Equity in Energy: APC Construction

The "Equity in Energy" event adopted its keynote address' title "Beyond Ordinary" as its theme. A panel discussion among four diverse subcontractor leaders was inspiring as well. The CEO of Trice Construction, the Presidents of APC Construction and EVS, and the Business Development Director of Blaze Contracting all brought unique perspectives on how they and similar companies nationwide can take on increasing roles in the energy transformation.
 

PUF's Steve Mitnick: What's the secret sauce of APC Construction?

Keith Porta: Our people. The group of people that we've amassed at APC is special. I don't say that to be funny or comical. It's truly an unbelievable group of men and women that comprise the company.

They're good people, they do the right thing, whether people are watching or not. They're interested in safety and making sure that they're brothers' keepers and they all go back home the way they came to work.

From that, we've built excellent relationships with our employees. They feel respected, happy, they have time off, they have good family lives, and that then turns into their giving an excellent work product.

When we hand over an excellent work product that's safe, high quality, and it's on time or ahead of schedule, the client wants to come back to us time and time again.

PUF: Give examples of some energy and utilities projects that you're proud of.

Keith Porta: We built a substation for Entergy in Huntsville, Texas. The project went great. It took many years to make that relationship with Entergy, and once we got out there, we shined.

The project took about a year, a year and a half, to do. We were ahead of schedule, solved a lot of problems, and it was quite challenging at times based on the location of the project. It opened several other doors within that utility.

We have another group that does transformer maintenance. It's a niche market, which then also opened us up into LTC work.

It's about recruiting and maintaining the right group of people, and I believe we're the premier transformer contractor in the southeast U.S. Not because of me, but because of the men and women that comprise that group.

PUF: This conference has a focus on diversity through workforce, but also on suppliers to the energy industry. Why is this topic important?

Keith Porta: Who are utilities serving? They serve everybody in the country.

I believe they're looking to find ways to connect to the people buying their power, and what better way to do that than to find ways to connect with the people that live in those communities and to put those people to work. That's the driver for having diversity.

PUF: In two, three, four years, where is APC Construction going to be?

Keith Porta: Hopefully, the same position we're in now, just larger. Employing more people, having continued to build our reputation, and equally important, our legacy.

Also, making sure we're providing quality, safe jobs back to the people in the communities that we live and operate out of, and continue to build that relationship with the utilities so they know when they call on us, they can trust us to get the job done safely and on time.

PUF: Why do utilities like working with your company?

Keith Porta: Back to the people. Someone earlier on the panel said something that's so true, and I say this often, we're really not in the construction business, we're in the people business.

We have strong relationships with, number one, our employees, and they feel they are treated right, are respected, have a safe working environment, the right tools and equipment to do the jobs, and that makes then happy, so they turn deliver quality, safe projects. That's what the client wants.

Although the client might not want to hear it, the client is really not number one, the employee is number one. If the employee is number one, it all trickles down from there.

'Equity in Energy' articles at fortnightly.com:

• Tremese Davis, Nicor Gas VP of Operations and Taiwan Brown, Entergy VP of Diversity and Workforce Strategies
• Cornell Johnson, Center for Energy Workforce Development Director of DEI
• Keith Porta, APC Construction President
• Gayl Turk, Blaze Contracting Director of Business Development
• Stephanie Hickman, Trice Construction CEO
• Andy Kim, EVS Engineering President