John Oneill

Background

About John Oneill

John has devoted his entire professional life to building. From 1967 to 1971, he worked summers as a laborer and a carpenter while studying electrical and construction engineering. He moved to the Bay Area in 1972 to become an estimator and project manager for E. W. Hahn Inc, a leading California shopping center developer and contractor. In 1976, when Hahn consolidated operations to SoCal, he joined Vanderson Construction in San Jose as a senior project manager. By 1977, he had become a Vice President and Director. With John’s management and leadership, Vanderson became one of the leading builders in the rapidly growing Silicon Valley. The early project names are familiar: IBM, Fairchild, Lockheed, National Semiconductor. Soon names like Intel, Hewlett Packard, Atari, and Apple were joining the completed project list. John founded J.M. O'Neill, Inc. in 1983. The new general contracting company soon grew to 60 employees and an average annual volume of $35 million dollars. From projects as small as square foot tenant improvements to as large as $25 million ground up mid rise office buildings, the list of satisfied clients continued to grow. The project names include Cisco Systems, Logitech, Intuit, Simpson Strong Tie, Netscape, Pixar, Genentech, Peet’s Coffee, Kaiser, BioRad, Level 3, Federal Express, Athena Neuroscience, The North Face and many more. The developer clients included Catellus, REEF, Chamberlin Associates, Bedford Properties, Freestone Properties, Ellis Partners, Lincoln Properties, SRM Development, Wareham Properties, and others. For over 30 years, J. M. O’Neill, Inc. completed all types of workplace construction: business parks, office buildings, warehouses, biotech labs, semiconductor clean rooms, retail buildings, medical clinics, banks, and food industry facilities. In 2014, John decided to focus upon a new interest. By then, J. M. O’Neill, Inc. had completed over 2,500 projects totaling almost a billion dollars. He sold the firm to the key employees and they continue to complete notable construction contracts throughout the Bay Area. Today, John’s new focus is offering pre-construction, management, cost and feasibility consulting to non-profits and foundations focusing upon education and healthcare. His current clients include The Chamberlin Family Foundation, The Making Waves Foundation, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Aspire Public Schools, Downtown College Prep, and Leadership Public Schools.