Doug Woods, cofounder of Redwood City, Calif.-based DPR Construction, passed away peacefully at his home on May 19, according to a statement released by the company. He was 70 years old.
The cause of death and the names of family survivors were not immediately available.
With partners Peter Nosler and Ron Davidowski, and $750,000 in pooled resources, Woods launched DPR as a self-performing general contractor in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1990. (The firmâs name derives from the initials of the foundersâ first names.) âWhen we started DPR, we wanted to be a customer-focused organization,â recalls Woods, who always saw DPR as a service business. âWeâre not a hard-bid general contractor; weâre a negotiating, self-performing general contractor that takes care of our customers. To do that, we need great people, who are happy and willing to work hard. Thatâs one of the things that started us, making us different from the very beginning.â
By 1995, DPR ranked third on Inc. Magazineâs national fastest-growing private companies listing. And over more than 30 years, Woods, Nosler and Davidowski watched their business expand into one of the industryâs largest GCs, with roughly 6,500 office and craft employees worldwide and more than $6 billion in revenue in 2019, the latest year for which sales information was available.
Woods stepped back from day-to-day management of the firm in 2015, but stayed on DPRâs Management Committee until 2017. He served as CEO on the firmâs board of directors until his passing.
CONSTRUCTION IN HIS BLOOD
DPR Construction's Doug Woods emphasized team building and customer service.
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Born in Ontario on January 27, 1951, Woods was the son of an engineer. His family built or remodeled every house that Woods lived in growing up, and his father worked in construction and real estate. âBeing in the construction field is in my blood,â Woods was quoted as saying.
DPRâs first ground-up project was a skilled-nursing facility for The Terraces in Los Gatos, Calif., and healthcare has since been one of its primary practices. The firm hit $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 1998. But Woods wasnât interested so much in milestones. âFor us, there has been no single defining moment but a series of opportunities and challenges that have impacted the company DPR is today and made us stronger.
The companyâs unregimented management styleââNo titles, no ties, no org chart,â Woods told the San Francisco Business Times in 2015âfound its success in collaborative teamwork, which is palpable in the reminiscences of several colleagues and employees.
TEAM BUILDING MORE WORDS
âI only had the privilege of meeting Doug maybe six times. From a guy who came up from the field and had limited education, Doug really showed me what âno rank in the roomâ meant: âDonât ever forget, we exist to build great things,â â recalled Robbie Thomason, a senior superintendent who has been with DPR for more than seven years.
David Ibarra, a 25-year company vet who directs the firmâs mission-critical group, remembers meeting Woods as a new employee doing electrical on a complex project. Woods wanted to know if Ibarria was getting the management support he needed in the field to execute his job. âIf not, he told me âjust call them out.â I had a founder talking to me directly, and ensuring that I was empowered to do my role.â
Kurt Wallner, a Project Executive at DPR, first encountered Woods in May 2000, when the latter was laying out the firmâs 2030 Mission. âHearing Doug talk about a vision for DPR, decades into the future, I knew right then that I was joining something very, very special.â
Woods served on the Construction Industry Roundtable and was a board member with U.S. Green Building Council. And his legacy at DPR could, in part, be defined by Mission 2030, the firmâs strategic focus to be recognized as one of the worldâs most admired companies by that year.
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