Travis McGarraugh
Relentless Ally
Relationship-Driven K-12 Construction
Schools may be built out of brick and mortar, cinderblock and linoleum, glass and turf, but leaders like Operations Director Travis McGarraugh know that they’re really built on relationships.
Travis joined the Balfour Beatty team in 2004 after beginning his construction career in Austin in 1996. He focused on special projects from the outset, delivering fast-paced renovations and tenant improvements throughout the Austin area. Over the years, that expertise evolved into leading complex summer remodels and additions for school districts across Central Texas, where tight schedules, occupied campuses and minimal disruption are critical to success. Today, as Balfour Beatty continues to expand its K-12 operations throughout the region, Travis serves as an invaluable resource and a trusted Relentless Ally, bringing decades of experience, strategic leadership and a commitment to helping clients successfully navigate their most challenging projects.
At every level of K-12 construction, from a vestibule renovation to a security overhaul to complete adaptive reuse and even new construction, Travis and the Balfour Beatty team build direct and collaborative relationships with every client, guide crucial decisions with industry expertise and accept nothing less than a job performed safely and on time.
No Replacement for Relationship
Over his 30 years of industry experience, Travis has worked with a majority of the school districts in central Texas, both large and small, and on projects of equally diverse sizes. If there’s one thing that has become clear to Travis and our K-12 teams, it’s that there can be no real replacement for the power of relationship-driven collaboration.
“Projects in the private sector can have their complex layers of client stakeholders, but when building schools that our communities rely on, collaboration takes on a deeply personal meaning,” Travis says. “Our project leaders – project managers and superintendents alike – are consistently working with district superintendents, district construction managers, principals and even school staff to identify short- and long-term goals.”
To strengthen this close-knit client-contractor relationship, Travis and others build trust by learning the unique needs and goals of each school district and solidifying their confidence in Balfour Beatty’s ability to deliver. Clients such as the school districts for Austin, Georgetown, Marble Falls, Jarrell and Lake Travis are learning exactly that right now.
Direct relationships can often speed up critical decision making on materials, design changes and scheduling. When projects must be completed on time for new academic terms, every hour saved through earlier collaboration matters more than ever.
“Our clients know that they can call us at any time, with any question, but they often don’t need to,” Travis says. “Our mindset is to collaborate proactively, identify potential issues before they have a chance to disrupt schedules or budgets and come to the client with ready-made solutions.”
Sophistication at Every Size and Budget
More than 100 Texas school districts voted on public bonds this spring, with measures ranging from $2M to $5.9B. Districts are seeking to address diverse issues, from aging facilities to rapid population growth, both of which our central Texas teams are equipped to handle. What’s more, our teams have the industry knowledge needed for even smaller districts to make the most of their bonded dollars and efficiently navigate the bond construction process.
“Larger districts are often very familiar with the process and have robust standards, early RFP releases and other advantages,” Travis says. “Where our team can truly make a difference is guiding smaller district that may be bidding out larger bond projects than ever before.”
A rising tide – like a massive crop of statewide bonds – could lift all ships, but Travis and the central Texas Balfour Beatty team see it as our duty to ensure that smaller districts don’t miss the boat.
“With our direct client collaboration and emphasis on relationships, we are a truly local contractor,” Travis says. “But importantly, we’re also a national contractor, and we combine our local feel with national resources, from trade relationships to material vendors to new technologies.”
Balfour Beatty’s dual strengths deliver for large districts, too. Our recently completed renovations of Odom and Williams elementary schools for Austin ISD are testaments to our team’s dynamic and collaborative approach, converting two aging campuses with outdated floorplans and design aesthetics into modern schools that will serve the Texas state capitol for many years.
Safety at Speed
Every K-12 project presents unique safety challenges. Work may begin with school still in session, or important points of ingress and egress to parking lots or even buildings must be carefully managed, but our Zero Harm® commitment to clients is to ensure that – whatever it takes – our teams are always Safe to Start.
