After a decade of rapid growth, DPR Construction is giving its leaders the tools needed to pioneer new frontiers
DPR Construction could hardly have a clearer purpose: “We exist to build great things.” Emblazoned proudly across the company’s website, it’s a reason for being that encompasses multiple dimensions: delivering great projects, great teams, great relationships and great value. Yet like every corporate purpose, it is only part of the company’s story. The question that immediately follows is: “How?” The way leaders answer that must take account of an organization’s context: changing customer requirements, its own evolving structure, its people, and more.
Defining the ‘how’ is a continual task – and one that has been a key focus for DPR’s leaders as its business has evolved in recent years. Founded in 1990, DPR has been rated among the top 50 general contractors in the US since 1997. Today, the ‘great things’ it builds include mission-critical projects at the forefront of the digital revolution, such as the next generation of data centers, as well as healthcare facilities, university buildings, pharmaceutical research and production facilities, manufacturing sites and offices. Revenue and headcount have grown significantly since 2015, so DPR and its family of companies, which include entities focused on prefabrication, design support and more, now employ more than 11,000 people globally.
John Benson is DPR’s enterprise leader for people practices and a DPR Leadership Team member. “Our growth has involved traditional business growth, plus investment in new technologies, new products and services, and entering new markets, including South Korea and Europe,” he explains. Those changes, combined with the company’s Mission 2030 goal of becoming a Most Admired Company, place new demands on company leaders. “It calls for a higher level of leadership,” says Benson.
In 2023, DPR set up a Tiger Team: a focused, cross-functional, temporary research team, based on the NASA model – to investigate how the company could best evolve its leadership. The work was co-led by Benson with Michelle Peters, leadership development program manager, and their conclusions were clear. DPR needed a cohesive, future-focused leadership development program tailored to its unique culture and structure. Their aim: to recognize and activate the company’s existing strengths, while building the capabilities demanded by the future of construction.
“I’d only been with the company for about a year and as an ‘outsider,’ it was so clear to see DPR’s strengths,” recalls Benson. “It’s entrepreneurial and full of folks willing to jump in and tackle problems together. That comes directly from construction: we do complicated things that require a team to work very well together.”
What was needed was an injection of new ways of thinking and working, says Peters. “Our people are great problem-solvers, but it’s easy to get into a problem and keep working it – when maybe you could be using a different model, or best practices from outside the business. That was what we wanted to help our leaders with.”
The approach that emerged was inspired by one of the company’s core values – “ever forward.” Defined by DPR as “continual self-initiated change, improvement, learning and the advancement of standards for their own sake,” it became a guiding concept and motif for the work that followed.
Shaping the Ever Forward Leadership Experience
The work done by Benson and Peters’ Tiger Team led quickly to a decision to instigate a new program for the company’s leaders. After a formal process, Duke Corporate Education was selected as DPR’s partner in October 2023 – and following a rapid design phase, the Ever Forward Leadership Experience launched just months later, in February 2024.
The program’s participants were primarily drawn from DPR’s Integrated Leadership Team (ILT), a newly-formalized group of about 140 executives from across the business that shares leadership with DPR’s Leadership Team – the company’s equivalent of a C-suite. Learning outcomes were focused on six leadership capabilities: executive leadership, enterprise frameworks and flywheel thinking (drawing on DPR’s strategic and operational flywheel), business acumen, leading organizational change, external awareness and strategic thinking.
The design incorporated a mix of online engagements, classroom discussions, and immersive experiences, via five modules delivered at locations across the US – including Durham, North Carolina (home to Duke CE and Duke University) and other locations that reflected DPR’s geographic footprint.
As delivery got under way, another design decision quickly came to the fore: the integral role that would be played by DPR’s Leadership Team. The CEO, George Pfeffer, delivered the program welcome and a DPR history session, while CFO Angela Floyd led on financial acumen content. The Leadership Team member for innovation and technology, Atul Khanzode, provided insights into digital strategy, while his colleague Matt Hoglund offered a strategic look at the structure and operating model of DPR’s family of companies. One of the participants was company president, Mark Whitson, exemplifying leadership’s buy-in to the program. “I don’t know how you manifest shared leadership in a more real way than that,” says Benson.
Program participants – including Alicia Ortiz, one of DPR’s southern California business unit leaders – were impressed by the extent of senior executives’ commitment. “It felt very DPR for senior leaders to be so involved – and it was exciting too, because it showed their dedication to the program,” enthuses Ortiz. “It showed that we’re all on this journey together.”
Another participant, Jeff Renshaw – a regional talent leader – underlines how executives shaped the agenda. “When our CEO came in, there was a really honest conversation about the need to make sure we’re planning for the future to sustain our success.” It was to set the tone for the whole program. “That helped us see the bigger picture. It’s the enterprise thinking piece.”
