Meet Jeff Forbes, your AGC of America 2024 – 2025 Building Division Chair
Jeff Forbes, a long-time regional director for one of Beck Group's biggest markets in Dallas, TX, recently began his term as the Building Division Chair at AGC of America. Forbes has built an impressive career in vertical construction. His portfolio is diverse, with projects spanning Hi-rise, healthcare, higher education, churches, and mixed-use developments. But it is not just the buildings that stand tall; Forbes' commitment to professional growth for all and industry advancement is equally towering. He is excited to lead as the Building Division Chair to encourage innovation and engage with all building contractors to make their voices heard on the national level.
Forbes has been a regional director for the Dallas market of the Beck Group for 11 years, during which he oversaw the market for design and construction. When asked about what he liked the most about Beck and what drew him to stay there throughout his 41-year tenure, he said without hesitation that it is the people at Beck and keen sense of integrity and drive for excellence that permeate throughout the organization. Of the many accomplishments, he is most excited when asked about his work for implementing impactful innovation in the organization. “There is a strong sense of mission to “Revolutionize the industry… Create the future,” Forbes said. He is particularly proud of the efforts in meaningfully merging architecture with construction, adopting new technologies to aid the project teams, sponsoring the firm's prefabrication facility, and pushing the adoption of VBG efforts.
Innovation has always “jazzed” Forbes, as he puts it himself, and it would seem like innovative ideas always found a friend in him in return throughout his career. Building on his rich industry experience in vertical construction, he successfully allowed and implemented mobile applications and cloud computing to many aspects of the often analogue-heavy construction industry during his tenure as a leader within Beck. Having been actively involved in multiple AGC committees and the division for many years, Forbes is committed to share his success in implementing innovation to all.
Elevating innovation is a priority for his term as the Chair of the building division, Forbes has implemented a more focused approach to learning and applying innovation throughout the division leadership. “Every call of the division leadership will feature a presentation and accompanying discussion on innovation.” Forbes said, “… and it's not just on technology, but all different perspectives on innovation of process, thoughts, and more...” Forbes has seen firsthand the transformative power of successful implementation of innovative ideas, technologies, and processes, both within his company, and in the industry from his years of involvements with AGC. As AGC already offers both contents and platforms for valuable knowledge transfer on safety education, project management expertise, and industry trends to its members, Forbes would like to push for and do his part in making sure that innovation becomes another aspect of member education, where members can directly benefit from learning about innovation, the why, the what, and the how.
Forbes is serious about building connections, not just the connections he would like to continue building with other contractors but also enabling all to take advantage of AGC as a community to make new connections. Forbes fondly recalls connecting with fellow construction industry professionals all over the country at various AGC events and through his involvements with many committees, both locally and nationally. “Over the years, I've met and connected with so many people I can call and ask for guidance and help,” Forbes said. He has found a welcoming community that would always be open to ideate together, share different perspectives, and work together. Many contractors who have now become friends opened their workplace to Forbes to learn together and exchange ideas, and many others are just a dial away to chat about everything from project performance to succession planning.
Forbes is also pushing to make the quarterly Building Contractors Town Hall more welcoming, encouraging anyone, including chapter executives, members who have not been involved on the national level, and industry professionals not previously engaged with AGC to join in the online Town Hall. Forbes hopes to reinforce the success started by Maura Hesdon last year, where the membership saw continuous growth of engagement in the Building Contractors Town Hall. With more timely topics of discussion as well as education on important industry trends, Forbes hopes to bring the benefits of continuous networking, collaboration, and learning that he had experienced to more building contractors and the entire industry.
Members' success is Forbes's success as Chair. Forbes is ready to lead by example to deepen his engagement with each of the committees that make up the division. He is also encouraging the leadership of each committee to become more informed about other committees' agenda and projects, to learn different perspectives and make connections outside of their professional specialty. When asked if he has any words of wisdom for the many new committee chairs this year, Forbes stressed the importance of good leadership and candid conversations. “It's the difficult conversations, that are both candid and vulnerable, that produce results.,” Forbes said.