Walbridge

John Rakolta III joined the company in 2007 and is well rounded in the business of construction with experience in sales and business development, field operations and finance.

J.R., as he’s called, had a nickname for his grandfather, the late-Walbridge Chairman and CEO John Rakolta, Sr. It was “Popeye.” He was one tough guy when it was necessary. And he was fiercely protective of Walbridge’s reputation as an honest and trustworthy construction partner to customers.

J.R.  has been further influenced by his father, John Rakolta, Jr., who has served as Walbridge’s Chairman and CEO since 1993.

He attended Purdue University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Building Construction Management. (Company co-founder Albert Aldinger graduated from Purdue  in 1898.) J.R. also earned a master’s degree in Real Estate Finance and Investment from New York University.

Prior to joining Walbridge, he worked for The Athena Group in New York. Today, he heads these functions at Walbridge: Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Real Estate Development & Asset Management.

In 2016, JR was named to “30 in their 30s”, a list of up-and-coming Detroit-area executives by DBusiness magazine.

He is a third-generation member of the Rakolta family to work for Walbridge and serve on its Board of Directors.

John is the seventh individual to lead Walbridge in its 100-year history. As a boy, his grandfather drove John to the company’s equipment and maintenance yard to mow the lawn. John’s father, John Rakolta, Sr., joined Walbridge in 1946 as a timekeeper and later served as President, CEO, Chairman and Chairman Emeritus from 1970 – 2003.

John Jr. received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Marquette University in 1970 and later completed the Smaller Company Management Program at Harvard Business School.  He joined the company in 1971 as an estimator and held positions of increasing responsibility.  He became President in 1979, and succeeded his father as Chairman and CEO in 1993.

During his tenure, Walbridge has grown from a regional constructor with annual sales of $40 million in the mid-1970s to a global entity registering sales of more than $1.5 billion in 2016. Walbridge is an acknowledged industry leader in the areas of safety, quality and lean construction.

Mike Haller joined Walbridge in 1973 as a co-op intern while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Detroit. For more than 40 years, Mike has worked his way up through the ranks to become the operational head of Walbridge, the nation’s leader in construction of manufacturing facilities for the automotive industry. He serves as President of Walbridge Group and President of the Industrial Facilities mega-business unit.

Few individuals working in construction today know as much as Mike does about building auto facilities. No one knows more. Mike has been directly involved in management of more than 200 major projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

A hallmark achievement during his tenure occurred from 2012-2015 when Mike and a team of Walbridge personnel led the effort in Goiana, Brazil to construct one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturing complexes in within a highly compressed timeframe.

With its Brazilian construction partner, Walbridge developed a hybrid design-build approach to meet the fast-track schedule of owner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. In little more than 26 months, Walbridge constructed 6 million square feet of total space, including: a) 2.3 million square feet of assembly plant, body shop, stamping facility, paint shop and a communications center; b) 1 million square feet of support buildings, and c) a 2.7-million-square-foot tier-1 supplier park made up of 12 buildings.

Randy Abdallah’s key responsibility is simply stated – Get Work. He’s in charge of securing approximately $1.5 billion in sales commitments from clients every year.

As Executive Vice President and head of the Get Work unit, Randy oversees business development, sales and estimating operations. He joined Walbridge in 1997 and has nearly 40 years of experience in the construction industry.

Under his leadership, Walbridge opened offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Doha, Qatar.

Randy served in 2012 as Chairman of the Research Committee of the Construction Industry Institute (CII), and is a recipient of the organization’s Distinguished Service Award.  He is also a member of the Construction Users Round Table (CURT), Engineering & Construction Contracting (ECC), and the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD).

Randy is a graduate of the Construction Engineering Technology program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, Canada and the Macomb School of Business Executive Training Program at the University of Texas.

erry is both a positive influence and role model at Walbridge, and an acknowledged leader among women throughout the Great Lakes region of our nation.

Terry started working at Walbridge in 1981 as assistant to then-President John Rakolta, Jr. Today, she leads the Human Resources, Recruitment, Talent Development and Corporate Communications departments.

Under her leadership, Walbridge has developed a nationally recognized health & wellness program. In 2016, Walbridge received a Healthiest 100 Workplaces in America Award from the Corporate Health & Wellness Association and the National Best and Brightest in Wellness Award from the National Association for Business Resources.

In 2013, Terry served as Executive Director of the Construction Personnel Executives Group (CPEG), which is comprised of 35 of the nation’s largest construction firms.

Terry is an active member of community boards and organizations in the Michigan, including serving as past-chair of the board of trustees of Haven, a program in Oakland County, Mich. dedicated to eliminating sexual assault and domestic violence. She’s a trustee of the Michigan Women’s Foundation and a board member of the Inforum Center for Leadership.

In June 2016, Terry was selected by WJR-AM News/Talk 760 to its 2016 class of “Women Who Lead.” The program, initiated in 2010, celebrates women throughout the Great Lakes region “who are making a difference in our community”.

A certain level of risk is inherent in any construction project. Minimizing the level of risk is Tom Dyze’s job.

Tom and his group are responsible for bonding, risk management, contracts, legal services, outside vendors, procurement and trademarks.

In 2013, Tom was named a Top Corporate Counsel in metropolitan Detroit by DBusiness magazine. The magazine polled more than 15,000 private attorneys in the Detroit area.

Tom joined Walbridge in 1995 as corporate attorney and was promoted in 2000 to Vice President and General Counsel. He earned a JD degree from the University of Detroit and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan.