that is. He’s usually about five years ahead of the industry. He thinks outside a very big box.” Navy Guy
Barnhart says that many people helped him develop his business savvy and critical thinking skills, but he learned the industry mostly on his own. Unlike many home-grown contracting firms, construction was not part of the Barnhart family legacy. Born in Illinois, his grandparents were farmers, but his father chose the oil business and moved the family to West Texas. “We moved around Texas quite a bit, following the rigs as they worked the oil fields,” Barnhart says. After high school, Barnhart attended Texas Tech where he studied civil engineering, enrolled in the Navy ROC program and met Nancy, his wife of 39 years. After graduation, the Navy sent him to Vietnam in May 1969, where he served as the engineering officer on board the USS Luzerne County and oversaw the operation of the propulsion plant on the tank-landing ship, among other duties.
A year later, he was rotated stateside to San Francisco, where he became a recruiter for the Navy and eventually was transferred to the civil engineering corp, where he began managing military construction projects in Southern California. “I didn’t know my way around a jobsite at first, but I learned quickly, and my projects got built. I got to watch some good contractors work, and I took a lot of that knowledge with me when I left,” he says. The Navy wanted him to get a master’s degree and continue his military service for the full 20 years. But after nine years in the service, Barnhart decided it was time for a change. “That was a tough decision,” he says, “because I’m a Navy guy at heart. It taught me leadership skills, how to write and never to underestimate the impact of a resounding ‘no!’” In the private sector, he worked for California contractor C.E. Wiley Construction from 1975 to 1983, starting as a project manager and working his way up to vice president. The firm did military projects, public works, residential and utilities jobs. Barnhart used the time at C.E. Wiley to learn not just how to better manage projects, but business units as well. Meet the New Boss
In 1983, he knew it was time to start his own construction company. “My life has been a rifle shot, not a lot of meandering, so I didn’t have many doubts that it was the right thing to do at the time. It just felt that way,” Barnhart says. The firm’s first project was a $1.7-million makeover of rifle ranges for the Marine Corp in Oceanside, Calif. “I paid myself $22,000 that first year,” Barnhart says. Barnhart used his Navy contacts to land more military work and grow the company, but quickly began to diversify, building schools, a performing arts center and even doing some airport work. He did not want Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. to become known strictly as a military contractor. “It was the Reagan years, and there was a lot of money being spent on defense, but we went after education projects anyway,” he says. Barnhart runs the business with the help of several family members, including his brother Tex and daughter Tami. The company does about 50% of its work on a construction manager-for-fee basis, 25% as design-bid-build and 25% as design-build and negotiated projects. “But we are a CM who builds, not one that just carries a briefcase,” Barnhart says. The firm’s portfolio has continued to diversify since 2000, with sports projects, clubhouses, medical office buildings, city halls and civic centers. Barnhart says the firm is also increasing its proficiency in building information modeling, using virtual systems on more and more jobs, including a new high school now under construction. “You either do BIM or you’re out of business in five years,” he says. Barnhart is also pushing for more sustainable and LEED-certified work, like the Fontana Library and the computer center at the University of California at San Diego. “The roar of green out there will only get stronger,” he says.
Networking and More Barnhart first joined the San Diego chapter of AGC in 1984. He wanted his then-fledgling firm to grow with the industry and be part of the networking and innovation that he saw happening among AGC-member companies. “The San Diego chapter has always been one of the most innovative chapters in the country,” Barnhart says. But his AGC involvement wasn’t just for the good of his firm. Barnhart says that he saw how AGC was impacting the industry as a whole, making a difference on the political and community levels as well. “I’ve always been interested in the community impact of our work,” he says. “We like to build projects that a lot of people can enjoy, and AGC is a very community-oriented organization, so membership was a natural fit for us.” Barnhart has since worked on dozens of AGC committees on both the local and national levels, won dozens of awards and helped to shape the AGC national agenda. He was president of the AGC San Diego Chapter in 1994 and started Build San Diego and the chapter’s political action committee. Nationally, he served as the chairman of the Federal & Heavy Division and on other AGC committees, including the Corps of Engineers, Federal Acquisition Regulation, Governmental Affairs, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Ethics, Rules, Environmental Resources, Legislative and the Open Shop committees. However, Barnhart stresses that he never set out to become national president. Like many other things in his life, it just worked out that way. Barnhart says he’s now ready to lead AGC toward solutions for tough industry issues. “But they can only be solved by building even stronger relationships, both inside and outside the industry. Construction has always been a relationship-driven business. And if you think the industry has changed a lot in the last 10 years, just hang on, because the future is on our doorstep.”
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