Gilbane Inc. changes the landscape on job sites and the community

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Most of the meetings at Providence construction company Gilbane Inc. begin with what Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Gilbane Jr. calls a “Gilbane Cares” moment. The practice has become a way to prioritize the safety of job sites and the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

“It’s about making a difference in our environment, [and] in the communities we live in,” said Gilbane, who is the seventh family member to lead the organization in company history. “Every board meeting, every job meeting, we have some Gilbane Cares moment. And it’s been a big part of our culture over the last 13 or 14 years.”

The Gilbane name is familiar to many Rhode Islanders. The company has partnerships with Hasbro Inc., Brown University, Lifespan Corp. and the University of Rhode Island. Gilbane has expanded into a number of other offices across the country, has more than 3,100 employees, and has made it a mission to invest in cultivating diversity within the organization and the wider community.

Gilbane helped lead Construction Inclusion Week as a founding member. The weeklong event, which had its second year in 2022, focuses on building awareness for how construction companies can cultivate greater diversity and inclusion. Thomas Gilbane says that 2,500 firms participated in that effort and each workday had a different topic.

“The group of six of us that work together pay for minority consultants to help us with the agendas and communication,” Thomas Gilbane said. “Our industry in general is about making a difference, building facilities, financing facilities. But there are other ways beyond just the physical work that we do that we’re trying to focus on.”

Thomas Gilbane says that the construction industry was slow in the past to adopt widespread diversity, equity and inclusion practices, but he says the industry is making strides. Gilbane Senior Vice President and New England Division Leader Steve Duvel said for the company to go from no conversations 25 years ago to being celebrated last year for its DEI efforts for the first time “is an example of how the industry has changed. So, it’s just been a remarkable transformation.”

Gilbane has also created what it calls the ACE Mentor program, which connects mentors with high school students in 18 states to help continue their education in fields such as construction, architecture and engineering.

“It’s great to see we’ve had high school students who started as ACE mentees, went to college, got a degree in construction management and are now working with us,” Duvel said. “It’s a really neat incubator for bringing diverse candidates into our industry.”

In 2019, Gilbane created employee resource groups for employees to participate in if they choose. More than 1,000 employees participate in groups such as those that center on Black, Indigenous and people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community and women team members at Gilbane.

“We want to be part of changing the face and the landscape, both on jobs and in our workplace,” Thomas Gilbane said.

For Duvel, part of what makes diversity, equity and inclusion so integral to Gilbane is about encouraging employees to be completely themselves at work.

“When you talk about diversity and inclusion, in my mind, it’s being able to come to work and to be your authentic self,” Duvel said. “And when I come to work, I am me, my authentic self. And I want the people that work with me to also come to work with that same level of comfort. Because when you have that level of comfort of working with your authentic self, if you bring your creativity and bring your best self to work, that’s really exciting.”

Having the national organization still based in Rhode Island is a bonus for Duvel.

“We’ve been headquartered here in Providence since 1870. And it’s fun to walk the hallways and still see family members walking the hallways, and for the headquarters to still be in Rhode Island is pretty special,” he said. “The legacy goes on and on and on.”