Webcor 50 Year Anniversary

John Wilson brings to his current assignment 15 years in the field as a engineer, project manager, and director involved with many projects including ground-up office, garage, high-rise residential, hotel, retail, and schools, as well as commercial tenant improvements. Since then, he has spent 18 years in estimating and preconstruction, with experience ranging from detailed, hard-bid estimates to conceptual estimating and preconstruction services.

In this conversation with current Webcor Marketing VP Tom Soohoo, former Marketing VP Kerry recalls growing up with Webcor and shares her experiences bringing modern marketing to the company.

Jes Pedersen

Jes Pedersen joined Webcor in 2000, leaving Koll Construction, where he had been a project director. He initiall was a project director at Webcor, working on a number of iconic San Francisco projects. He succeeded Andy Ball as president and chief executive officer in July 2012 and has focused much of his time building a leadership team designed to guide Webcor through the challenges of the next 50 years. Jes earned a bachelor's degree in Construction Engineering Technologies from Cal Poly Pomona in 1985. In addition to his work at Webcor, Jes has been active in the community, volunteering with the Ronald McDonald House/Stanford, CityBuild San Francisco, public radio station KQED, and Rebuilding Together.

joined Webcor Builders as a Project Manager. Rich started by running Webcor’s Interior Construction division and moving into the building division a few short years later as a Vice President. In the mid-'90s when business began to take off, Rich was promoted to Executive Vice President and soon after assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer.

Janet Godfrey was honored at the end of 2020 with a Webcor lifetime achievement award as she approaches her 40th year with the company, which makes her one of the longest-tenured employees currently with the company. In this conversation with Hamza Shallwani, a Webcor senior project engineer, Janet recalls her first interview and her early days with the company, and reflects on the changes and growth she has seen.

Los Angeles-based Project Director Cicely Rice initially joined Webcor in Northern California but headed south to work on the Los Angeles W Hotel -- and she stayed. In this conversation with Webcor Communications Manager Natalie Fakhreddine, Cicely recalls hard times during recessions, the culture of the much smaller company she joined, and some of the projects to which she has contributed during her 2-1/2 decades with the company.

Webcor's VP of Marketing, Tom Soohoo, joined Webcor co-founder Ross Edwards for this informative and entertaining conversation.

Webcor Communications Manager Natalie Fakhreddine sits for a conversation with Gust Soteropulos, senior vice president and general manager of Webcor's Southern California operations, headquartered in Los Angeles. Gust joined Webcor in 2009 at the height of the recession that devastated many construction companies. With a background in the types of projects that would help Webcor diversify its portfolio, Gust helped the company move into these kinds of projects while growing the company's Southern California footprint.

Sixteen-year Webcor veteran Hank Brasch brings a unique perspective to his reminiscences and insights. While Hank enjoys helping projects get started, he brings a different viewpoint based on his role as Webcor's top lawyer and a member of the company's four-person board of directors. His observations about Webcor's culture and Core Values are particularly interesting given his role as co-chair of the Employee Experience milestone initiative, one of four under the banner of Webcor's strategic plan.

Todd Mercer remembers his first day at Webcor -- in 1995 -- like it was yesterday. Todd, a vice president in the Northern California Operations group, shares a variety of memories about projects and people in this interview. He also offers insights into technology (Todd chairs the Webcor Technology Task Force) and the future of construction (he is a co-leader of a strategic plan initiative to pilot a new construction delivery model).