Gilbane Building Company Names Yvette Stevens as Director of Economic Inclusion and Community Affairs
Providence, RI – May 2020 – Gilbane Building Company today announced the promotion of Yvette Stevens to director of economic inclusion and community affairs. Ms. Stevens succeeds longtime director Linda Graves who has transitioned to a role supporting special projects for Gilbane, until her full retirement in 2021.
In this national leadership role, Yvette is responsible for the planning and execution of Gilbane’s corporate economic inclusion strategies to support Gilbane’s commitment to marketplace inclusion and diversity. She will drive Gilbane’s community partnerships and promote and engage with historically under-utilized businesses including, minority-owned, women-owned, small and local business enterprises. Yvette will work with local project teams to understand and define the needs and expectations of clients, while strengthening Gilbane’s relationships with key stakeholders and trades to enhance contracting opportunities for local businesses. To support these initiatives, Yvette will collaborate with industry organizations and associations which promote economic inclusion and training opportunities nationwide.
“We are excited to see Yvette continue and expand upon the diversity and inclusion successes that Linda has led for the past 13 years at Gilbane,” said Ryan Hutchins, executive vice president at Gilbane Building Company. “Yvette’s background in project management combined with her passion for inclusion and diversity will drive innovative strategies that benefit our clients, trade partners and internal teams.”
With over 20 years of experience, Yvette is a passionate proponent of inclusion and diversity and maintains memberships on various industry committees to build strategies for economic inclusion throughout the construction industry. Prior to joining Gilbane in 2017, Yvette served in a global project management role and her responsibilities included developing economic inclusion and community involvement strategies for both federal and local construction programs.
In addition to her operations background, she has experience promoting internal inclusion and diversity programs. Yvette is the inaugural chair of Gilbane’s UJIMA employee resource group, which promotes cultural awareness and implements inclusion and diversity strategies on behalf of Black/African American employees within Gilbane. At her previous company, she was a part of the leadership team that was responsible for organizing strategies to promote retention, recruitment and engagement of diverse employees and candidates.
Yvette holds a Master of Civil Engineering from Old Dominion University, an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University. She is a Registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
About Gilbane Building Company
Gilbane provides a full slate of construction and facilities-related services – from pre-construction planning and integrated consulting capabilities to comprehensive construction management, general contracting, design-build and facility management services – for clients across various markets. Founded in 1870 and still a privately held, family-owned company, Gilbane has more than 45 office locations worldwide. For more information, visit www.gilbaneco.com.