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Former CII Director Van Winkle Discusses New Role at Hill International, Challenges Facing Industry
TXC: As you know, Engineering-News Record, a publication of McGraw-Hill Construction, recently ranked Hill International the 17th largest construction management firm in the United State. Tell me about your new role as president of Hill’s Project Management Group.
Van Winkle: The firm, an international, was started in the late 1970s by Irv Richter, a construction lawyer. Irv discovered that the best way to avoid claims is to have good project management skills. If the project is managed well upfront the chances of having a claim or other problems down the line are minimized. So he built up the project management business; and that’s really what I’m doing. I’m taking some of the lessons learned by the claims people and applying them to the project management business. We’ve been growing rapidly, domestically and overseas. What makes us unique is that we only do project management; we don’t do design or construction. That is what I’m doing at Hill – putting the project management process to work and using the assets Hill developed for years to meet clients’ needs.
TXC: Hill reaches across most market sectors and has a broad reach globally. Right?
Van Winkle: Yes. We’ve done projects in almost every sector, from buildings to infrastructure, to process and industrial-type projects. And we’ve been a large factor in the Middle East for several years.
TXC: You have a military background. Among your tours of duty, you served in Desert Storm. How does this and your CII background, help you provide project management through Hill?
Van Winkle: My military experience taught me the importance of leadership, and I think that’s what project management is all about. There’s no rocket science to it. Project management is about exerting the management and leadership skills one develops over the years. You also need the right tools . That’s where my CII experience comes on onboard. CII develops the best practices by analyzing what the best of the best are doing. So the key to success in the project management field is leadership combined with knowing the best practices in the industry.
TXC: Hill recently won a contract involving a lot of work in Dubai. Does the firm do a lot of work there and is it a growth area?
Van Winkle: Yes. It’s probably our biggest growth sector. We set up an operation about 20 years ago that’s really booming. We’re the project management for the Palm Island Expansion and we’ve built a portfolio on our reputation that’s second to none That part of the world is expanding rapidly, and they have some innovative ideas about how to use the capital and equity available in the Middle East, much it centered in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi area.
TXC: Tell me about an innovative idea they are putting to work today.
Van Winkle: The Palm Island project is one. It’s almost a dream to build a section of a large palm island using drenched material and personal engineering techniques to build a large, upscale resort and living area in Dubai. That’s a signature project for us and that region. They followed with a second similar project.. We are involved in another project called the World where they are again using construction of drenched materials. This is not being done anywhere else in the world.
TXC: Do you expect those techniques to be used elsewhere?
Van Winkle: You need a lot of capital and an aggressive spirit. As you know, the sheik over there has a lot of freedom and leeway to do what he wants. I can’t believe those things might be done elsewhere.
TXC: What are the key critical issues facing the industry and how should they be dealt with?
Van Winkle: The old saying is that there are three factors about real estate - location, location, location! Right now our industry has three problems--personnel, personnel, personnel! We’ve got challenges across the board - everything from the workforce to laborers, to having good skilled, quality people, first line managers, and senior leadership in our industry. We’ve experienced unparallel growth in many sectors in the last three to five years. Now, though residential is a bit down, other sectors are expanding very rapidly and we simply don’t have enough quality people to do everything that needs to be done. We as an industry have to think hard about training; about bringing high-quality people into the industry with the requisite skills.
Interview by Eileen Schwartz. To hear the complete Q&A, click here |
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