“Like so many priorities, our safety mindset rests on our collaborative mindset,” Travis says. “We invest the time and care required to understand student and vehicle traffic and create a customized safety plan. Especially on K-12 projects, operating safely is rarely the easiest route but it’s always the right one.”
Safety collaboration starts early on a K-12 project, when our team prioritizes the logistics of separating students, faculty and the community from all construction activities. Beyond just collaborating with client stakeholders on site plans and scheduled student movement, Travis adds that part of our expertise is simply from experience and understanding how student age can impact safety planning.
“For younger students, a basic layer of safety can often be as simple as locked doors and gates with proper oversight,” Travis says. “But as students get older, with more freedom of movement, more curiosity and perhaps a bit more impulsive behavior, we enhance our site protections even more. Older students are also more involved in before- and after-school programs, requiring even more schedule collaboration.”
Our work around school schedules also presents an opportunity to reinforce our recent identification of live traffic as a fifth fatal risk in construction. School parking lots experience traffic surges en masse unlike any local business or office, and that’s without construction vehicles. Under Balfour Beatty’s safety leadership and with clear communication, peak traffic hours won’t put students or our workers at risk,
Client-Centered School Construction
As our Central Texas K-12 project footprint continues to expand, one thing will simply never change: Balfour Beatty’s client-first approach to construction, serving as a true Relentless Ally through every stage of a project lifecycle and building campuses our communities can be proud of.
“When K-12 clients choose Balfour Beatty as their construction partner, they know they’re getting the best,” Travis says. “The best resources, the best leaders, the best solutions and, most importantly, the best safety practices. It’s the only way we know how to build.”
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David Chachu
Relentless Ally
A Trusted Leader for Complex Builds and Critical Infrastructure
David Chachu brings a mission critical mindset to high-stakes projects across the Mid-Atlantic
For more than two decades, David Chachu has built his career at Balfour Beatty on some of the most complex, high-stakes projects in the nation where failure isn’t an option and performance defines everything that follows. Today, he brings that Relentless Ally mindset to mission critical work across the Mid-Atlantic, helping clients navigate one of the fastest moving and most demanding sectors in all of construction.
David’s introduction to data centers came early in the industry’s evolution, supporting a highly complex facility designed to power critical financial systems along the East Coast. From day one, the work demanded redundancy, resilience and precision, and these principles continue to define how David approaches every mission critical project today.
What’s changed, he notes, is not the stakes of mission critical work but rather the speed, scale and operational resiliency that a construction partner must bring to the table to be successful.
“It's no longer just about building the facility,” David says. “Clients need construction partners who understand how to get them online fast and who can expertly navigate changing designs, evolving technology and resource constraints without losing time.”
Enter David, an operations leader trusted for the clarity, speed and effective controls he brings to sophisticated builds.
Translating Federal Complexity into Mission Critical Certainty
Balfour Beatty’s extensive federal expertise creates a distinct advantage for the delivery of mission critical projects, rooted in the unique precision, security and operational discipline these environments demand. David’s experience reflects that same foundation, with an esteemed portfolio of large-scale, complex and systems-driven federal projects that align directly with the rigor of today’s data center environments.
David’s legacy in the Mid-Atlantic includes marquee projects such as the $1.4 billion, 2.2-million-square-foot National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Campus East Headquarters, which included a major embedded data center and supporting utility infrastructure. From pursuit to final close-out, our team rose to the magnitude of the challenge before them, delivering this integrated design-build project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers six months ahead of schedule and on budget. David’s mark can also be found on the $222 million National Science Foundation, the iconic design-build Pentagon Memorial and numerous other security-driven facilities for federal clients. Though unique in scope, each of these projects required enhanced systems performance, redundancy and precision execution.
“At their core, data centers are highly focused on mechanical and electrical performance,” David explains. “Some of our federal projects with embedded data centers demand a superior level of system integration and building performance standards that often surpasses a typical data center.”
No contractor is more prepared to meet the rigor of modern mission critical projects than one like Balfour Beatty and industry leaders like David, who bring a multi-decade legacy of successful delivery for the federal government. With active data center projects and MV duct bank work underway, our Mid-Atlantic mission critical team under David’s leadership is proving our presence isn’t just established – it’s expanding every day.
