Careers, Hiring & Workforce Development

The Future Gets Brighter Every Year

Bring a Girl to Clayco Day gives young women a firsthand look at careers in construction, engineering, design, and real estate development.

Bob Clark and a student present sustainable bioconstruction research at an ASH Scholars academic poster session.

The Future Isn’t Something That Happens to Us

Bob Clark explores how AI is transforming architecture, engineering, and construction, creating new opportunities for innovation, sustainability, and leadership.

Construction industry leaders and attendees at ENR Groundbreaking Women in Construction conference in San Diego, celebrating leadership, mentorship, workforce development, and opportunities for women in construction.

Building What’s Next: Culture, Talent, and the Future of Construction

At ENR’s Groundbreaking Women in Construction conference, industry leaders discuss talent retention, workplace culture, mentorship, leadership, and women in construction.

Aerial view of a vibrant suburban town center featuring a public plaza with a fountain, food trucks, and a large community gathering, surrounded by historic brick buildings, tree-lined streets, and nearby commercial development.

The Anatomy of a Thriving Suburb

Designing Thriving Suburbs: How Jobs, Schools, Housing, and Infrastructure Drive Sustainable Growth Across U.S. Communities

Built by Humans, Powered by What’s Next

A forward-looking perspective on AI in construction, focusing on empowering people, increasing productivity, and driving growth rather than replacing the workforce.

Modern learning takes shape at STLCC Meramec as Clayco delivers new facilities designed to support workforce development, innovation, and student success.

Creating a Future Ready Campus at St. Louis Community College

Clayco partners with STLCC, Arcturis, and S. M. Wilson to deliver new state-of-the-art facilities at the Meramec campus, supporting workforce development, innovation, and modern student learning.

Two images show construction safety meetings, with workers wearing hard hats and high visibility vests gathered indoors while speakers address them about safety and operations.

Why I Hate HR But Love Talent

Why I reject the idea of “human resources” and believes culture is built by investing in talent, not managing people as inputs or data.

CCDI students and alumni participating in hands-on learning activities at North Tech High School during Saturday Academy in Florissant, Missouri.

Building Futures Together: CCDI Alumni Lead the Way at Saturday Academy

CCDI’s Saturday Academy at North Tech High School brought together over 65 students, alumni, and industry partners for a hands-on learning day. Alumni now working with Clayco subcontractors returned to mentor the next generation—demonstrating how the CCDI community continues to build lasting change across our trades and communities.

Young boy in a hard hat and safety vest smiling at the Clayco Kids Dig construction-themed event.

When Kids Dig, Futures Grow

"Clayco’s Kids Dig event gives children hands-on experience in construction with real tools, mentorship, and inspiration. More than fun—it’s building confidence, community, and futures.

Construction workers pouring and leveling concrete at a job site, wearing safety gear including helmets, gloves, and protective clothing.

Why There's More to the Pour with CSI

Clayco’s CSI team builds lasting structures with concrete expertise, innovation, and workforce training in Hazelwood, MO.

Building Beyond: A Real Path Forward in the Trades

Malik Johnson didn’t set out to become a pipe fitter. He was just trying to keep his family afloat. His mom was sick, they were facing hard times, and he needed steady work. He started with concrete labor. Then COVID hit, and the work dried up. He delivered food. He did odd jobs. And when the chance came to join an apprenticeship through Clayco’s Construction Career Development Initiative (CCDI), he took it.

The Power of Reverse Mentorship: What My Fellows Taught Me

When I started seeking out rising stars to be my fellow, my goal was simple", my goal was simple: create opportunities for young talent to sit at tables they wouldn’t normally be invited to. What I didn’t expect was how much I would learn in return.

Chicago’s Quantum Moment: Building a Global Hub at the South Side

Chicago is staking its claim as a global leader in quantum innovation—and last week’s Global Quantum Forum (July 23–24, 2025) was proof of that momentum.

Thoughts and Guidance for Building a Business

Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt was a big part of shaping Clayco’s brand. She’s always been a designer—and now she’s starting something new with her husband, Rob Leavitt: Pershing Works, Inc. while continuing to lead Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc., their design studio in St. Louis.

“And always and forever, you’ll be a part of this team. Our team. Graduates of the University of North Carolina,” Mia Hamm told graduates at Spring Commencement. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

June's Inspiration of the Month: Mia Hamm

If you're building something bold — a startup, a career, a movement — then you know this already: talent gets you started, but character keeps you in the game. That’s why Mia Hamm’s recent commencement speech at UNC-Chapel Hill hit home. She didn’t talk about winning World Cups. She talked about how to lead, how to last, and how to show up for the people around you when it matters most.

