When Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnell landed the $1.1 billion Middletown-Norwalk power transmission line project in 2004, the company tabbed J. Brett Williams to oversee it — and he took the ball and ran.
As program manager, Williams committed fully to the massive project designed to prevent the kind of power outage that darkened the Northeast in August 2003. He and his wife sold their Kansas City house and moved with their three young children to Connecticut.
“I said, ‘If I’m gong to do this, we’re gong to commit,’ ” Williams recalls. “ ‘I don’t want to travel back and forth. I want my family with me. I want to raise my kids at night.’ ”
Williams brought along a handful of Burns & McDonnell colleagues. He told them they didn’t relocate to build one project; they were there to build a business. To do that and to open a regional office, for which the company had no formal plans, they would have to prove themselves on Middletown-Norwalk.
The project finished a year ahead of schedule and about $90 million under budget. That led to more business and a Northeast office in Wallingford. The company landed other big Northeast power projects that helped it thrive during the recession.
That take-charge, take-ownership attitude seems to define the management style of Williams, 48, who has overseen about $10 billion worth of infrastructure projects for the design-build corporation. He joined Burns & McDonnell 15 years ago after stints over 10 years with Halliburton Co. in Dallas and Butler Construction in Hong Kong and Kansas City.
Today, the Northeast office Williams oversees as president and manager has about 260 full-time employee-owners. Altogether, Burns & McDonnell has more than 5,000 employees. The company this year ranked No. 15 on the Forbes 100 Best Companies to Work For List.
While power transmission and distribution projects are among the local office’s forte, other specialties include commercial and government aviation facilities, large-scale manufacturing and pharmaceutical projects, and food-processing facilities.
“My style is probably the same as others in our company, in that I very much want to promote ownership,” Williams says. “ … Every one of us … is a stockholder in the company. My style is to make everybody in this office a manager. You’ve got to manage something. … I want them to be responsible, to be an owner and treat this like it’s their own company and with that, we pay them back … a bonus every year in stock.”
Ownership describes the company culture, he says.
“You own your clients, you own the company, you own your future, you own whatever outcome you’re getting out of whatever you’re working on,” he says. “We don’t pass the buck, we keep our people held completely responsible for whatever they’re working on and that’s the way we want it and that’s the way they want it.”
Lorraine Eckenroth, who works in stakeholder management services, says Williams impressed her when she joined 10 years ago, roughly the office’s 15th employee.
As business grew, “Brett thought nothing of making himself available to you at all times, was part of the team, never made you feel like you were not integral in what needed to be done here,” she says.
Eckenroth praises Williams’ commitment, leadership and vision.
The company’s asset is its people, Williams says. As a manager, he tries to be laid-back and maintain a good sense of humor amid the intensity of managing big-ticket, complex projects — and he doesn’t want people to fear mistakes, but learn from them.
Growing up on a farm near Tightwad, Mo., laid the do-it-yourself foundation for his future work.
That hands-on approach continues, whether improving a 1988 Mercedes G-Wagen for use at his family’s Maine getaway home, or working on his 1969 Camaro.
It’s therapeutic, he says.
“To keep myself grounded and make sure I don’t forget who I am, I change my own oil, I mow my own grass, I try to work on my own cars when I can; it makes me feel good,” he says.