Leading Through Preconstruction
No matter what the mission critical product type or scope, Balfour Beatty creates a strategic advantage for our clients and partners long before construction begins.
In a sector where speed-to-market drives decision making, David collaborates closely with clients, designers and trade partners to understand constraints, identify risks early and build schedules that hold up under pressure. During construction, small design changes to mechanical and electrical systems can have outsized impacts on performance and delivery.
This is where David adds tangible value our clients feel, working in real time to adeptly navigate evolving design requirements and ensuring facilities are built to accommodate future server expansions and high-performance computing (HPC) upgrades.
“It’s not just about what’s possible. It’s about what’s realistic,” David explains. “We’re helping clients understand how design decisions impact schedule, how resources affect sequencing and how to make adjustments without jeopardizing delivery.”
David prioritizes:
- Navigating long-lead equipment and supply chain constraints
- Aligning labor availability with aggressive delivery timelines
- Evaluating design changes in real time to minimize schedule impacts
- Bringing practical solutions that balance cost, performance and speed
For David, it’s this ability to “see around corners” during preconstruction that sets Balfour Beatty teams apart and positions our projects for success long before they break ground.
A Partner in a Changing Market
As the mission critical sector continues to scale, client expectations have shifted.
“Clients realize their success depends on having the right team,” David says. “It’s not about pushing risk down. It’s about working together to get the project done successfully.”
That shift plays directly to David’s strengths. Known for his collaborative, pragmatic approach, he works to build alignment across all stakeholders and ensure decisions are made with the project’s big picture in mind. He also brings a balanced perspective on growth, recognizing that long-term success in the mission critical sector requires a holistic understanding of future-proofing power grid and utility planning, site and regulatory strategy, contract structuring and more.
Building What Comes Next
With experience spanning data centers, federal infrastructure, complex mixed-use developments and more, David Chachu knows that mission critical is more than a sector. It’s a mindset. As Balfour Beatty continues to build the critical infrastructure powering our nation, David’s fundamentals remain the anchors for his teams: strong plans, effective collaboration, clear communication and the ability to adapt quickly and thoughtfully when conditions change.
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Jason Sikora
Relentless Ally
From the Field with Heart
For Jason Sikora, the field isn’t just where he’s building new futures for his clients and communities. It’s where he belongs.
As a construction manager for our Southeast operations, Jason doesn’t lead from behind a desk or a spreadsheet. He’s most at home walking a jobsite before sunrise, solving problems in well-worn, muddied boots right alongside the people doing the work.
Jason’s field-first leadership philosophy prioritizes people and their safety and wellbeing in every aspect of our operations. From it, he’s earned a reputation as a Relentless Ally who sets the bar for authenticity, trust and respect—both within Balfour Beatty and the construction industry at-large.
“For me, it’s simple,” Jason says. “Everybody is important, and everybody counts. If you take care of your people, and you actually mean it, they’ll take care of the work.”
It’s a belief that has guided every step of Jason’s career and one that continues to define how he shows up for his teammates, clients and partners on marquee, award-winning infrastructure projects including US 17 Maysville Bypass, Military Cutoff Road Extension, I-295 Fayetteville Outer Loop and more.
Built Through Experience
Jason built his career in construction the same way he builds projects to this day: by stepping in elbow-deep, learning quickly and taking on more than was expected. As a teenager, he got his start in landscaping until a fortuitously placed newspaper ad led to his first job driving a dump truck for The Six-M Company.
As Jason grew in the industry, his hand was always raised. Whether he was learning to operate heavy equipment when crews were short, running work when foremen were out or taking responsibility for scopes he hadn’t formally been assigned yet, Jason wasn’t one to shy away from the unknown or unfamiliar. In fact, he welcomed just such situations. 
“I always wanted to do the job one or two levels ahead of me,” Jason recalls.
Nearly 30 years later, his instinct to learn and do more hasn’t changed.