Bending the Arc Toward Justice on MLK Day & Beyond

MLK Day reminds us of what’s possible when we don’t back down from challenges—no matter how intimidating they might seem.

2024: A Year in Review

This year has been a testament to the power of putting people first in everything we do! 2024 brought big ideas to life and delivered meaningful achievements that improve lives, foster connections, and lay the foundation for a better future.

Celebrating Youth & Future Aspirations

This year’s International Youth Day theme is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development” as young people continue to drive the charge in digital adoption and innovation. At Clayco, we support young talent by helping them develop their skills while working alongside some of the industry's best professionals.

Creating Opportunities for Future Generations with CCDI

We created CCDI in 2015 and the program has placed over 175 people into construction-related jobs since then. This article in the AP highlights the progress and challenges that persist since this tragedy took place 10 years ago

CCDI’s Build our Future Scholarship Ceremony

Clayco is committed to championing DEI as the best path forward, recognizing its power to unite, empower, and drive meaningful change – and alongside many other sponsors, the Construction Career Development Initiative (CCDI) is one way that we do that!

Skilled Trades Day: Honoring the Backbone and Future of Industries

Skilled Trades Day is the perfect moment to acknowledge the importance of the long list of craftspeople who are the backbone of sectors like construction — the carpenters, electricians, technicians, welders, masons, plumbers, painters, and more.

Seeing is Believing at ‘Bring a Girl to Clayco’ Day

Our team is working to foster meaningful change from the ground up in everything we do. That’s why Clayco’s Network of Women (NOW) was thrilled to host our fourth annual ‘Bring a Girl to Clayco Day’, and it was an incredible success!

Building Foundations for Change with CCDI

Clayco was happy to host Executive Director Brian Williams and the CCDI folks to the new STL HQ building renovation for some on site training.

Championing Diversity during Black History Month and Beyond

Equity spotlights the imperative to address systemic disparities and level the playing field for people of all backgrounds.

Constructing Dreams & Bright Futures

If there is one aspect of Clayco that has consistently rang true since its establishment decades ago, it's that our organization is dedicated to bettering the lives of people in underserved communities. Clayco is proud to be one of the many sponsors of the Construction Career Development Initiative (CCDI), which connects youth in underserved communities with career opportunities in construction. This past weekend, CCDI hosted its first Saturday Academy session at Clayco with 25 ambitious high school students looking to expand their personal and professional development. It was an incredible success! Events like these are integral to connecting youth from under-resourced neighborhoods with career opportunities in construction. CCDI has a strong class of seniors in the program this year, and it’s great to see how the initiative helps them discover their path in construction.

Groundbreaking at St. Louis Community College

We’re breaking ground and helping pave the way toward higher education! Construction began on September 8th on the Center for Emerging Technologies and the Financial Services & Enrollment Center at St. Louis Community College’s Meramec campus. This groundbreaking is part of six new buildings planned across STLCC’s four main campuses as part of a facilities update.

Celebrating the Next Generation of Innovators

Companies that don’t invest in the next generation never last long! That’s why we love celebrating National Intern Day at Clayco, to recognize and thank our hardworking interns for their various contributions. Our team works diligently to build a better future for our communities and foster a company culture that inspires innovation. We support the ambitions of young creatives and provide them with the resources and opportunities required to bring the most complex and dynamic projects to life. Interns provide a wellspring of new ideas, fresh insights, and the energy needed to keep things moving forward. At Clayco, we help interns implement and refine their skills and collaborate with some of the best builders in America to gain crucial real-world experience. Our team focuses on creating meaningful, effective, and enduring environments that hold space for people from all walks of life.

Katie Lane Appointed as Clayco’s Chief Talent Officer

I am delighted to announce the appointment of our Clayco family’s new Chief Talent Officer, Katie Lane! Katie is a great addition to our team. She has valuable expertise driving talent results from her former role at Dale Carnegie, where she created and maintained customized learning and development solutions for large clients. Katie’s organizational effectiveness helped her successfully expand the regional footprint of the office and lead a team of almost 24 people.

