McCarthy Holdings Inc., one of America’s oldest and largest privately-held construction companies celebrated its 10th anniversary of 100 percent employee ownership.
McCarthy was originally founded as a family-owned business in 1864. On April 12, 2002, Michael M. McCarthy sold his majority ownership interest in the company to its employees. As the great grandson of company founder and Irish immigrant Timothy McCarthy, he was the final family member to have an ownership interest in the firm. Today, McCarthy is structured as an S corporation employee stock ownership plan (S ESOP).
“Our new adventure began in an extremely difficult time for our nation, right after the events of September 11, 2001,” explained McCarthy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Bolen. “Despite the nation’s economic highs and lows over the past decade, employee ownership has literally transformed our company. We have experienced significant success on a wide variety of fronts, enabling us to deliver even higher quality projects on-time and on-budget. Moreover, with the addition of the ESOP, our employee owners now have an additional retirement benefit — an outstanding advantage from which all Americans could gain.”
A few notable McCarthy highlights during the past ten years include:
• Successfully streamlined processes and implemented industry-leading techniques to become one of the safest builders in America, improving safety results by more than 82 percent;
• Created MC Industrial Inc., an independent McCarthy company, dedicated to meeting the highly specialized construction needs of the industrial marketplace;
• Developed and rolled out a multitude of technology innovations to enhance efficiencies in the field, ranking McCarthy among the top users of Building Information Modeling in the industry (Building Design & Construction Magazine, July 2011);
• Launched the McCarthy Quality Without Question program, focusing on proactive planning for quality and tracking of quality incidents to improve company-wide performance;
• Tackled sustainability from the builder’s perspective, developing a unique in-house Green Training Curriculum and ranking us the 6th leading green builder (Building Design & Construction Magazine, July 2011);
• Developed and implemented the best-in-class McCarthy Build U employee-owner training and development program, ranking McCarthy No.10 on the prestigious Training Magazine 125 list (February 2012);
• Implemented the award-winning McCarthy Build for Life wellness program, increasing the health and well-being of McCarthy’s employee-owners and families.
“As a self-performing builder, McCarthy has always been known for tackling the most complex construction challenges,” explained McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill. "While many other contractors are selling out to owners overseas and moving away from performing their own work, our focus on hands-on building is even stronger than ever. We believe a true builder has a genuine command of the practice of building, better understanding how to balance schedule, cost, quality and safety so we can deliver the best final outcome. The past ten years have helped us show clients and partners the power of this approach."
About McCarthy
McCarthy Holdings Inc. includes the consolidated results of its wholly owned subsidiaries McCarthy Building Companies Inc. and MC Industrial Inc. McCarthy was founded in 1864 as a lumber business focusing on constructing farmhouses and barns around Ann Arbor, Mich. Three of the founder’s children went into the family business, and in 1907, incorporated the firm in Missouri. Over the next 50 years, the company completed projects at the World’s Fair in San Francisco, in Alaska and in the Panama Canal Zone.
In 1976, Michael McCarthy became president of the company, and soon after McCarthy began its ascent to national prominence in healthcare construction management, as well as becoming the nation’s largest design-build parking structure builder. In 1984, Michael McCarthy assumed the position of chairman of the board and led McCarthy’s expansion into semiconductor, biopharmaceutical, educational, R&D and general manufacturing markets, with the company becoming a major player in each.
In anticipation of the transition to 100 percent employee ownership, the McCarthy Employee Stock Ownership Plan was created in 1996. The company continued to expand, becoming a national leader in K-12 education, higher education, water services, industrial and federal construction. Today, McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial builders (Engineering News-Record, May 2011). Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy has approximately 1,400 salaried employees with offices in St. Louis, Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Portage, Ind.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas and Houston; Albuquerque; and San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.
For more information, visit www.mccarthy.com.
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