That mindset, combined with his diverse experiences across grading, structures, utilities, signage and traffic control, give Jason a rare perspective that few in project management possess. It’s what allows him to holistically understand challenges of Balfour Beatty projects before they arise, support crews in real time and lead with credibility because he’s been the man behind the machine.
Safety Shaped by Experience
Jason’s views on safety aren’t theoretical. They’re deeply personal.
While Jason was working for a different contractor, a vehicle traveling at speed entered a closed lane on an I-95 work zone and missed him by less than two feet.
It’s the kind of moment that stays with you. And for Jason, it fundamentally changed how he approaches risk.
“Even when you do everything right, things can still happen,” he acknowledges.
Today, Jason uses that experience to anchor his advocacy around live traffic safety, one of the industry’s most uniquely lethal and often underestimated risks. Unlike many hazards, the greatest variable isn’t our own work – it’s the traveling public moving through it.
Jason, a frequently invited guest lecturer on safety, often challenges teams and industry partners to change the way they view live traffic hazards.
“What we call a ‘near miss’ out here isn’t a near miss at all,” he explains. “It’s something that could be fatal immediately.”
Through stand downs, jobsite conversations and industry forums with the Carolinas Associated General Contractors (CAGC) and other associations, Jason is helping re-frame how teams prepare for and manage live traffic exposure by emphasizing discipline, awareness and accountability at every level.
Leading by Example
As Jason’s role has grown, his definition of leadership has evolved, but his foundation hasn’t changed.
“My job is to see the roadblocks ahead of the team and get them out of their way,” he says.
That approach was on full display during complex work on the progressive design-build Fayetteville Outer Loop project, where challenging conditions and tight timelines resulting from a major change order demanded more than a top-down solution. Instead of dictating a plan, Jason inclusively brought the entire team together including laborers and forepersons and asked everyone to co-create the plan. The result was a shared sense of ownership, a performance that exceeded expectations and an award-winning project.
Building a Better Industry
For Jason, the mission is simple: leave the industry better - and safer - than he found it.
Whether he’s advancing Zero Harm, mentoring the next generation or sharing lessons learned across the industry, his focus isn’t just on the project in front of him. It’s on what comes next.
Because for Jason, being a Relentless Ally isn’t about recognition or individual success. It’s about the people beside you in the field, instilling a sense of pride in the work they do and, above all else, ensuring they go some safely to their loved ones.
And for a leader who never left the field behind, that will always be the work that matters most.
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Evan Hanes
Relentless Ally
A Safety-Minded Superintendent
In his nearly 15-year career with Balfour Beatty, General Superintendent Evan Hanes has proven time and again the critical importance of safety leadership and communication consistency. On a broad range of projects – from massive data centers to community-anchoring parks, Evan has never lost sight of our core values as Relentless Allies.
It’s about people. Every safety initiative, every operational improvement, every trade partner interaction, every collaborative client meeting – it’s always about the people involved, understanding what they value, believing in collective improvement and prioritizing the safety of all.
Evan is the kind of superintendent required for the complexities of today’s projects, where material success as an end-goal is just as important as the path we take to reach it.
Safe to Start
Evan truly embodies Balfour Beatty’s Zero Harm® values with his safety leadership.
“Safety as our ‘cost of doing business’ is simple and natural for me,” Evan says. “If I’m coming to work and expecting to return home healthy and whole, then my expectation for our teammates, trade laborers and visitors to do and want the same.”
It all comes back to people. Effective superintendents lead with empathy—understanding the needs of every person on a jobsite—and nowhere does that responsibility matter more than in how we plan for and execute safety.
Seeing the entire project from a bird’s eye view, considering every layer of construction activities, safe routes to navigate a project and more all come naturally to him, but won’t necessarily come as naturally to every trade present on any given day.
“That’s where clear, consistent communication – every day – makes all the difference,” Evan adds. “Every day starts with a morning huddle where we communicate expectations to the team, identify critical hazards for the day and how we can reduce risk.”
“Where are you working today? What are your risks?”
“Who will be working near you? What are their risks?”
“Are you safe to start work today?”
Every opportunity Evan and fellow project leaders have to prompt these crucial conversations is never wasted, and proactive, 10-minute conversations can save lives.