CCDI Celebrates Scholarship Recipients and Graduates

Congratulations to the Construction Career Development Initiative’s (CCDI) 2023 class of Build Our Future Scholarship recipients! Clayco is proud to be one of the many sponsors of CCDI, which connects youth in underserved communities with career opportunities in construction. During the annual Build Our Future Scholarship award ceremony last week, the program awarded its largest class of recipients $170,000 in scholarships and commemorated the first four college graduates who have secured full-time employment! The newest scholars will attend Missouri S&T, Drury, and Prairie View A&M.

CCDI Reaches New Communities and Distributes Scholarships

Clayco’s Construction Career Development Initiative has been helping bridge the inequality gap in workforce development since its inception in the aftermath of the 2015 Ferguson unrest. We have since aimed to foster the next generation of industry and community transformation by giving students the skills and tools for success by assisting with everything from teaching industry basics to securing job placement. Since the organization’s establishment, we have successfully placed 140 students into full-time roles with local companies! The impact of CCDI has been witnessed and felt by underserved demographics and people across the nation, and it is incredible to have expanded our efforts from St. Louis to Chicago and Phoenix! We aim to continue the program’s growth to serve many more locations and people. Our Clayco team has done an excellent job extending our reach to instill our people-centric and inclusive values by creating customized programs that cater to each city’s unique needs.

Adtalem Global Education Offices

Clayco’s partner company, CRG, renovated the former home of USA Today into a state-of-the-art healthcare education facility for Adtalem Global Education’s institution in Miramar, Florida. The development will include a campus for Chamberlain University and administrative offices for Adtalem’s Ross University School of Medicine, the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, and the Medical Education Readiness Program. Chamberlain University has the largest nursing school in the country and educates and empowers diverse healthcare professionals to advance the health of people, families, communities, and nations. As the international demand for healthcare professionals continues to rise, the 56,000 square feet of added modern space with classrooms, science labs, simulation care centers, and more will train future professionals and benefit communities worldwide.

Honoring Martin Luther King Jr

The third Monday every January commemorates the life and work of the American civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. Although workers across our nation generally have the day off, the best way to honor Dr. King’s legacy is to consider the holiday a “day on” with community involvement instead. Clayco’s Black Resource Group (BRG) and marketing team created this flyer to showcase events that people can attend virtually or in person in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including a day of reflection and service, volunteering, community celebrations, and more. BRG’s mission is to help provide a path toward equal opportunity and ensure that Black employees feel safe and welcome in their workspace. I strongly encourage you to attend any of the events listed to join us in creating more inclusive and equitable communities.

Newest Fellows for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis Program

The Clayco Foundation continues to reinforce the Art and Science of Building through our support of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis Fellowship program and its third class of Future Leaders! Congratulations to Linda Holyoke (advancement fellow), Jhané Perdue (artistic fellow), and Jenna Pieper (administrative fellow) for being named the 2022 to 2023 recipients. Pieper and Holyoke are also the first Fellows to join the program from my hometown of St. Louis.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th and honors the incredible Hispanic Americans who have contributed to building the foundation of the U.S. It’s an important time to understand and appreciate the culture of our Hispanic friends, family, and colleagues who, as of 2021, make up the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority at 62.6 million of the U.S. population. In the construction industry alone, Latino Americans make up over a third of the workers and are projected to account for 78% of net new workers between 2020 and 2030, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Topping Out Skye on 6th

Clayco recently completed the vertical construction of our 26-story Skye on 6th project in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona’s Roosevelt Row Arts District – and we celebrated the milestone with a Topping Out celebration! The 357,850 square foot structure was designed for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification and will contain 309 apartments, 6,500 square feet of ground-level retail space, and a 78,000-square-foot parking garage. Shepley Bulfinch is the designer for Skye on 6th and the building is owned by Hubbard Street Group. The high rise is scheduled for completion in summer 2023.

Developing Careers and Communities through CCDI

Clayco always does outstanding work through our Construction Career Development Initiative (CCDI). CCDI positively impacts local communities in St. Louis, Chicago, and beyond by bringing diversity to the design and construction industry. The program focuses on student workforce development, soft-skill and career preparation, hands-on learning projects, and more. One of our main goals is to connect youth in underserved communities with career opportunities that range from professional trades to college degree programs.

Constructing Centene East Coast Headquarters

Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise, invested more than $1 billion to develop an 80-acre campus for 6,000 of its employees – and Clayco is helping to build it! Construction has been ongoing since 2020 and has been developed in multiple phases – the first being the main 770,000 square-foot, Class A office building and a 2,400-space parking garage. The development will feature office space, an early childhood development center, walking trails, water features, and more! The design also highlights the campus environment with open spaces, natural light, and the site’s natural features.

