Ledcor executive started as a carpenter
Ledcor Group prides itself in its people development; promoting its own talent to take over leadership. A good example is the recent appointment of Mike Kozakewich as the new Calgary regional manager of Ledcor Construction. Kozakewich has been with the company since being hired as a carpenter in the Edmonton office in 1998.
He had just finished his technical studies at NAIT, and his enthusiasm and work ethic soon had him working as a superintendent on a small Tim Hortons project. It wasn’t long before he worked his way up to a superintendent position on the much larger River Cree Resort and Casino, then as senior superintendent on the Art Gallery of Alberta, and then on to the 28-storey Epcor Centre in the provincial capital.
Kozakewich had his first taste of living in Calgary when he joined the Ledcor team building The Bow tower, one of the most exciting projects of the 25 he has played a key role in.
Back in Edmonton, he was made general manager of operations and oversaw the construction of the Royal Alberta Museum that is scheduled to open in early 2018.
But he was delighted to get the call to return to Calgary to focus on continuing to improve Ledcor’s services and build relationships with the Calgary office’s clients, consultants and trade partners.
Dean Slater, director of estimating and business development, will be a big help to Kozakewich as he gets to know his new territory, as will director of pre-construction and business development James Grant, another recent arrival who has a history of working with Ledcor that dates back to his earlier 10 years with the firm, which included his start in Toronto and three years working on a project in the Gulf of Mexico before being asked to relocate to Calgary to also work in project management on The Bow.
Grant left Ledcor for a five-year stint with Shaw Communications but returned at a time when the company has a busy list of projects on the go.
One of the largest is the New Horizon Mall, the 300,000-square-foot international shopping destination consisting of one large anchor supermarket and more than 500 small condominium retail stores.
A partnership of Torgan Property Group and MTM Property Group, the steel is up and three cranes are busy on the site just south of Cross Iron Mills shopping centre, north of the city along the QEII Highway.
Another big retail project is the transformation of Deerfoot Mall into Deerfoot City, from an indoor mall into a one-million-squarefoot retail power centre that will include a Cineplex Rec Room.
Another Cineplex project currently under construction by Ledcor crews is a 34,000-squarefoot, seven-theatre complex in East Hills at Stoney Trail and 17th Avenue S.E.
A number of downtown office towers are being renovated at street level to give them a more modern look. Ledcor has completed the first south- and eastside phase of Bow Valley Square for Oxford Properties and has begun work on the remainder of its podium revitalization.
Ledcor was founded in 1947 when Bill Lede put his bulldozer to work on Imperial Oil’s first well in Leduc. Today Kozakewich’s Calgary office is one of 20 across Canada and the U.S.