Fatal Five Leadership
Balfour Beatty recently identified live traffic as a fifth fatal construction risk, and, true to his safety leadership mindset, Evan has taken this hazard recognition framework and run with it. In many ways, it’s just further license to implement clear safety processes around risks he was already considering.
Currently serving on the team for The Strand, a luxury multifamily residence tower in Raleigh, North Carolina, Evan made live traffic a first-priority safety consideration. Perhaps more than any other safety hazard besides utility strikes, live traffic requires early and ongoing engagement. The Strand necessitated consideration of both risks combined.
“This project required a lot of up-front utility work, around and underneath three of the surrounding streets, all fairly busy every day,” Evan recalls. “The key to safe work was to plan as early as possible and promote deep team collaboration.”
At The Strand, that meant making sitework partner Fred Smith Company part of the traffic control plan, breaking out each street and addressing critical questions with a fitting urgency. Lives depend on the answers.
“’How are we going to get pedestrians around us? How will we route traffic around our workers? Where are our flaggers going to be, and for how long?’ The questions go on, but we have to get these right,” Evan emphasizes. “It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
After presenting a traffic safety plan to city public safety officials, Evan adds that ongoing coordination only becomes more important. Pre-meetings, daily collaboration and adhering to the traffic plan schedules to which our team committed all keep everybody on track, and predictable traffic changes keep everybody safer.
“Trucks arriving to and leaving from a jobsite can be an overlooked aspect of live traffic risk, but they can impact our team and adjacent traffic all the same,” Evan says. “We cut through all that with clear and collaborative delivery schedules. I know a cement truck is supposed to arrive at 1:00 p.m., so by that time, I’m already looking to see that we are safe to start, with a flagger in place.”
Schedules create consistency. Consistency creates reliability. Reliability creates trust in the safety leadership of Balfour Beatty leaders like Evan.
Piloting Parks Projects
Consistency, reliability and trust are just as important when it comes to other project logistics. And on projects like the award-winning Downtown Cary Park, leaders still find a way to make operational decisions all about the people.
“Municipal construction, especially parks, can feel so much more human than any other work we do,” Evan says. “You’re not just building an office that people will use for eight hours each day. You’re building a real community center for activity, play, birthday parties. It brings a community together.”
With that in mind, Evan sets out to coordinate parks projects like Cary Park with the client’s values and the end users in mind.
“Every aspect of the Downtown Cary Park required extensive and intensive up-front coordination, of soil engineering, water and utility raceways, unique building designs, everything,” Evan says. “Not because it was necessarily complex, but because it was all in service of our client’s mission to create a vibrant, natural-feeling community hub and one of the best city parks in the nation.”
To achieve that sense of a naturally flowing landscape, the Balfour Beatty team performed deep and extensive sitework. Every inch of the park not covered by pavement or buildings required up to 11 different types of engineered topsoil – all on top of 8 inches of sand – to create a beautiful landscape that will stand the test of time while complementing and sustaining the final landscaping.
Beneath the park, critical storm, sewer, electrical and water lines support daily operations, key amenities and its central pond feature. Coordination with key trade partners and designers was critical to ensuring safe digging practices.
It’s All About People
To hear Evan say it, he doesn’t do anything special as a superintendent.
“I’m just doing what is right by our client and serves our end users,” Evan says. “It should be normal in the construction industry and it’s just second nature to me.”
But that’s precisely why this mindset, shared by Balfour Beatty leaders around the U.S., is special in the industry. When leaders like Evan take the time and personal investment to understand a client’s needs and translate that to proactive solutions, intentional communication and genuine care for people, the results can be magical – award-winning parks, luxury high-rises and – most importantly – projects where everyone goes home safely at the end of the day.
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Tyler Steele
Relentless Ally
A “Big Picture” Leader for Higher Education Clients
In some bygone era, it might have been easy to misapprehend the role of construction superintendent as a primarily task-based one, but the best superintendents – like Balfour Beatty’s operations leaders across the country – know that true client service requires so much more.