$100 Million Donation to Loyola University Chicago

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020, corporate America promised to become more inclusive. Faced with public demands for social justice reforms, companies vowed to improve racial and ethnic diversity within their workforces, among their leadership ranks, and on their boards. While there has been some movement during the last two years, progress overall has been slower than expected. Corporate America is still trying to figure out how to reach equitable diversity levels and make their companies more reflective of the nation’s changing demographics.

My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future

A great book I read recently is Indra Nooyi’s new memoir My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future. Nooyi, the former chair and CEO of PepsiCo, is one of the only women to run a Fortune 50 company and among the most strategic thinkers of our time. In the memoir, she describes the events that shaped her life as a woman of color and an immigrant, from her childhood and early education in 1960s India to the Yale School of Management to her rise as a corporate consultant and strategist who was appointed to one of the most senior executive ranks in business.

Clayco’s Interns

One of the most important things we try to do at Clayco is to build for the future. This means so much more than just construction projects, and we’re always looking to invest in the next generation of builders, planners, and thinkers. Interns form an integral part of the Clayco family, and we give them some of the best hands-on experience in the industry to prepare them for their careers. I recently welcomed some of our interns to my home, and it amazes me how talented, smart, and hardworking they are. They have a lot to look forward to, and I know they’re going to do great things.

Recognizing the Women in Clayco

Clayco is more than just a design-building firm, we are strongly driven by social impact and what we can do to make a difference both Within and Beyond our Walls. We are well aware of the statistics related to women in construction. While women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce, they only make up 9% of the construction workforce. That is one of the reasons we are passionate about providing an equal opportunity for all and promote initiatives for our office and field to become more diverse and inclusive.

Arts Initiative—Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Both in my personal engagements and at Clayco, I do what I can to support and promote the arts because I believe they are crucial to our success. One of the newest initiatives we are taking on through the Clayco Foundation is a Future Leaders Fellowship program. This program is in partnership with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, of which we are members. The Future Leaders Fellowship Program is focused on diversity and inclusion within opera and arts administration. This new program will create a hands-on experience for future arts leaders and administrators from backgrounds that are underrepresented, particularly those who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color).

Employee Perspectives: Kori Jamison

I have always had a major role in recruiting because I believe the key to business success is in hiring the best and the brightest. Serendipity often plays a role in discovering truly remarkable people and Kori Jamison’s story of coming to work at Clayco is one of my favorite examples of happening upon a talented young woman who has joined Clayco and made a big impact in our company and for many other young people. Kori shares her story here:

Racial Equality, Diversity and Mentorship in CRE

A couple of months ago, I was asked to join BisNow’s Webinar on Racial Equality, Diversity and Mentorship in CRE (commercial real estate). I was joined by four other industry leaders and pioneers in racial equality, including Damona Strautmanis who served as the moderator for the event. I wanted to share what we discussed during the webinar because there are few topics as important as diversity and inclusion in the workplace. DS: Thank you for joining us Bob, do you have a fun fact to share?

Mentorship, Empowerment, and Leadership Development

Building the world that we want to live in is our responsibility, and this goes beyond just constructing buildings. If we only focus on creating opportunities for ourselves alone, the industry and the community suffer, which in turn limits the potential for everybody. Clayco is in the fortunate position to have the resources and brain power to invest back into the community and I am personally energized by our work for the business community beyond our walls.

Diversity and Racial Equality

My real wake-up call to racial inequality and the lack of diversity in my industry occurred on the very first day I opened the Clayco office in St. Louis. It was in a disadvantaged part of town and an 11-year-old African-American boy approached me asking for a job. When I told him that he should be in school, he replied that he needed to be taking care of his family, which not only made me sharply aware of the reality of inequality, but also sparked my lifelong engagement with these issues through Clayco and my personal efforts.

Penn State University West Campus Parking Garage and Infrastructure

Clayco and Lamar Johnson Collaborative are implementing our integrated approach to construct The Penn State University Park West Campus Parking Structure. This development will help accommodate growth in the area by adding approximately 1,380 to 1,670 parking spots. The project includes the extension of White Course Drive and a major roadway connection from West College Avenue to the parking structure, expanding the existing stormwater detention basin on West Campus, and more. Our LJC and Clayco teams collaborated closely with Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant, Transportation Services, and CATA teams to design the structure in the center of the West Campus.

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