Oregon Top Project Manager - Bill Maibusch
DPR Leader Keeps it Light at Rogue Valley Jobsite

Senior project manager uses humor to facilitate a successful working environment.

by Sheila Bacon

Photo by Fred Stockwell/Fred Stockwell Photography

Some say laughter is the best medicine. Bill Maibusch says it's a vital element for a successful construction project.

The 47-year-old senior project manager with DPR Construction (Redwood City, Calif.) makes sure to keep things light at the Rogue Valley Medical Center expansion and renovation jobsite, even when the tricky, multi-phased, $76 million project doesn't seem very funny.

"This can be a tough business," said Maibusch, who holds bachelors and masters degrees in architecture, but has worked solely in construction since graduation. "If we can't find one thing to laugh about each day, it's been a tough day. Even if that laugh has to come at my expense sometimes, I don't mind."

Seems Maibusch's project team has taken him up on the offer. Maibusch took a week's vacation recently, and his crew pieced together a cardboard likeness of him, propping it up around the jobsite in his absence. When the crew later gathered in DPR's Redwood City offices for a presentation of the job, the look-alike resurfaced in a Powerpoint presentation.

"It was probably a little embarrassing for him," said George Pfeffer, DPR regional manager and Maibush's boss, "but everyone laughed. It built camaraderie, and they had fun with it."

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Getting Down to Business Maibusch also knows when to get serious, and he's had to on the Medford, Ore., medical center expansion job. The project involves a 250,000-sq.-ft. steel addition and an 80,000-sq.-ft. renovation of the existing facility, as well as a new parking garage, a new helicopter landing pad and extensive utilities relocation and site development. The job's mind-bending schedule involves shuffling departments from one area to another to ensure that the hospital remains open and unimpacted during the 29-month job. The project has been divided into six phases - almost 4,000 activities of work - in order to ensure smooth transitions and uninterrupted hospital operations.

"There are many projects within a big project; that's what makes this so complicated," said Mark Powell, project manager for Asante Health System, the project's owner. "That takes a lot of coordination. He's a good leader, and his team responds to his leadership very well."

"There are a lot of people on the site, and he's clearly got a handle of what they're all doing and keeping them all dancing to the same tune," said Erik Goodfriend, Mahlum Architects' (Portland, Ore.) project manager for the design team. "That's important on a job this big."

A Leader from the Beginning

Empty nesters, Maibusch and his wife moved to Medford from Puyallup, Wash., for the hospital job. Born in Chicago, Maibusch came to the Pacific Northwest in 1980, and worked as a project engineer on construction of the west wing at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. Coincidentally, he found himself back at the same hospital 20 years later as senior project manager for the subsequent $31 million addition to the wing.

Maibusch worked as a carpenter while attending college. He earned his architecture degrees from the University of Illinois, funded by the Evans Caddy Scholarship. Maibusch continues to support the academic scholarship program - which awards high school students who have caddied at a golf course for at least two years, maintain good grades and demonstrate a financial need - financially and through his involvement in its Washington State scholarship selection committee.

The scholarships are reserved for students who embody exceptional leadership abilities, a trait that has served Maibusch well throughout his construction career, but particularly on this most recent project.

"He takes the engineers who are right out of college and takes a lot of time with them to help them understand the process and the big picture," said Pfeffer. "He enjoys it."

Maibusch believes in creating a good team, and with a good team comes project success.

"The best projects I have worked on also had the best teams on them," he said. "Great teams are made up of individuals working at their best performance. A good leader is someone who creates an environment that allows individuals to perform at their best level. My greatest job satisfaction comes from helping team members develop their individual skill sets to make them better project superintendents, engineers, accountants, et cetera."

It's likely not a coincidence that Maibusch's project teams are typically hard working, good communicators and motivated. He makes sure to foster those attributes by respecting his crews and showing his appreciation for a job well done. When the team finished Phase A, for example, they gathered after work for an evening of bowling. It's not unusual for some of Maibusch's crews to show up at his house for dinner, and his wife sends Maibusch to work on Tuesdays with baked goods for the weekly team meetings.

"You've got to take the time to compliment people," said Maibusch. "All too often we get caught up in the activity and we don't take the time to show positive reinforcement."

It seems those extra perks are keeping the team happy.

"His wife makes some killer cookies," said Goodfriend.