Employee Spotlight: President Chris Smith, 25 years

Chris Smith didn’t really need to go to the Iowa State University Engineering Career Fair where he first learned about the construction company he one day would be named to lead as its president. He already had a couple of big time, big city internships on his resume, a firm job offer in Texas, and a feeling bred by his professors that career success lay only down that path.

But go he did, and there met representatives of Carl A. Nelson & Company (CANCO). And it changed everything.

“I got very excited to learn there are very professional, smaller companies that really are just as sophisticated as the companies I was accustomed to working for, in rural Iowa, which is where I ultimately wanted to be,” said Smith, who joined CANCO right out of Iowa State in 1998, and became president of the company in May 2023.

Smith grew up on a farm outside Fairfield, Iowa, knowing from a young age he was destined for a career in construction: projects on the farm, math and science grades that had his teachers pushing him toward a career in engineering, and summer work on a survey crew for a hometown engineering firm fueled that interest. Discovering that Iowa State had a degree program in construction engineering cemented it. So, when the chance came to work on challenging, highly technical projects while also being close to family and the outdoor activities that are his passion, it was too good to pass up.

“This is exactly where I wanted to be,” said Smith.

Some of the major touchstones of Smith’s construction career have been for Great River Health System in West Burlington, Iowa. They include replacement of the Klein Center long-term care facility, and completion of a multi-phase addition project that included new surgical facilities for cardiac catheterization and gastrointestinal procedures, as well as in-patient rehabilitation and behavioral health. Portions of the project at the hospital were built directly above the functioning Emergency Department, and adjacent to helicopter, ambulance and loading dock facilities.

“So, just extremely complicated obstacles all the way around, and under, where that space was,” Smith said.

During one of his projects for Great River, Smith met his wife of 22 years, Kristin. They are the parents of two daughters, both currently students at the University of Iowa. Time once spent following a wide range of school activities is now invested in conservation projects, hunting and fishing at the family farm near Fairfield, and on property he owns near Burlington.

Working for CANCO also has meant getting the chance to put a major stamp on his hometown, where Smith led construction of a replacement hospital for Jefferson County Health Center, which he described as the biggest construction project in Fairfield’s history. That was followed by an important recreation center project for the city, then going on to help with the early stages of a major renovation of Fairfield High School.

Smith began on the path to president first by being invited to join a group of employee-owners that today numbers 29 office and field leaders. Promotion to vice president meant being added to the company’s board of directors, and taking part in setting the direction for the company as well as managing projects. Smith believes having owner management on projects makes a difference for clients because of the level of commitment it shows to project, and therefore, company success.

Throughout his time at CANCO, the mentorship of one of the men who recruited him at that career fair, past President and now Chairman Tim Seibert, P.E., has helped to prepare Smith to lead the company. Now, Smith said, one of his goals is to maintain and build upon the company culture that Seibert helped to establish. Other priorities are to maintain CANCO’s track record of profitability and client satisfaction, he said, and to mentor and develop the next generation, from among whom may be his own eventual successor.

Looking at the depth of talent within the company today in both office and field management, Smith said, “I think we’re in a position, from a leadership perspective, to have a bright future.”

— Craig T. Neises, director of marketing

Away from work, Smith is an avid outdoorsman. Here he is seen with a buck taken during a hunt in 2022. (provided)