Most people wouldn’t see being young and female as an advantage in the construction industry, but most people aren’t Kerri Smith. “It depends on your mindset. Are there obstacles, sure, but that’s true in any business and a lot of what we do involves people, connecting with your co-workers. It’s just understanding that and taking advantage of it and using it for the good of everyone.”
Smith was a farm girl and then a basketball star at Walsh University in Ohio where she graduated with a degree in biology. After leaving college she was selling insurance and sold some to Dan Baker, who was so impressed he hired her in 2004. “I worked under him, shadowing him, for about a year and he came in one day and said, ‘We’re going to Florida.’ I said, ‘OK, send me out in the first wave.’ So I came to Florida as a project engineer for a couple of years and then moved up.”
Today Smith has bottom-line responsibility for all of Baker’s work in Florida and the Carolinas. “The part I love the most is the people and the strategy. I love leading through vision and encouraging people. That’s more my strength than anything technical. It’s meeting with customers, meeting with project teams, meeting with recruits. I think my job as a leader is to get people to believe in themselves. I manage through high expectations and believe that if you set a goal that people didn’t think they could achieve they’ll get damn close to it. My leadership style is turning what we think is unimaginable into something that’s possible.”