California Project Executive and higher education market leader Tyler Steele has built a career on stellar client service as a superintendent. Going forward, his mission remains much the same by way of passing it on. In addition to being our higher education’s foremost advocate within Balfour Beatty, Tyler is helping to create entire generations of operations leaders who understand the entire project lifecycle and strive to best serve our clients at every step.
Tyler’s client advocacy has supported some of our longest-running and most successful client relationships, including MiraCosta College, Southwestern College and Palomar Community College District. These clients, and more, value leaders like Tyler precisely because they can so clearly see the big picture, train future leaders to do the same, and accept only the safest, most collaborative path to achieve it.
From Carpentry to Collaborative Leader
Tyler was already bound for the industry in his San Diego State University (SDSU) construction engineering program, but he took an additional step that few do: he completed most of his undergraduate degree at night while working as a residential framer and carpenter by day. Sure, it put a little extra folding money in his pocket, but he wanted even more to gain a deep understanding of the craft he was pursuing in class.
After school, Tyler quickly found his way to a San Diego-area general contractor where he cut his teeth on the kinds of projects that would soon become a specialty at Balfour Beatty – fast-paced, “summer sprint” K-12 and higher education facility renovations. Every second counted, and the client’s hard and fast deadline of “students in seats by August” counted even more.
“I quickly became an assistant superintendent, and it was very much a trial by fire,” Tyler recalls. “But I enjoyed the work. I could see a clear through-line from my craft experience as a carpenter to understanding the commitment to daily service required of a superintendent.”
Tyler soon joined the Balfour Beatty team and continued to hone that sense for project management and client service – particularly under immense schedule and logistical pressure – as a superintendent and later project manager on higher education projects.
In the midst of all that, he still found time to continue his personal education (again at night) with a Masters of Business Administration, also from SDSU.
High Standards for Higher Education
While the transition from K-12 summer sprints to massive higher education jobs was certainly a change of scale, Tyler had already created a firm foundation of collaborative leadership. The process and principles were the same. In a more material sense, he even found that many of the trade partners he engaged in his new position were also the same.
“I had already been running work autonomously, creating schedules on my own and approaching my work as a superintendent as instrumental to client success, not just task completion,” Tyler said. “Our higher education clients especially understand how consequential the superintendent role is. We treat it that way and provide opportunities for our project leaders to grow in their ‘big picture’ understanding of day-to-day operations and client service.” 
Tyler’s career has been a tour de force of Balfour Beatty’s best higher education work in California. Over countless projects for southern California’s leading community college districts, Tyler and our teams have repeatedly defined what it means to provide safe, budget-conscious and high-quality work for educational institutions.
“Safety and site logistics are integral parts of what we do as allies for our higher education clients,” Tyler adds. “We’re often working on occupied campuses, high-traffic from both pedestrians and vehicles, and our clients value project leaders who deeply understand our Zero Harm® values and prioritize keeping everybody safe.”
Building Leaders, Building Relationships
It’s Tyler’s commitment, big-picture thinking, relentless collaboration and safety emphasis that have made him such a successful superintendent and an invaluable ally for our clients – and sharing those values with new client partners and new generations of project leaders.
Whether they’re swinging a hammer on a project, crafting a safety-minded project schedule with an unbelievably fast turnaround or laying the groundwork for new client relationships, Balfour Beatty leaders like Tyler are our clients’ Relentless Allies through and through.
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Jorge Vargas
Relentless Ally
Estimating with Vision
Jorge Vargas fell into construction.
Not because it was a lifelong dream or a respected family trade passed down through the generations. Rather, every stage of Jorge’s formative years quietly and perhaps unconventionally shaped his destiny.
Today, Jorge is a Relentless Ally who is building new futures for Balfour Beatty’s clients and partners in Sacramento, California, and beyond. His role as lead estimator requires precision, empathy and a big-picture understanding of how design, cost and community resources interconnect.