Meaningful moments
The varied learning modalities and immersive experiences designed into the program yielded deeply resonating moments throughout the program’s duration – although Benson and Peters are at pains not to reveal too many details. “It’s a ‘no spoilers’ approach” explains Peters. “We want subsequent cohorts to come in with an open mind and enjoy that element of surprise.”
The impact is nonetheless clear. “Some of the immersive experiences were truly exciting,” says Peters. “We wanted to teach things like decision making at scale, operating as a team in a volatile situation, and how you overcome siloed thinking – and those things were brought to life when we took participants out of the classroom.”
Ortiz recalls one simulation that had DPR personnel working alongside real medical professions in a high-pressure, fast-moving situation. “It took us so far out of our comfort zone,” she says. “It showed us that even in the most foreign and uncomfortable situations, we can rely on these problem-solving and decision-making tools that we were learning.”
Another moment that had a lasting impact was an ‘At Court’ experience, which saw participants takes sides as prosecution and defense to debate various aspects of the company. Having the company president make a closing statement against something he had helped build was incredibly powerful, says Benson. “It highlighted the complexity of what it is to be a leader. You have to be able to see different perspectives and be open to change.”
That’s critical as the company scales and pushes into new frontiers, says Ortiz. “It’s a pioneering time for DPR – we’re facing a lot of new situations and thinking, ‘OK, How do we navigate this?’ The decision-making models we’ve brought back to the business can really affect the path we take.”
Another highlight was the opportunity to reinforce the bonds across the leadership team. “We’re a matrixed organization, so our relationships are critical,” points out Renshaw. “It was amazing to be able to deepen relationships with people I already knew – and to create new connections around this shared experience.”
The program was also a rare opportunity to reexamine how the company approaches challenges, he adds. “We’re in the business of solving problems, whether that’s construction projects or people and staffing challenges.
The program was a real opportunity to pause and reflect on how we can come up with even better solutions – and to learn new tools to shape those solutions.”
A higher-level view
Across the board, DPR personnel are clear that the Ever Forward Leadership Experience has had a significant impact on how they work – and is helping them shape the company’s future. The impact was encapsulated by the final presentations in June 2025, delivered to DPR’s Leadership Team. Four Tiger Teams established during the program made presentations – and all yielded work that’s now being taken forward by the business. The program’s impact was evident, says Benson. “The primary difference is the level of topics – the thinking is much deeper. People are working at a higher level now, bringing an enterprise-wide view rather than focusing on tactical frustrations.”
Models taught during the program are being used across DPR, he adds. For example, scenario planning has been used to shape a significant change effort that will determine where the company prioritizes investment for the future. Ortiz also used scenario planning with her team to support her business unit’s planning. “That really resonated with them,” she says.
There has also been a clear mindset shift, observes Benson – a sense of ownership and accountability for DPR’s future that has been reinforced by the shared experience of the program. “It’s hard to put this into program design, but it’s emerged through the experiences and the facilitated conversations that Duke CE led for us,” he explains. “It’s the understanding that there’s a responsibility here. We’re the leaders of this whole thing – we’re the ones that get to create the next version of DPR. That’s been a terrific outcome.”
Indeed, the strength of the partnership built with Duke CE is evident – another ‘great thing’ in itself. It goes back to the original Request for Proposal process, says Benson. “The Duke CE team really showed up. We felt it in the first five minutes, and I remember walking off the campus saying ‘Wow, that was distinctly different’. And they’ve kept showing up ever since.”.
Any concerns were quickly allayed. “Honestly, I was concerned that we might be a small fish in Duke CE’s big pond – they work with much larger firms,” he admits. “I did wonder – is this going to be cookie cutter? Will they understand what’s different about our industry, our culture? But they really met our needs, and met who we are, with a program that’s bespoke to us and capitalizes on their strengths and networks.”
Ever forward – evolving the experience
The second cohort of DPR’s leaders embarked on the Ever Forward Leadership Experience in April 2025 – and will experience a refined program as a result of adjustments made by the DPR and Duke CE teams in response to the first cohort’s feedback.
“The delivery approach has been refined, with streamlined in-person sessions and more accessible locations,” explains Peters. There’s a greater emphasis on DPR case studies and strategic scenarios too, she adds, and a renewed focus on how participants apply insights “back in the role” in their day-to-day leadership.
Indeed, evolving the program – even to the point that it is effectively phased out – is an explicit part of the plan. “The theory is that at some point, this program replaces itself. When we see that we’ve succeeded in introducing a given model or a management language, and it’s been fully adopted by our leaders, then we’re going to take it out of the program and put in something new that’s relevant to where DPR is at that time,” explains Benson.
That sums up DPR’s ever-forward value in a nutshell: constantly evolving to meet new circumstances. Benson is clear in his assessment of the Ever Forward Leadership Experience’s first wave. “The program has hit the mark exceptionally well with the first shot of the arrow,” he concludes.
The target will keep moving – but there’s every reason to think DPR’s Ever Forward Leadership Experience will continue to hit the mark as it moves forward.
