A Commitment to
Getting the Job Done
Q & A W I T H D I R E CTO R O F C O N S T R U CT I O N M A N A G E M E N T D O U G C O WA N
Construction is a complex process requiring
cooperation between many different stakeholders
with sometimes diverging interests. As construction
booms throughout the country, the demand for
construction managers, who supervise construction
for owners and contractors, keeps growing.
In California, the enormous growth of private
development and transportation projects has led to
tight labor market, with construction managers in
high demand.
This is music to the ears of Doug Cowan, who leads
P2S CM as Director of Construction Management.
Doug’s 30 plus years of experience successfully
managing complex, award-winning construction
projects in California and throughout the United
States, has ideally positioned him to lead P2S CM
as it seeks to expand with the overall construction
market. We spoke to him about his career
experience, his vision for the future of P2S CM, his
thoughts on the current construction boom and why
construction managers tend to be the unsung heroes
of construction projects.
Tell us about your career before P2S?
My career has been a winding road that has taken
me places I never would have imagined. I started out
wanting to be an architect. After spending a year in
the architecture program, I realized that although I
was a good at drafting, I wasn’t an artist. Knowing
I wanted to be involved in building construction, I
switched to Construction Engineering Technology.
At that time the program was an offshoot of civil,
focusing more on executing the work than designing
it. After graduating, I started as a project engineer
4
for a national insulation contractor, helping build
power plants around the country, including the
Intermountain Power Plant in Utah that supplies
power to LA. When power plant construction slowed
down, the company got into asbestos abatement.
We had insulators literally going into plants where
they had installed the asbestos insulation and were
now taking it off. I was asked if I would be interested
in becoming a project estimator and I jumped at the
opportunity, as we were inventing our estimating
procedures and writing our own estimating program,
which was a very elaborate spreadsheet. As the
asbestos market started winding down, I moved
to a sister company that was doing environmental
remediation, including superfund cleanups. I worked
on several superfund type projects, including
multiple residential remediation projects. At this
time, I was working for a contractor managing
all the subs doing the reconstruction work. As a
result of that work, I was asked to move back to
California and oversee a remediation project for the
Port of Long Beach. This was the first time in my
career that I had been asked to work as an owner’s
representative. I figured it would be similar to what
I had been doing in directing the work of subs, so
I took the job. I found that I liked the work and I
think working as a contractor for many years also
helped me to look at issues from multiple viewpoints.
Since that time, I have worked as a CM on multiple
projects for the Port and for California high speed
rail. In summary my career path has been: Project
Engineer to Estimator to Estimating Manger
to Project Manager to Construction Manager
representing owners to directing construction
managers.