When he arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a Director of Construction (DOC), Travis Taylor was one of four people in Haskell's office. Over the next five years, he became Director of Construction, then Market Construction Leader. He guided the office as it grew to more than 60 team members and became one of the company’s three Regional Operations Centers. 

Taylor recently returned to Jacksonville, Florida, his hometown and the home of Haskell’s global headquarters, where he has been promoted to Vice President and taken on a new building project. 

Haskell this year has evolved from distinct project delivery groups to an enterprise delivery model to best support its continued growth. Teams with similar roles and responsibilities have united to serve across all markets to deliver greater consistency and operational excellence and create more and better career opportunities. 

In the newly created role of VP of Preconstruction, Taylor will lead an enterprise-wide team that now consolidates 45 professionals from the Consumer Packaged Goods, Infrastructure & Transportation and Federal groups.  

“The hope is to elevate Preconstruction as a core function of Haskell’s operations,” said John-Paul Saenz, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “A lot of what we do hinges on proper planning. A properly planned project is a successful project.” 

The Preconstruction team is responsible for providing accurate and thorough project estimates, as well as information related to market pricing and cost indexes. Its guiding principle is to drive a process that ensures cost certainty. The team works closely with the design, engineering and virtual design and construction (VDC) teams to manage project data and provide feedback on materials and scope changes. Precon also manages subcontractor and vendor relationships and supports project management with procurement. 

Having started his career as a three-year Haskell intern and risen through the project management ranks, Taylor never concentrated on preconstruction. But his experience gave him a practical masterclass on the discipline.  

"Preconstruction is derivative of project management, so it’s a natural transition,” he said. “I think my main talents are problem-solving and people organization, which are a good fit for this phase of the department.” 

He said that consolidating the different groups’ teams and standardizing practices will be an ongoing process. 

“Over the next six months, one of our goals is to combine everyone in their functional categories,” he said. “All the estimators will be together, all the MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) folks, all the piping folks, all the controls folks. And then, all the preconstruction managers will be together across the different markets. Certainly, they will have some market specialization, especially as you go up the organizational chart. 

“I think by January we should be positioned in something that resembles a more unified structure that looks like something new. The folks are excited. We’ve got high-level talent and high-quality people, and I think all the departments are ready to learn from each other.” 

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