To Iowa State alumnus Jon Walker, moving brings exciting and new adventures. His work on a variety of influential construction engineering projects over the years has landed him in more than a dozen states, and with every move he has acquired a little more experience and knowledge. These skills will prove useful as he begins his new position as business development manager at Skanska USA Civil.
Staying close to home
Walker, originally from Des Moines, Iowa, remembers the day the Iowa State Engineering recruitment officer visited Lincoln High School. As a student in search of a passion and who was strong in math and science, Walker listened intently as the representative described the engineering of a Jeep that could go underwater and the workings of engineering within the US Army.
Intrigued by the industry, Walker attended Iowa State as an undergraduate, and with only a vague idea of what he wanted to do in the future, he was in need of some guidance. During his freshman year, he received that direction when each department visited his introductory engineering class. “I have never seen myself as the type of person that would sit at a desk all day,” explains Walker. “When the construction engineering department came to talk to my class, I was very interested in the building aspect they discussed with us, and I instantly decided that was the best choice for me.”
Exhibiting an inner restlessness early in his studies, Walker worked hard throughout his construction engineering classes and was eager to begin putting his knowledge to work. In the middle of pursuing his degree, he got the opportunity to co-op at Green Construction Company in Des Moines. Although the co-op pushed his graduation date back a year, he gained valuable insight into the industry and discovered an “in” that would help him get a job post-graduation.
When he received his bachelor’s in construction engineering in 1980, he was delighted to accept an offer from Green Construction, a position he says set his career and lifestyle in motion.
Following new opportunities
Walker started out as an office engineer at Green and was quickly promoted to field engineer, where he got his first project working on a dam high up in the mountains of Colorado. With enthusiasm and optimism, he packed up his belongings and made the first stop on what would become a long list of moves.
After completing the Colorado project, Walker began working on assignments all across the world, and because the projects often took a considerable amount of time to complete, he had to find new residency for each job. During his eight years with Green, he moved a total of 12 times to places such as Wyoming, West Virginia, Alaska, Guyana (South America), Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.
While he was enjoying his experiences and work, he faced a few changes he didn’t initially anticipate. He and his first wife went through a divorce, and after he relocated to New Jersey to work on a major highway as a project engineer, Green was sold to an Australian company that shortly after went out of business. Despite the hardships of these major life events, Walker didn’t slow down. He began looking for work elsewhere, and also met his new wife, Dolores (De), who he is happily married to today.
Not long after their marriage, Walker accepted a job at Granite Construction in California, where he completed estimates for contracts. He then moved to Utah after Granite was awarded an $80 million project to build the Jordanelle Dam. Following this project, he moved to Dallas, Texas, to work on a transportation job and received the Partnering Award from the Texas Department of Transportation. Walker settled in at Texas for a while, and completed 17 construction contracts in just seven years.
In 1998, he made yet another major move, going back to Utah to work on one of the largest projects of his career. He served as segment manager for the $1.3 billion reconstruction of 17 miles of Interstate 15, part of which went through downtown Salt Lake City. The project was commissioned in conjunction with the 2002 Winter Olympics, which kept Walker and his team on a tight schedule. Working long hours, he managed to keep his staff on task and finish the project by deadline.
With the success of such a sizeable contract under his belt, Walker began thinking about the next step in his career. “After the I-15 job, I realized I enjoyed the challenge and complexity of the major projects, so I began pursuing the larger contracts,” he explains. During this pursuit, he found himself in another move, this time to Phoenix, Arizona, to work for Archer Western. He didn’t stay in Arizona long before relocating to Archer’s Florida location in Jacksonville.
While his family had been happy with moving from place to place, his kids were getting to an age where moves were becoming more difficult and stressful. “Moving was pretty easy with the kids up until their teenage years. Once my oldest child was in high school, we began to establish our roots in Florida,” says Walker.
Settling Down
In Florida, Walker continued his work as a senior project manager for Archer Western. It was a time when design-build contracts were emerging into the industry, giving him an exciting, new direction to follow. “I was able to use my engineering skills even more with design-build contracts by working with civil engineers on the design side and construction engineers on the construction side,” he explains. In conjunction with these contracts, Walker had the opportunity to work on many multi-million dollar projects.
Toward the end of Walker’s seven years with Archer Western, he moved to their Tampa location following his children’s graduation from high school. Although he still resides in Tampa today, he has the opportunity to move back to Jacksonville, an advantage offered with his recent appointment as business development manager at Skanska USA Civil in Florida.
The transition into his role at Skanska has been very smooth with his change in job responsibilities. Taking a step back from the hands-on work he was so enthusiastic about in college and throughout his career, he now spends a majority of his time pursuing work for the company and assisting in developing opportunities to get contracts for large projects.
Realizing there comes a time in everyone’s life when they must gain some stability, Walker says he enjoys the differences in the job. “I like being away from operations and the constant under-the-gun feeling that comes with making decisions on the job site,” he explains. “I really enjoy being able to control my schedule and not being woken up in the middle of the night to run out to a job site.”
As his children are getting closer to their college graduation dates, Walker is beginning to think about his future. “I am finally at the stage in life where I am ready to settle down,” he admits. “With that said, I see Skanska as the company I will stay with until I retire.”
Focusing on his contributions to Skanska in the immediate future, Walker says he looks forward to landing large construction contracts for Skanska and helping develop the engineering staff needed to build the work, including returning to Iowa State to recruit young engineers.