Discipline, Structure and the Power of Precision
In his early twenties, Jorge was working in automotive sales when the 2008 recession shuttered entire industries seemingly overnight. Looking for a way to create stability while investing in his future, Jorge joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
As an ammunitions technician twice deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Jorge learned that precision was non-negotiable. In the military, as in construction, it could make the difference between life and death in the blink of an eye. Equipment must be handled correctly. Processes must be followed exactly. There is no margin for error.
Those lessons never left him.
After completing his service, Jorge leveraged GI Bill funds to study economics at California State University, San Marcos. Drawn to gain an understanding of how policy and market forces influence individuals and businesses, Jorge couldn’t have foreseen how those concepts would later translate into construction estimating.
Economist by Degree, Estimator by Trade
While still in school, Jorge took a part‑time job in the warehouse of a small, regional construction company. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it gave Jorge something far more valuable: exposure.
“I met architects. I met builders. I met the marketing team. I started realizing, ‘these are really cool jobs that I could do, and I’d have a lot of fun doing,’” recalls Jorge.
It was Jorge's introduction to preconstruction leader Landon McQuestion that would ultimately shape his career path. Landon, who today serves as vice president of preconstruction for Balfour Beatty's U.S. Buildings operations in California, recognized Jorge's unique skillsets and inspired him to pursue estimating.
In 2017, Landon hired Jorge at Balfour Beatty, where he eventually worked under Chief Estimator Neil Reilly. Neil’s emphasis on the highest levels of integrity and ethics deeply instilled a sense of responsibility in Jorge’s process. This mentorship inspired Jorge to view estimating not just as a job, but as a discipline he constantly strives to improve.
Driving Enduring Value in Every Decision
Jorge’s impact on Balfour Beatty clients can be observed across diverse market sectors. From major aviation projects like Sacramento International Airport’s Pedestrian Walkway project to countless K-12 schools and higher education campuses, special projects, municipal buildings, corrections facilities and more, Jorge’s roots in his community run deep.
As a general contractor estimator, Jorge learned to understand every trade well enough to connect the dots, effectively balancing scope, cost, risk and value in a way that allows project teams and clients to make confident, informed decisions. Jorge seeks out best-in-class tools like the Join project delivery platform, which he recently helped operationalize in California, to mitigate the impacts of cost escalation and supply‑chain uncertainty.
"Part of our job is helping teams prioritize the decisions that are going to have the most impact on the job and identify outliers," explains Jorge.
Specialized for K-12 Schools
Schools, he says, are among the most complex projects to estimate. While they may not always carry the largest price tags, they require far more than the cookie-cutter, big-box approach that many assume. With specialty spaces such as science labs, performance spaces, classrooms, kitchens, playgrounds, athletic facilities and unique site constraints, schools and their associated costs can vary dramatically from one community to the next.
“No two schools are ever truly the same,” affirms Jorge.
But that complexity is precisely what draws him in.
For Jorge, estimating schools isn’t just about numbers. It’s about listening first to understand what matters most to each district, each campus and each community. One project may prioritize outdoor learning spaces. Another may require extensive acoustical solutions or specialized facilities. On the Paul Ecke Elementary School project in Encinitas, California, for example, the owner even leveraged mass timber, a progressive and sustainable design solution—becoming the first to do so in the state.
As a father to two young daughters, Jorge’s work on educational facilities isn’t just meaningful. It’s deeply personal.
The Power of the Preconstruction Team
While Jorge is often the face of a project's budget, he is quick to credit the diverse talent surrounding him. "I’ve had the privilege of working with an amazing group of estimators, each bringing different backgrounds and decades of experience to the table," says Jorge.
He notes that while the role of an estimator can sometimes be overlooked, the "behind-the-scenes" work produced by this team is what provides the foundation for every successful build. By learning from his peers' varied perspectives, Jorge continues to refine his own craft, ensuring that the precision he learned in the military is matched by the collective wisdom of his colleagues.
The Road Less Traveled
Jorge is living proof that there is no single “right” path into construction, and that some of the strongest leaders carry with them lessons and transferrable skills from vastly different backgrounds and experiences. Construction estimating allows Jorge’s perspectives and purpose come together, serving his communities in ways that will stand for generations to come.
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