Alex De Martini joined Haskell in the Fall of 2023 as a Vice President of Planning and Development and became Consumer Products Division Leader in January. He has hit the ground running, and flying, with recent travels to Denver, Mexico City, Dallas, Atlanta, Switzerland, and Italy.
“I’ll go anywhere in the world in search of opportunities,” De Martini said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to help grow the division and find new customers.”
De Martini grew up in Miami and says, “I was the artist in the room, always willing to draw.”
That skill led him to the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s in architecture and a master’s in building construction.
“I enjoyed architecture, but it’s really a tough business,” De Martini said. “I decided design-build was the best path forward. That’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years. It gets back to the idea of the master builder. If I can get in front of a customer, I can talk about the schedules, cost and budgets, and I can sketch the details because I’ve done it.”
He’s honed his skills at four different industry peers.
“I have a bunch of excellent friends at Haskell, and I was trying to recruit them,” he said. “But it backfired, and I was the one who got recruited instead.
“I’m overall responsible for profit-loss. I’m in charge of finding projects, finding a way to win them, executing the contract, being involved as the team manages them and watching the projects go to successful completion.”
Competition in consumer products is intense, and since the pandemic, companies have been looking to reshore production capabilities to situate them closer to consumers and in an economically and politically stable environment.
American companies are expanding existing facilities or moving into new regions, seeking the best possible incentive packages from cities and states.
“Haskell is an integrated delivery company,” De Martini said. “We can take a blank sheet and, with our 900 engineers and skilled professionals, take it from an idea, find the property, do the layout and design, procure the equipment, build it, commission it, and help them to be successful. It’s rare to find a company that can do all that, and 80% of our projects are return business. That’s telling. We do a good job, and they keep coming back. If we can find those key companies, we can help turn them into repeat business.”
De Martini is based in St. Louis, Missouri, where he lives with his wife, Sherry, and their two high school-aged sons.
“One is into football, the other is into soccer,” De Martini said. “We’re busy with sports. I’m a huge college football fan and love the Gators. I’m also into motorsports, such as Formula 1. St. Louis now has a Major League Soccer team, and we have season tickets. We’re three years away from being empty-nesters, and I want to soak it up while I can.”
At Haskell, we take our clients’ goals as our own. We constantly innovate to ensure that we deliver world-class solutions with the best possible effectiveness, efficiency and performance. Contact us to discuss your facilities needs.
