“Every project is its own Mona Lisa,” says new Hill International First Vice President Chad Koelling. “It’s one of the unusual aspects of the construction industry—no two projects are ever exactly the same.”

Based in Hill’s Phoenix, AZ, office and responsible for the company’s operations across the Mountain West, Chad’s career to date reflects the approach of treating every project according to its specific challenges and needs. However, he also stresses that capturing and leveraging best practices and lessons learned to benefit project down the line is a process more PM/CM firms should, if not must, embrace, to be successful in today’s data driven, resource constrained market.

“Knowledge transfer is going to become even more and more critical in the years ahead,” he explains. “As long-time SMEs, PMs, and agency leaders look to retire, we need to make sure we’re not losing that expertise.”

Chad speaks from experience. As a superintendent both in the Midwest U.S. and, then with Sundt Construction across the Southwest U.S. on a variety of demanding projects, Chad drove progress through collaboration and cooperation on site and learning from clients and colleagues. This mindset helped earn Chad the Superintendent of the Year award with Pasquinelli Construction and Project Manager of the Year with Sundt.

Following his contracting work but still early in his career, he canvassed mid-level project and portfolio managers across Jacobs Engineering—a global AEC company—to learn their pain points. His findings were surprising: opaque, lack of, and/or out of date data was leading to a largely reactive approach to project risks and challenges. To help solve this problem, and on his own initiative, Chad taught himself SQL and started querying project databases.

“I created a project ‘baseball’ card,” he says. “But instead of hits and RBIs, I had indicators, KPIs, etc. A PM could use this information to spot potential problems before they hit cost and schedule drivers, and come up with recommendations proactively.”

Chad’s initiative and the success of his tracking tools saw him quickly advance with Jacobs, rising to leadership roles in growing the high-tech manufacturing business line, and, ultimately, developing and executing global growth strategy for a $300 million-plus annual portfolio of projects and programs. As he did during his contracting days, he would go on to win numerous company awards for his performance, innovation, and client service.

With Hill, Chad plans to maintain his focus on data-driven decision making and pair it with the company’s emphasis on PM/CM thought leadership, client trust, and sector expertise.

“Every market, like every project, is different,” Chad says. “Phoenix is not Denver, and New Mexico is not Utah. The opportunities may all be driven by population growth, but the challenges and opportunities vary dramatically. What isn’t different is the demand for PM/CM support to meet those challenges and maximize those opportunities. That’s industry wide across the region.”

In Arizona, Chad sees the continued population boom pushing up costs, but also a blooming ecosystem around such as tech-driven battery and chip manufacturing, from suppliers to transport and related facilities. “Arizona is really good at keeping up with its infrastructure needs,” he explains. “That attracts businesses, especially smart businesses like technology companies, and their employees and suppliers create further demand for access to culture, jobs, education, and more. I don’t see any of this stopping any time soon—and one of the things I know Hill can offer are creative ways to help owners control their costs in this environment.”

Elsewhere in the region Chad sees the same need for PM innovation. “In Colorado, in addition to infrastructure growth, you have aerospace and technology companies expanding, while in Utah mining and manufacturing seem poised to take off. And, in New Mexico, projects related to education and energy transmission may be coming down the pipeline soon. It’s an exciting time in an exciting part of the country. I don’t think a shortage of opportunities will be an issue.”

Chad says Hill is ready to take advantage of those opportunities: “I came to Hill for several reasons, one of which is the company’s client-first focus. This is the right approach for these markets. I haven’t been with Hill too long yet, but in the Phoenix office I’m already impressed with the expertise and commitment of our team.”

Chad adds he also came to Hill to be a part of the Global Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. family of companies. “I’ve worked for companies using most ownership models, and GISI’s employee ownership model is the best.”

Senior Vice President, Western Region Manager Greg Heinz, will work with Chad to help him build the region and continue Hill’s success in Phoenix and beyond. “Chad comes to Hill with a track record of success and abundance of confidence,” says Heinz. “I know we’re going to make good things happen for our team and our clients across the region.”