John Hoogwerf

Background

About John Hoogwerf

Growing up I was always told it was better to be “a jack of all trades and a master of none” and that “no matter what job you’re doing, it was always worthwhile to do it to the best of your ability.” I’ve spent over 20 years working in the heavy civil industry with those philosophies in mind. I started out performing QC work at an asphalt plant my father ran before I pursued an education, and through that received opportunities to follow different avenues within the industry. After my tenure in school I began working as a construction grades a layout person and enjoyed uncovering the unknown variables that can occur in a roads reconstruction project and fitting the new data into the design. I moved into site supervision and applied the knowledge I learned as a gradesman to efficiently run contracts and discovered a new variable to learn about, my work crew.I moved into a site superintendent role and got the opportunity to manage several large full reconstruction projects within Kingston’s downtown core. Studying the interactions between the different crews and trades and utilizing and coordinating their efforts effectively quickly became my new career focus. During this time I began looking at our workforce and how we could develop our people to both compliment their inherent skillsets and fill needs within our organization.When I received the opportunity to become the Construction manager and oversee all of our operations, I was able to make my focus and passion people development, mentoring, and promotion of the industry. I actively participate in my local OACETT chapter and promote my colleagues to pursue their professional designations with OACETT and the CCA Gold and Red Seal programs. When I’m not working I enjoy spending time training at the gym, hiking or snowshoeing through the woods, or mountain biking. When I need to satisfy my creative side you can usually find me doing landscaping, trying new recipes in the kitchen, or painting landscapes of the places I hike through.My years within the different aspects of the construction industry have provided me with a well developed problem solving skillset, a natural ability to mitigate damage or loss within a system, and a keen eye to make design work in the field. I continue to look forward to continue to develop my leadership and mentoring skills within the industry.