20 People to Know in Construction - Earl Buford

 20 People to Know connects the Pittsburgh-area business community with influential businesspeople working in key industries. These listings are not meant to be comprehensive or a ranking, but rather an introduction to some of the behind-the-scenes players, key leaders and up-and-comers.

Included are profiles of 20 People to Know in Construction. Those selected offered their wisdom and thoughts on the region’s construction industry during this turbulent and transformative time.

Earl Buford

CEO, Partner4Work

Years in job: 2-plus

Years in industry: 21-plus 

Describe your role: 

CEO of the federally recognized workforce development agency for the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. As such, we fund the programs and initiatives that help individuals prepare for and fill available job opportunities and help businesses find the talent they need to grow.

How do you feel about the local construction market? What’s your outlook for the industry for 2021? 

I am excited about the recovery and activity starting to re-emerge in the market and the proposed projects on the horizon. My favorite bird is a crane, you know!

What can the construction and development industry and the trades do to improve diversity and earn the trust of minority communities? 

Aligning and creating an inclusive vision while investing in and creating opportunities for individuals who want to work hard to advance along a career pathway is key to improving diversity and earning the trust of minority communities. … Trust is earned as individuals realize results, when they complete training and are pathed into jobs and apprenticeships, earn paychecks and build their communities.

Is there anything you dream of building? 

I and P4W are excited to participate and invest in workforce efforts. I also look forward to any potential expansion that increases activity and leisure along the riverfronts, as I have seen in many other cities. That would be cool. My dream is for Pittsburgh to bring an NBA team to the area and build a new stadium for that.

How important right now is embarking on a major U.S. infrastructure spend?

In general, infrastructure spending is key to kickstarting the economy and creating pathways to opportunity for individuals looking to begin or advance in a career in construction. This will continue to be important as the region — and the world — emerges from the health crisis.

Your work in Milwaukee involved workforce development and improving supply-demand models, specifically recruiting and building a diverse workforce in construction, manufacturing and emerging sectors. How can these lessons be applied here in Pittsburgh, specifically in the construction industry?

I believe these efforts and high-road strategies are taking shape here in Pittsburgh. We have our Ready2Work Covid recovery initiative and its subgroups, like IBM’s Service Corps Reignite platform. The BankWorks training initiative … continues to forge ahead. We have established and are advancing a strategy for Industry Advisory Partnerships, made up of employers and industry partners across nine sectors, especially the growing tech industries.

In construction, the partnership with the Builders Guild of Western PA and the I2TT initiative, now in partnership with the CWP alliance, made up of the major community-based construction partners in Pittsburgh, is very exciting and innovative. We are heavily investing resources to these partners to prepare and qualify folks, while the Builders Guild and its partners from the trades and contractors have guaranteed that any graduate of I2TT will be placed in industry jobs and apprenticeship. If that’s not high road partnerships, then what is?

What or who has been the biggest help in getting you to this point in your career? 

This is probably a good place to talk about mentors in Wisconsin. I had a very fortunate start that helped launch my career, as an executive and in construction. I was tapped in 1999 as the first non-tradesperson to serve as director of BIG-STEP Inc., the workforce organization of the Milwaukee Building Trades and its management counterparts. In addition, we later merged BIG-STEP Inc. with an industrial labor-management outfit known as the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP), where I served as the first CEO of this combined effort. The leadership that constituted these organizations gave me the opportunity, but most importantly, taught me everything that a person needs to know in managing an organization, and beyond.