Turner Construction, the industry’s largest contractor, announced Monday that it has revamped its leadership structure to prepare for more of its revenue coming from advanced facility builds such as data centers and semiconductor fabs.
To help lead the transition, the New York City-based firm, which currently has $33 billion in backlog and 150 projects valued at $100 million or more, promoted Abrar Sheriff to president of its Construction Services division and Tom Reilly to president of its Enterprise Services unit.
Former Senior Vice President Lisa Ballantyne will serve as chief administrative officer, a new role to oversee key headquarters functions and drive strategic programs.
The reorganization follows Turner’s acquisition of Ireland-based specialty contractor Dornan Engineering Group, which focuses on large-scale advanced technology builds, including data centers and biopharma facilities across Europe.
With data centers, semiconductors, energy transition, industrial and biopharma expected to grow to 40% of the company’s portfolio from 30% today, the moves empower the company to more actively pursue what it described as “next generation markets.”
“Our leadership structure is in place to capture the best of those opportunities for our people and company,” said CEO and Chairman Peter Davoren in the news release. He will remain in his role at Turner and continue as chairman of Flatiron-Dragados in North America.
Abrar Sheriff
Courtesy of Turner Construction
Under the new structure, Sheriff, who joined the company in 1997 and most recently helmed its international business, will lead Turner’s core construction division.
“We have a huge focus on technology,” Sheriff told Construction Dive. “In order to address that service, we have to be more nimble. What we are trying to do is make this a project-based company where our leadership is focused on the projects and our people to make sure they have the right environment and our clients are getting the right service that they’re looking for.”
Tom Reilly
Courtesy of Tom Reilly
Reilly, who has been at Turner since 1987, will run the firm’s enterprise group, including Turner’s SourceBlue procurement unit — which sources materials for Turner projects and other contractor clients, including in Europe — as well as its engineering group and its self-perform operations.
“We have 33 billion reasons to think about these things,” Reilly told Construction Dive, referring to the company’s backlog number.
Davoren, in the release, expressed confidence in the pair’s ability to deliver as the company grows.
“Abrar and Tom’s leadership enhances our capacity to deliver seamless, integrated solutions on our projects and to our clients,” Davoren said in the release.
Lisa Ballantyne
Courtesy of Turner Construction
The company said the reorganization targets accelerated growth in Turner’s enterprise service offerings while maintaining its leadership in traditional building markets and expanding internationally.
In addition to promoting Sheriff, Reilly and Ballantyne, the firm named eight people to its executive management group. Taking on the role of managing director are:
- Rick Bach.
- Chris Beck.
- Meaghan Hooper-Berdik.
- Ben Kaplan.
- Brian Mooney.
- Matt Papenfus.
- David Robinson.
- Aaron Wiebelhaus.
The executive management group will set and implement strategy, work with local leaders and project teams to deliver the company’s portfolio and help expand Turner’s service offerings, per the release.
In 2023, Turner had over $17 billion in revenue, with $5.3 coming from advanced technology builds and another $2.6 billion originating in the health care sector. It was named the top contractor by revenue by Engineering News-Record, a position it has held since 2021 after displacing Reston, Virginia-based Bechtel, which had held the pole position in construction for more than two decades.
