John Ferrante
CEO, Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts
Age: 39
Industry experience: 10 years
As it began its second century representing Bay State building contractors this year, the trade group Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts is bringing standardized safety training to the region’s largest construction companies. Under its CEO since 2021, John Ferrante, AGC has augmented its traditional advocacy and lobbying role with an elevated emphasis on bringing its 200 members up-to-date on industry practices in areas such as safety, workforce development and employee wellness. Ferrante succeeded Bob Petrucelli, who led AGC for 34 years, and was previously associate executive director of the union subcontractors group Building Trades Employers’ Association.
Q: What is preventing the industry from complying with the Boston Resident Jobs Policy, and is the current requirement for 51 percent Boston residents, 40 percent people of color and 12 percent to women on major construction projects realistic?
A: A goal can always be realistic, it’s when people start to think about them as requirements where it’s a challenge. If you look at the progress since the BRJP came online [in 1983], the industry has made great strides trying to achieve those goals. The number of women on job sites has doubled over the last decade. People of color is up over 40 percent. It’s going to be difficult to meet the Boston resident requirement, but if the goal is to diversify the industry, it’s accomplishing that goal. Residency itself is a little bit of a trickier nut to crack, because you obviously can’t tell people where to live. If somebody is going to get paid the living wage and unlock that middle-class dream of buying a house, for a lot of the people in Boston, you’re really not going to be able to accomplish that.
Q: Boston and Cambridge this week announced a new supplier diversity initiative. What can the AGC do to support those goals?
A: It’s a challenge. I just sat on the public construction projects advisory council, formed by an executive order of the governor, and the state is talking about how to improve supplier diversity statewide on the public construction projects. It’s an issue where you’ve got to try a lot of different things and see what works. The underlying issue is we need to get more diverse businesses up and running so they can grow and take on significant proportions of work before we hit or exceed the calls that are out there.
Q: Has the construction labor shortage lessened because of the recent slowdown in development?
A: No, it actually hasn’t – which I think is a positive for the industry in terms of being able to attract and retain talent. But it is definitely still a challenge. We need to grow our workforce 6 percent a year for the next 10 years, and that is going to be a real challenge. Construction has to carve out a place and change the misperception that it’s dirty and physical and unsafe.
Q: Are there skill gaps related to the new local and state climate regulations applying to new development?
A: We have a lot of people who are well experienced working in the industry and a lot of people who are trying to break in and cut their teeth and figure out where they fit in and make themselves indispensable. In the same way that being fluent in technology has helped young people build job security, these green building certifications are as well.
Q: What are the top priorities for AGC in the next year?
A: Most of the trade associations are very hardcore advocacy organizations, looking at lobbying on Beacon Hill and regulatory issues. We certainly still do that, but a lot of what we are focusing on now is trying to help the whole industry taking a concerted approach to the bigger issues such as energy and sustainability. Workforce development is a huge one. Our foundational program is the building advancement externship. It’s a week-long emergent program for educators from public schools. They come in and see job sites and a union training center, and they go to general contractors’ headquarters to see what the office environment is like. It’s mostly for secondary schools.
Q: How is AGC coordinating safety and wellness programs across the industry?
A: We recently launched the first-of-its-kind universal safety orientation that we shared among 12 general contractors including some big names like Gilbane and Shawmut Design and Construction and a few others. We need to make it easier on the trades and subcontractors to deliver high-quality safety programming. It launched in January, and we have over 13,000 workers that have gone through the orientation.
It’s got all of the employers speaking the same language on safety. Tradespeople who might go from a Gilbane job site on Monday to a Turner job site on Tuesday. You might see the same poster or orientation job site to job site, which is really impactful in terms of driving that conversion. It’s a 30-minute orientation on a software platform and a test you go through. They can upload their credentials on their profile almost like a Facebook page. Anytime you walk onto a new job site, you go through the orientation, but if you go from one site to another, you don’t have to repeat it. So, these tradespeople who used to have to sit through a 20-minute video on VHS every time they switched a job site, now they can see they passed the certification and go through right to work.
Ferrante’s Five Favorite Local Coffee Roasters and Brew Methods
- Atomic Coffee Roasters’ Space Cadet – Americano
- Irving Farm’s Blackstrap Espresso – Doppio
- Snowy Owl’s Captain Crosby Blend – French Press
- Armeno’s Black and Tan – Drip
- Six Depot’s Berkshire Sky Blend – Drip
