Andrea Bukacek’s career in the construction industry has been one of navigating twists and turns, reassessing what meaningful growth and change looks like and returning to her roots at the company she grew up in.
Bukacek is the third generation – and first woman – to own
Bukacek Construction Group, a commercial construction company based in Racine. Entering the role in August 2019, her first few years in the top seat were punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption, labor shortages and higher interest rates.
“It’s been an interesting road since I took over the company, to say the least,” Bukacek said. “There’s always been a new challenge.”
Founded in 1963 by Bukacek’s grandfather, the company was later owned by her father, Nick Bukacek, who, after 42 years of family ownership, sold the company to his employees through an employee stock ownership plan in 2001 and retired in 2005. Andrea purchased the company from the ESOP in 2019.
“Much of the family was integrated into the business, but it was certainly a big part of my upbringing especially,” Bukacek said. “By the time I was looking at purchasing the company, the Bukacek family had not really been involved for many years, since 2005.”
‘Steady and moving forward’
Having grown up in the company, working in the office during summers, Bukacek spent most of her post-college career in the banking industry, primarily working in commercial lending. Seeing that the timing was right – and aspiring to do something on her own – Bukacek went back to the family business and was eager to grow it.
“My thesis was always to grow the company and to gain market share and, when COVID happened, that had to take a step back and it was more about keeping the company steady and moving forward,” Bukacek said.
The shift in perspective has stuck around.
“The goals I had completely changed,” Bukacek said. “At the time of purchasing the company, I was very focused on top-line revenue and realized that’s not really the right way to measure success.”
In recent years, a few of the company’s senior staff, who had been there since Bukacek was a kid, were reaching retirement and the company was about to enter a transition period. The company currently employs around 35 people.
“My goals really became about the organizational structure and organizational growth internally and moving forward as a sophisticated construction company, rather than just the sales mindset,” Bukacek said.
That meant reintroducing Bukacek Construction Group to the market, which was a challenging but gratifying endeavor, Bukacek said.
“When I was growing up with the company in the ‘90s, the builds that I saw were very large builds for us, we had a strong foothold in the community,” Bukacek said. “Fast forward several years and we had lost some of that. A lot of people in Racine knew who we were, our quality, our commitment, but in the surrounding areas we had lost a bit of our foothold.”
“When we got that back, letting everybody in the market know that we had the team, we had the track record, that really meant a lot to me,” she added.
Broadening the horizon
With about 12 years of banking experience and about five years of construction experience now, Bukacek is no stranger to working in traditionally male-dominated industries.
“Both banking and construction are male dominated, but I guess I didn’t really realize I picked male-dominated industries until I started to look back, so being in these spaces has certainly shaped my career,” she said.
Bukacek noted that in banking most people have similar backgrounds, typically a four-year degree and then entering the office. In construction, she’s found that to be different.
“A lot of people either came from the trades and the field, others did get a four-year degree. There’s lots of roads people take,” Bukacek said. “Navigating through that and understanding that not everybody has the same experiences was much different than in the banking industry.”
She also sees that as a potential way to get more women into the construction industry.
Starting in the trades can provide a clear pathway for women entering the industry, where they can stay in the field or eventually move to the business side, according to Bukacek. She also noted the increased popularity of construction management degrees at colleges and universities, which can be another avenue for women eyeing a career in construction.
“Traditionally, a lot of people on the construction management side came from some sort of engineering route, but I think having young adults, young women being aware of these construction management-related degrees is a good opportunity for them,” Bukacek said. “Especially women, I think more women would enter the industry if they knew about those opportunities, understood what the role would look like.”
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Andrea Bukacek. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
