McCarthy Building Companies‘ Southwest Division President Bo Calbert will be retiring at the end of the year. Calbert will be replaced by Justin Kelton starting at the beginning of 2017.
Calbert, who has been with McCarthy for 35 years, has served as president of the Southwest Division since 2000 and will continue serving on McCarthy’s corporate board of directors following his retirement.
Kelton, who has been with McCarthy’s Southwest Division since 2001, began as a project engineer and has quickly advanced through the leadership ranks, heading various business sectors, including education and most recently overseeing the firm’s commercial, municipal, healthcare, laboratory, hospitality and airport construction operations in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada as executive vice president of operations.
Calbert and Kelton have a long history of working together. The two met while working on the firm’s largest project to date in New Hampshire: the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a 1.2-million-square-foot hospital. Kelton was an 18 year-old trade laborer and Calbert was project manager for McCarthy’s Central Division. Recognizing Kelton’s leadership potential, Calbert encouraged him to pursue a future in construction.
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Kelton earned a degree in civil and environmental engineering and joined McCarthy’s Southwest Division as project engineer. Calbert has mentored Kelton through the years and together with a talented leadership team, the firm’s Southwest Division has been one of the firm’s most successful with the development of national business groups in water/wastewater and renewable energy. In addition, the Southwest Division launched business groups focused in education as well as Job Order Contracting and significantly expanded the firm’s geographic footprint in New Mexico, Nevada and Utah, while also opening a new office in Colorado.
Calbert has also been an icon in the community, serving on industry, civic and charitable boards and committees while also receiving accolades for his volunteerism and leadership. Thanks to his commitment in the community, Calbert was named Executive of the Year by the Construction Finance Managers Association and was named to the inaugural list of Most Admired Leaders by the Phoenix Business Journal. Most recently, Calbert learned that he is being named to the Presidents’ Circle of Distinction by the Association for Career Technical Education of Arizona for his work supporting career technical education.
“It’s been a wonderful and very rewarding career for me, said Bo Calbert, president of McCarthy Building Companies Southwest. “I can recall many highlights, and challenges that our teams have overcome and the significant evolution of the construction industry over the years. Now that my retirement is near, I am looking forward to shifting my focus to workforce development and several statewide education initiatives as well as my golf game while Justin and his leadership team take the lead on many exciting projects and growing our community’s future,” added Calbert.
Maintaining the firm’s culture of community engagement, Kelton serves in a leadership role with the American Heart Association’s Greater Phoenix Chapter, the Support Sky Harbor Coalition and the Arizona Builder’s Alliance. He is also involved in the American Society of Civil Engineers and WESTMARC.
“Thanks to Bo’s mentoring over the past 15 years, and our development of such an outstanding leadership team has us poised the next chapter at McCarthy Southwest, said Justin Kelton, executive vice president of McCarthy’s Southwest Division. “What’s ahead is more of the same: entrepreneurial innovation, growth and community stewardship. I’ve seen these qualities do so much for our employee-owners, our community and the industry and I look forward to working with our teams to continue building,” added Kelton.
During his 35-year career in construction, Calbert has built numerous buildings, including many points of pride in the Southwest. Notable Arizona projects include Hayden Ferry Lakeside, the Arizona State University Foundation Building, Desert Ridge Marketplace, Casino del Sol, Lake Pleasant Water Treatment Plant, the Desert Star Solar Plant, Banner Ironwood, Thunderbird and the Estrella tower expansion; as well as Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Terminal 4 and its SkyTrain 1A. Current noteworthy projects that Calbert, Kelton and McCarthy’s Arizona office are managing include the OdySea Aquarium, Yuma Regional Medical Center ED expansion, Madison Simis Elementary School, Tempe Arredondo Elementary School, the Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant Expansion, and a dozen utility solar plants located around the country, to name a few.
