Who Is on the Elevate Construction Team and What Each Person Brings

Jason Schroeder                                                                          

I am on the team. I would say I am a 30-year industry professional, and I did not go to college, but I have been learning all the way, through certifications, trainings, and some great companies like Hensel Phelps, DPR, and Oakland Construction. I really love the people in construction. My experience runs from the trades as a field worker all the way up to field director and project director. You can read more about me here.

Kate Schroeder

Kate Schroeder is a certified life coach and a business expert. She is remarkably great at leadership. She is a visionary, and she is the leader and CEO who makes all of this happen. Our company would not be anything like what it is without her. She primarily raised our 11 kids, has her own education and experience in her own right, and leads this company phenomenally.

Kevin Rice

Kevin Rice is one of those builder, builder, builder types. If you put me on a home, multifamily, or commercial project and asked why we use a quarter-inch or half-inch carrier bolt for the toilet carrier behind the tile, I would not remember what all these things are called. I am not a core builder. I am a process builder. I am a genius at processes and training. Kevin is a genius at the processes and training too, but also at the materials and how to build.

If you had a problem in your house, he could solve it. He could do an upgrade. He could build you a cabin. He used to be a wilderness survival guide for hunters, so if you want to go out in the wilderness and survive, he can do that too. Kevin is the real deal, boots on the ground.

What is interesting is that you would not usually associate a builder and wilderness survival expert with being great at the numbers. But Kevin is one of the greatest geniuses I have seen in the industry when it comes to science and math. He took Dr. Marco Binninger and Dr. Janosch Dlouhy’s Takt time formula and broke it out into 12 different formulas to analyze the Takt Production System. He is a business graduate with a minor in finance, and he knows so much about the programs and the science and math behind them. It blows my mind.

Brandon Montero

Brandon Montero is a career surveyor and a field leader for construction projects. He has been in the industry for 30 years. He is a certified life coach and a master graduate, like I am, of Rapport Leadership International, and he does other types of coaching and counseling as well.

He is a training expert. He goes with me, or I go with him, to Super PM Boot Camps, Field Engineer Boot Camps and foreman boot camps, and he elevates our game. Brandon is leading our efforts in Lean logistics and all of our survey operations, and he is mainly focused on training. We really have some of the right people in the right places.

Why Does Our LeanTakt Team Speak English and Spanish?

People sometimes wonder why so many people at LeanTakt speak with a Spanish accent. Let me tell you the story.

Through Felipe Engineer, I met Elisa Lopez, a Lean expert in her own right in Mexico and now she has her own consulting company. She invited me to speak there, and I had a great experience.

Around that time, we were trying to hire more people. Our clients told me, Jason, we want business and operations consulting, but mostly we want people boots on the ground to help us plan the job, help us execute, and help us with recovery, zone control, and everything else. We tried to hire in the United States, but it was not working. People in the market wanted very high salaries, and many did not know CPM or Takt and were not willing to put in the time. I am a hard grinder. I want delivery for our clients every time.

Kate, who is the genius about everything, said, why don’t you ask Elisa if she knows anybody? We were not looking to outsource. But we met Samuel and Nico, civil engineering graduates with bachelor’s degrees from Tec de Monterrey, one of the top schools in the world. They picked up on this fast. They are hardworking, they are great people, and they speak English and Spanish. I only speak English.

Clients fell in love with them and wanted more, so we kept scaling and training. Some of them have been with us five or six years. There are people in the industry who say they are the only Takt expert in the United States, and I think that is silly, because some of these young engineers are among the best in the world. They analyze massive data centers. When companies want to win a proposal for a massive data center, rebuild a schedule, or optimize it, they call us, and these young engineers, with me, Kevin, Kate, and Brandon, are doing it at a top-tier level. They know why CPM falls short and how to plan with Takt instead.

I grew up working with Mexican crews. I do not know what the construction industry would be like without Mexico. I am proud to work with great people across North America.

How Big Is the Elevate Team?

We have employed more than 75 of the top people we can find in Guadalajara, Mexico. We also have 16 people in Pakistan who handle our social media, plus people in Europe. All together, we have a team of around a hundred people.

Some of our team members travel to help me as team guides at the Super PM Boot Camp. People come for me, and then they fall in love with these people. They tell me, Jason, I do not know where you found these people, but they are great.

And when we work in the southern United States, having team members who speak English and Spanish means we can reach everybody on the jobsite, from the project team to the crews.

What Do We Look for in People?

We do not just go get bodies. We hire the best of the best, and they are culturally aligned. That is who works at Elevate, and I could not be more proud.

So here is the challenge. Look at your own team. Do you have the right people in the right places, and are they culturally aligned? If not, start there, before you look anywhere else.

Bottom line: We do not just go get bodies; we hire the best people we can find who are culturally aligned, and that is who works at Elevate.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

On we go.

FAQ

Who is on the Elevate Construction team?

Kate Schroeder leads the company as CEO, alongside me, Kevin Rice, Brandon Montero, and our LeanTakt team. In total, we are a team of around a hundred people.

What does Kevin Rice bring to Elevate?

Kevin is a hands-on builder and a math and science genius. He broke the Takt time formula into 12 formulas to analyze the Takt Production System.

Why does the LeanTakt team speak English and Spanish?

Many of our engineers are bilingual civil engineering graduates in Mexico. Clients love them, and it means we can reach everybody on jobsites where both languages are spoken.

What does Elevate look for when hiring?

We do not just go get bodies. We hire the best of the best, and they are culturally aligned.

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