Theodore W. Garrison, III |
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Ted Garrison graduated from Rutgers University in 1970
with a BS in civil engineering and a BA in liberal arts.
After spending two years as a lieutenant platoon leader
in the U.S. Army, he worked for a large general contractor,
the Beck Group. While working for this general contractor,
he learned the construction trade from the contractor's
perspective. During this tenure, he constructed two major
projects—one the 3.5-million-square-foot USAA office
building in San Antonio, Texas, the other the 1,200-room
Hilton Convention hotel in New Orleans. He ended the
hotel project as the project manager. During these projects,
he learned the value of working with the owner to deliver
the best possible results, which is supported by the
fact he was hired by the developer of the Hilton project
to manage their construction.
He became the executive vice president of construction
for the Coleman Development Company in New Orleans. In
this position, he was responsible for all design and
construction of their projects and for the design and
construction of more than 2 million square feet of office
buildings, hotels, parking garages, and office parks.
The marquee project was the New Orleans Windsor Court
Hotel, which is recognized as one of the top hotels in
the world. He then became the director of construction
for the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, where
he was responsible for the design and construction of
the Pennsylvania Convention Center. At the time this
project was the largest nonroad public works project
in the history of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth. This
project included the construction of a new million-square-foot
convention center facility, the renovation and restoration
of the national historic one-hundred-year-old Reading
Train Terminal, and renovation and restoration of the
three-hundred-year-old Reading Terminal Market.
In the eight years since leaving his active construction
career, Ted, as president of Garrison Associates, has
focused on helping owners and contractors to work together
to create better value for all parties. He has augmented
his field experience with extensive research to bring
fresh perspectives to many of the challenges facing the
construction industry. He is the co-author of five books
on marketing, sales, customer service, and leadership.
He has also written numerous magazine articles on how
contractors and owners can work better together. He has
recently finished a new book, Strategic Planning
for Contractors. As a consultant, he assisted
the owner of the Washington, D.C., convention center
to get the program manager and design team to work better
together in order to add value to the owner and the others
on the project. As a speaker he has given hundreds of
seminars and speeches on related topics. Ted's experience
as a contractor, representative of owners, and student
of the subject from a neutral position gives him a unique
perspective to the issues facing the construction industry.
Ted is also an industry research representative and
International Advisor for the Performance Based Studies
Research Group (PBSRG) developed by Dr. Dean Kashiwagi
at the Del W. Webb School of Construction at Arizona
State University that focuses on high performance by
contractors. |
