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ON THE MOVE PATRICIA ZACHARIE LEADS WESTWOOD’S LEGAL TEAM Westwood Professional Services, Inc. is pleased to announce that Patricia Zacharie has joined the firm as general counsel. Zacharie’s legal career spans over 25 years in both the public and private sectors. With more than half of her career serving as in-house legal counsel, Zacharie has extensive experience partnering with executive teams, supporting business clients, and executing in fast-paced, dynamic, and entrepreneurial environments. Zacharie will oversee Westwood’s Legal team and all aspects of the firm’s legal functions, including risk management and compliance, contract negotiations and client service agreements, litigation and dispute resolution, employment matters, and mergers and acquisitions. She will help guide Westwood’s growth, strategically integrating the business
goals with legal resources and related client management needs. “Pat’s experience in managing teams to effectively respond to the ever-changing regulatory environments and business transactions is key to success in our industry,” says Bryan P. Powell, PE, Westwood’s Chief Operations Officer. “We look forward to leveraging her extensive experience to continue our strategic growth.” Working in both the public and private sectors, Zacharie has advised C-suite and senior executives in all legal aspects of a company’s operations and her work has been instrumental in revenue and business growth. Zacharie has also served as a corporate board member and corporate secretary for a corporate-sponsored non-profit. Zacharie received a bachelor’s
degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and her JD from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Westwood is a leading multi-disciplined AEC industry professional services provider for national wind energy, solar energy, electric transmission, private development, and public infrastructure projects. Westwood was established in 1972 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through a focus on its people, culture, and clients, Westwood has quickly expanded to serve clients across the nation from multiple U.S. offices. View more Westwood facts. In 2021, Westwood placed No. 4 and No. 21 respectively on Zweig Group’s national Hot Firms’ and Best Firms to Work For lists, and received two awards for Zweig Group’s Marketing Excellence Awards.
ROGER MARQUIS, from page 9
❚ ❚ Lower labor costs. When it comes to the cost of using a self-perform general contractor, prices should be more advantageous for the architect or owner, because there is no middle man to factor into the project’s cost, as would be the case by using subcontractors. ❚ ❚ Increased site safety. Another benefit a self-perform team offers is site safety. A self-perform team would know the general contractor’s requirements and guidelines for safety that much more than a subcontractor, so chances are the job site would be less prone to having accidents. “To know the many benefits a self-perform general contractor can offer, it’s certainly in an architect’s and owner’s best interest to explore the opportunity to collaborate with one and see if it makes sense given a project and its scope of work.” MANAGEMENT IS KEY. While I have provided several benefits for using a self-perform general contractor, one item an architect or owner should be aware of is how well the self- perform team is managed. Here, I am referring to whether or not the contractor has the resources and tools necessary to properly manage its in-house team. For all the benefits that have been given, many of these cannot be realized if the team is not managed well and given the tools and resources it needs to properly perform its respective trades. In summary, to know the many benefits a self-perform general contractor can offer, it’s certainly in an architect’s and owner’s best interest to explore the opportunity to collaborate with one and see if it makes sense given a project and its scope of work. ROGER MARQUIS has practiced business development in the AEC and design industries for the past 10 years. Prior to this, he managed business development and marketing at his own company, where he manufactured, marketed, and sold nautically-styled travel accessory bags. Roger is active in his local CoreNet and SMPS chapters. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
the project on schedule the general contractor may assign extra painters to help out, and can do so at a moment’s notice. Here, the general contractor is in complete control, and there is no need to contact a painting subcontractor and go through the process of asking and/or negotiating for additional people to be put on the project if, in fact, they have them available to begin with. ❚ ❚ Coordination and harmony. Another advantage of having a team of assorted trades working together from one project to the next: They already know each other and how best to get the work done. It’s like a baseball team that has played a number of seasons together, where the shortstop knows instinctively how to toss the ball to the second baseman, so the second baseman can throw the ball to first base and execute a double play. In the world of construction, this all lends itself to having a certain amount of coordination and harmony on the job site, which are often unspoken attributes for a general contractor to possess. ❚ ❚ Finish ahead of schedule. By using a self-perform general contractor, there is the potential to have the project finish ahead of schedule. Here’s an example: Suppose you have a multi-room private residential project which requires a full- gut renovation. As the work progresses from demolition to framing to hanging drywall to painting, etc., what typically happens with subcontractors is that one trade will complete their portion of the project before another trade comes on the job site. While this may keep things somewhat orderly, it doesn’t help the project move along any faster than it could. Instead of waiting for all of the drywall to be hung from one room to the next, a self-perform general contractor can bring in their painting crew and have them start taping and plastering in the rooms where the drywall has been hung. There’s no need to wait. If this can happen from one stage of the project to the next, theoretically, the project could finish sooner than expected. Another way to think about it: Consider the mass production of a product versus custom- made. With mass production, a steady stream of products are made one after another in a very timely and efficient manner. With custom-made, products are made one at a time, which requires more time and there’s less efficiency. When considering this aspect of self-perform, it should not be inferred that quality needs to suffer, because it doesn’t.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 25, 2021, ISSUE 1414
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