Austin Commercial Maintains Focus on 360 Degrees of Caring and Inclusion

Austin Commercial is a subsidiary of 100% employee-owned Austin Industries. Founded in 1918, Austin Industries is one of the nation’s largest, most diversified construction companies. With over 6,000 employee-owners, and offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, Orlando, and Los Angeles, Austin is among the largest construction managers in the nation and ranks 32nd on ENR’s list of the 100 Largest CM at Risk Contractors in the US. Austin Commercial serves customers in aviation, advanced technology, corporate build-to-suit, industrial and manufacturing, interiors, healthcare, hospitality, office and high-rise, public and institutional, retail, sports, and university markets.
 
The company is committed to 360 degrees of caring: to developing our employee-owners, exceeding customer expectations, innovating in its industry, and serving the communities in which its people live and work.

DIVERSITY AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT 
Led by vice president, Simeon Terry, Austin Commercial has a fully-staffed Diversity Affairs team of employee-owners with a 100% focus on leading the organization’s inclusion efforts and is a direct reflection of Austin’s long-standing and award-winning commitment and passion to enhancing procurement economic development opportunities for minority, women-owned, small, and disadvantaged business entities (MWSDBE) on its projects.

“Many of the projects in which we are associated with are funded, built, and staffed by the individuals and business communities the project is intended to serve,” said Brad Brown, Austin Commercial President. “We not only support this as good business practice, we welcome the opportunity to partner with project owners and demonstrate how Austin’s passionate approach and processes can enhance the impact of local businesses for the good of their project.”

MENTOR PROTÉGÉ PROGRAM 
Since 1998, Austin Commercial has had a formalized Mentor Protégé Program. Each year, this program brings in 10-20 minority- and women-owned businesses for 12 weeks of intensive and strategically designed workshops. These workshops are facilitated by senior leadership and are designed to help the firms grow their company’s capacity both financially and with personnel experience. Through this Mentor Protégé Program, Austin has mentored over 400 firms and has paid out more than $3 billion dollars to those firms through various partnerships on our projects.

Lastly, Austin Commercial hosts an annual Diversity Open House at its corporate office where 200-300 minority- and women-owned businesses are invited to meet senior leadership, project managers, and various department heads to establish relationships with the decision makers within the company. In 2020 because of the pandemic, Austin Commercial held its first Virtual Diversity Open House in which there were firms attending from 10 different states across the country.

COMMUNITY WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 
In addition, Austin Commercial focuses on improving workforce development opportunities within the communities we work by participating in mentoring, training, and education of existing diverse businesses and local high school and college students. These efforts and initiatives are bolstered by Austin’s own commitment to recognizing, embracing and supporting workplace diversity and inclusiveness at every level of our own organization.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Here are some recent recognitions and awards the company has received:  

• 2021 Los Angeles Business Journal Diversity, Inclusion + Equity Award for Organization of the Year: Mid-Size Company Winner
• 2021 AGC Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Grand Award Winner
• 2020 AGC Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Grand Award Winner
• 2019 AGC Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award “Large Contractor”
• 2018 AGC Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award “Large Contractor”
• 2019 ABC  National Diversity Excellence Award “Large Contractor”
• 2020 ABC  National Diversity Excellence Award “Large Contractor”
• 2017 Airport Minority Advisory Council Innovation & Inclusion Award

Information for this article was provided by Austin.

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