January 30, 2007

Capturing kid's interest at a young age and holding it until they start thinking about a career is key to attracting the best and the brightest to the industry, says Matt Stainton

Associations

TCA chair living a childhood dream

PCL's Matt Stainton new TCA Chair

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Matt Stainton set his sights on a career in construction at an early age, spending hours as a child peering through holes in plywood hoarding.

Nowadays, the new Toronto Construction Association chair is on the other side of plywood working as senior project manager on special projects for the employee-owned PCL Constructors Canada Inc. in Mississauga.

As a student, he got his feet wet working on a co-op assignment at PCL on the BCE Place project and later joined the company in 1995 after graduating from university.

“It was a company that appealed to me,” said Stainton, who has an economics degree from the University of Waterloo and a management studies diploma from York University’s Schulich School of Business.

He made his debut as a project co-ordinator on the National Trade Centre, and was mentored by the “legendary” PCL construction manager Mike O’Malley. Stainton subsequently acted as project manager on a number of developments, along the way gaining experience in business development and marketing, working with longtime PCL corporate development director Joe Watson.

“Joe was almost like a second father to me,” Stainton recalled.

In addition to his responsibilities in the special projects realm, Stainton serves as relationship manager for national partnerships with organizations such as the Bank of Montreal.

Matt Stainton takes over as TCA chair today during the association's annual general meeting. A member of the Young Construction Executives Club, Stainton sees importance of recruiting young people to the industry he has loved since a child.

PCL Constructors Canada Inc. is responsible for most of the PCL family of companies’ construction activities in central and eastern Canada.

Active in both construction and business circles, Stainton has served on the TCA board of directors for the past seven years.

A member of the Young Construction Executives Club (YCEC), Stainton speaks frequently to teachers, guidance counsellors and students about opportunities in the industry.

He got involved with TCA early in his career, sparked by the networking opportunities the association provides.

“Once I got there, I saw a lot of things that interested me in terms of both personal and career growth and helping out the industry.”

The TCA named an award after him, the Matt Stainton Top Gun Award, in recognition of his success in recruiting new members. He has won his own award five times. In 1999, Stainton received the TCA’s Distinguished Volunteer of the Year Award.

Stainton noted TCA has emerged from a period of transition following a changing of the guard in the senior management ranks.

“We’ve tried to take slow and steady steps,” said Stainton, who headed up the search committee that interviewed candidates for the position of president.

“We’ve got that first year behind us now. Things have gone remarkably well, considering that the top two executives changed.”

Those positions are occupied by president John Mollenhauer and executive vice-president Kim McKinney.

The association, with more than 2,220 members, recently completed a long-range planning exercise.

As part of that process, it identified some key priorities. These include making a renewed commitment to the Construction Institute, upgrading the association’s communications infrastructure and promoting careers in construction via the speakers’ bureau.

Stainton is keen on inspiring a new generation of construction professionals.

“What we’re talking about in the long-range plan is going after what I call the Bob the Builder generation,” Stainton said in reference to the popular children’s television program.

“If we can capture kids’ interest in say grade 3 and maintain it until grade 10 or 11 when they are starting to think about career choices, we hopefully can attract the brightest and the best to our industry.”

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