John Ackerman likes to build, and he’s built a lot of things – houses, warehouses, wastewater plants, schools and a man cave in his backyard in Louisiana.
He learned the ropes from his father and remembers riding on bulldozers when he was about 6, growing up in Harlingen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. He got his start building houses and pouring concrete and later moved into refinery work as a pipefitter.
In the late 1990s, Ackerman and his first wife moved to Jacksonville to be closer to her sister. And Ackerman went back to pouring concrete and building residential. His sister-in-law’s boyfriend was working for Haskell on a yacht basin; Ackerman was working for the company building the promenade around it.
The more Ackerman heard about Haskell, he decided to give them a call.
“The guy at Haskell said, ‘I need finishers.’ And I said, I can finish concrete,’” Ackerman said. “That was in 1997.”
Over the years, Ackerman worked his way up to Project Superintendent.
“I love to build. Haskell sends me all over,” Ackerman said. “I build whatever is in front of me.”
Ackerman is currently assigned to the cold storage portion of the massive Lamb Weston project in American Falls, Idaho. The building is a 250,000-square-foot freezer/refrigerated warehouse to support a production line.
“It’s a real tight schedule in winter conditions,” Ackerman said.
Brian Lasher, a Project Manager in Haskell’s Salt Lake City office, is working alongside Ackerman in Idaho. They also worked together on a Frito-Lay warehouse project in Indiana.
“John’s exceptional to work with. He’s a veteran with the company, with a wealth of knowledge,” Lasher said. “He sets a great tone. He’s receptive to the challenges subcontractors present to him. He doesn’t hesitate to jump in and find solutions. A lot of my field knowledge can be attributed to working in the field with him in Indiana: Attention to detail, how to execute in the field, understanding sequencing. He’s very hands-on.”
Ackerman has a lot of skills appreciated at Haskell, but his crews have a favorite -- his cooking. Every couple of weeks, Ackerman fires up the Blackstone Griddle and “dabbles,” as he calls it, turning out ribs, roast, brisket – even omelets.
He feels that it contributes to what he says is one of Haskell’s strengths – its family atmosphere.
“I’ve worked for a lot of companies, just as big. Haskell takes good care of their employees. It’s a family atmosphere here. They’re a great bunch of people to work for.”
When he’s not on the road for Haskell, Ackerman is home with his family in Louisiana, outside Alexandria, where he likes spending time in his woodshop using his rolling lathe to make bowls and glasses.
He and his current wife have a 17-year-old daughter. They each have an adult child from their first marriages, and there are eight grandkids between those two.
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