Problem Solvers. For AGC of California’s 2024 President Steve Rule, those two words sum up the characteristic most commonly shared by people who work in the construction industry, whether they are in the office planning projects or on the jobsite putting the work in place. So when it comes to tackling some of the biggest issues that he sees facing the construction industry and the association in the years ahead – like getting in front of climate change, or making headway on the decades-long construction workforce issue – Rule believes AGC of California and its members are up for the challenge. “Our industry is full of problem solv-


ers,” he said. “Just look at the buildings we build, the bridges we build, the roads that we get constructed through areas where people said it couldn’t be done. Architects draw something on the paper, and then it is up to us as contractors to figure out a way to make the concepts a reality.” As a vice president and construction executive at Turner Construction with a career that spans over 40 years, Rule has long embraced the role of problem solver himself, as well as the opportunity to help shape California’s built envi- ronment through his participation on numerous high-profile projects. While he enjoys being able to see and visit the physical buildings and infrastructure that he had a hand in creating, Rule said he is most proud of the teams he had to opportunity to work with, manage and lead over the years. “Every project I’ve worked on had something unique or exciting, but I think the best part of the job has been the teams I’ve gotten to work with and the people I’ve met along the way,” he said. “Tere have always been those people, whether within Turner or with a trade partner or another firm, that I wished I could work with on every project.”


“Every project I’ve worked on had something unique or exciting, but I think the best part of the job has been the teams I’ve gotten to work with and the people I’ve met along the way.”


The Path to a Construction Career Rule didn’t grow up dreaming of a ca- reer in construction. Prior to choosing construction engineering as his field of study in college, his only real experience with swinging a hammer had been during high school in the Southern California beach town of Palos Verdes, when he helped create stage sets for the school’s theater department. What he and the other students who built the sets didn’t have in training or adult supervision, they more than made up for in ingenuity and imagination, he recalled with a laugh –


and they were able to stretch paper-thin budgets to “create some pretty elaborate stuff.” He began his studies at Oregon State


University intending to major in forestry engineering, drawn by his love of the outdoors and experiences backpack- ing and hiking growing up. But by his sophomore year, Rule decided to switch to construction engineering because it offered more varied career opportuni- ties, and influenced by a roommate who was studying civil engineering. His first encounter with the Associated General


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR MARCH/APRIL 2024


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