You might say that Paul J. Choquette Jr., chairman of Gilbane Inc. and the sixth member of his family to head the 134-year-old construction and development company, was born to leadership.
That may be true, but Choquette also has spent at least five decades studying, practicing, teaching and encouraging leadership. His wide-ranging career has included serving under former Gov. John Chafee, major roles in the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, co-chairmanship of the, and – at his day job – heading a large, prosperous, competitive business and the family that runs it.
Is it worrisome to carry much of the responsibility of a big, national company that is managed and owned by multiple generations of family members? Choquette laughs at the question. “It feels wonderful,” he said. “I am seeing enormous success as we pass the baton to my cousins. I feel like we are all contributing to the legacy.”
Choquette, who is being recognized for Business Leadership in the 2007 Providence Business News Business Excellence Awards, acknowledges, “I have been involved in a lot of organizations that give you an opportunity to demonstrate leadership.”
Gilbane Inc., the parent company of Gilbane Building Co. and Gilbane Development Co., was founded in 1873 as a family-run carpentry shop; it is now in its fourth generation of family ownership. It has 30 offices across the United States and employs 2,100 people. Revenue was $3.27 billion in 2006. (Choquette, who joined the company in 1969, is the son of Virginia Gilbane Choquette; three of his cousins lead the building and development companies.)
Two of his great models, Choquette says, were his uncles, Tom Gilbane and Bill Gilbane, who set down some essential principles for the company: emphasis on the needs of customer, involvement in the community, and maintaining Gilbane as a family-owned enterprise.
That last element is crucial for the future. Choquette and other Gilbane family managers have put a lot of effort into building a strong succession plan for the business, always emphasizing that Gilbane Inc. is “a legacy, not an asset” for the family members who manage it and own stock in the company.
“There is a danger in a family business of complacency; the owner is making a decent living and the business goes on year after year not trying to reinvent itself,” Choquette said. “But you need to reinvent yourself if you are going to be fresh and challenging for your employees. This is not just about us family members sitting around a table and nodding at each other.”
To keep the business from becoming “too insular,” as Choquette puts it, he has established a board of directors made up primarily of non-family members.
Choquette also has sought guidance from the Owner Managed Business Institute on how to keep a family business healthy.
“We are not the first family to try to maintain this type of structure,” Choquette said. “In other parts of the world, some family businesses have been running for hundreds of years. The institute helps us understand the best practices used by others.”
The company is now cultivating a fifth generation of managers, but requiring first that any family member work at least three years elsewhere before joining Gilbane. “They need to build a sense of self-confidence; they need to be tested around other people who are not worried about who they are,” he said.
After graduating from Brown University in 1960, Choquette received an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1963. He says his “most important” early job experience was as legal counsel to Gov. John Chafee in the mid-1960s, before he joined Gilbane.
“He was an extraordinary man,” Choquette recalled, with a tone of deep appreciation. “He was in public service for all the right reasons; he was a good delegator, but he was still involved in important decisions; he had the ability to bring people together regardless of their ideologies; he was never full of himself. He sought different points of view.”
Choquette added, “These are the qualities I try to bring to my work.”
Choquette says he gleans other management principles from other sources. For example, he noted that Polaroid’s mission statement declares that “an employee is a resource that is never fully developed.”
The importance of helping employees develop to their full capacities helped propel Choquette to create a network of regional offices across the United States. Besides expanding the business, one value of regional offices is that Gilbane employees can put down roots in other communities rather than have their family lives disrupted by constant moving or travel to and from Providence.
“If you believe that people are the most important ingredient in the mission of your company, you look at everything you do from that perspective,” Choquette said.
Along with the governor, Choquette also is co-chairman of the R.I. Economic Policy Council. “This state is hardly a nirvana of opportunities, especially for young people,” Choquette said. “We have a brain-drain problem. We need to develop a vision and the steps to get there.”
But with all that he has got on his plate, why does Choquette need the extra trouble of wrestling with the state’s economic future?
“I am a policy junkie,” he said, simply. “I am interested in all aspects to government. I am a Rhode Island guy; I care about the state.”
Richard Carolan, a vice-president at Oppenheimer & Co. in Providence, met Choquette on the Brown University football field in the late 1950s. He remembers Choquette’s early days at Gilbane and the lessons that Choquette absorbed from the generation before him.
“His uncles stressed that teamwork is important and Paul has built upon that,” Carolan said. “He is a warm, engaging person, and a very honorable man. With Paul, you get what you see.” •
