photo courtesy of Wright-Ryan
Wright-Ryan team at their annual meeting in May 2024
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August 25, 2024
2024 Fact Book: Doing Business in Maine
Building for Generations: Wright-Ryan Celebrates Forty Years
Archival photo courtesy of Wright-Ryan
John Ryan & Tom Wright, Casco Bay island lumber delivery via barge circa 1984
Since its founding in 1984, Wright-Ryan has been building Maine’s great spaces — built environments where Maine’s people have lived, worked, learned and thrived for generations. Now, in their 40th anniversary year, Wright-Ryan is looking to the future, all while highlighting team members, partners and projects that have been integral to its past four decades of success.
Established by Tom Wright and John Ryan, Wright-Ryan was born out of a shared belief in creating a relationship-based firm. The two childhood friends had spent summers together working on Cliff Island and along the coast of Maine, further developing their expertise in construction. In the early ‘80s, they began planning out ideas for their own firm — one where people cared about each other and were invested in each other’s success. Since its founding, the company has grown to include over 100 team members, spanning both commercial and residential construction. Wright-Ryan has thrived for four decades, navigating two economic recessions and a global pandemic, while pursuing new avenues for growth and the implementation of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Collectively, the company has attributed its success to a signature commitment to fundamental principles including leadership, innovation, partnership and team empowerment.
Throughout 2024, Wright-Ryan celebrated their 40th anniversary by shining a spotlight on those principles and how, amidst Wright-Ryan announcing its second-ever president earlier this year, the company will continue to champion its guiding beliefs and building for generations to come.
The Next Generation of Leaders
In March, Wright-Ryan announced its future president — Alan Sparn, who had previously served as COO for the company since 2022. Alan became only the second person in the company’s history to fill the role, following 40 years under the leadership of co-founder, John Ryan, who will continue to contribute insights as chair of the company’s Board of Directors. The announcement was made following a three-year succession planning process.
With over 40 years of experience in the construction industry himself, introducing Alan as the company’s next president was a milestone decision for Wright-Ryan, one that came after much thoughtful consideration and years of preparation. Prior to joining the team as COO, Alan served as executive vice president for a New York-based construction firm. His New England roots eventually drew him back to Maine, and he found his next role at Wright-Ryan, where he felt connected to the company’s portfolio of work and the emphasis on company culture. With Alan stepping into his new role in July, the succession simultaneously represents the company’s next chapter while showcasing its focus on fostering the next generation of leadership — both within the company and the construction industry.
Wright-Ryan also ushered in the next era for its Homes Division earlier this year with the appointment of Greg Greenwald as vice president, succeeding Greg Lanou after his 18-year tenure. Greenwald, who joined the company in 2017, benefited from direct mentorship under Lanou, who continues to serve as vice president and a member of the Board of Directors. This thoughtful leadership shift was yet another example of Wright-Ryan’s commitment to fostering internal talent and ensuring continuity within the team.
Central to Wright-Ryan’s emphasis on leadership development is its approach to mentorship. Over the past six months, 30 employee-owners have actively participated in the company’s vigorous mentorship program. Held at Wright-Ryan’s 20,000 square-foot Operations Center (Ops Center) in Westbrook, the program was designed to actively engage and empower the next generation of leaders within the construction industry. Through a combination of presentations, face-to-face time with the company’s external facilitator, and interactive one-on-one sessions, the mentorship program provides employee-owners with training and professional development opportunities.
Innovating for the Future
As the company looks ahead to the next 40 years, innovation remains at the forefront. An industry leader for utilizing new sustainable methods and prioritizing emerging technologies, Wright-Ryan has been at the forefront of sustainable construction for over 25 years. Across its portfolio, Wright-Ryan continually develops projects that achieve LEED, Passive House and other performance standards. The company aims to continue this focus on sustainability, including the utilization of mass timber construction. Recently, Wright-Ryan employed the use of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels in place of a traditional masonry elevator shaft, significantly reducing carbon footprint, shortening the overall project schedule, and bringing construction costs in under budget for new staffing housing built for Witham Family Hotels in Bar Harbor.
Many of these new methodologies have been made possible thanks to the company’s recent investment in its Ops Center. The facility is home to several of Wright-Ryan’s diversified lines of business and specialty services — including the company’s Commercial Select Projects Division, Custom Millwork Group, Residential Services Division, Field Supervision, Operations & Maintenance, and Field Operations Division. Located in Westbrook, the Ops Center provides a controlled environment and versatile workspace for each line of business.
Since its completion in 2022, the Ops Center has been heavily utilized for many of the company’s projects and will support the ongoing expansion of Wright-Ryan’s services and prefabrication capabilities. In terms of sustainability and cost-efficiency, prefabrication reduces material waste while enhancing productivity, leading to lower overall project costs. For example, the team was able to reduce the structural erection sequence on a recent project by 50% using prefabricated materials, delivering the final project eight weeks ahead of schedule and under budget.
Wright-Ryan’s latest innovative initiative is the introduction of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) council. The council aims to explore synergies with, and the use of, current technologies including Building Information Modeling (BIM), drones, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). The adoption of these tools enables Wright-Ryan to stay at the forefront of leading technologies, increasing project capabilities and streamlining operations for its growing client list and long-standing industry partners.
Building Communities and Partnerships
A key tenet of the company’s history and its decades of success, Wright-Ryan’s focus on cultivating community and industry partnerships has paved the way for its future. Founded on a relationship-based approach, the company has made a concerted effort to build an active pipeline of projects across industries with new and long-standing partners alike.
Wright-Ryan is known for its work on a range of diverse and challenging projects throughout New England, partnering with community-centric institutions — including work on the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, the Tekαkαpimək Contact Station at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, Portland Stage, and ongoing work at Portland Community Squash. The company also continues to lead in prioritizing sustainably focused partnerships, with recent projects like Vertical Harvest, a first-of-its-kind vertical hydroponic farm system, and the Village Centre Apartments in Brewer — one of the nation’s first, and largest, Passive House certified multifamily affordable housing communities.
Alongside its focus on building spaces for families and communities to enjoy for generations, the company takes pride in its work to support nonprofits and local organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, Maine College of Art & Design, the University of Maine System, Opportunity Alliance, Portland Stage Company, and Preble Street.
Design by Saunders Architecture, Image by Mir
The Tekαkαpimək Contact Station at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
Investing in the Future of its Team
One of the major milestones highlighted during the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations was its implementation of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) back in 2016. Following years of planning, Wright-Ryan transitioned to 100% employee ownership, providing all employee owners with a new retirement benefit alongside the existing employer-matched 401(k) program. The move was particularly notable, considering that less than 1-in-200 American businesses are employee-owned (Source: Certified EO — ‘Why Aren’t There More Employee-Owned Companies?’). This also underscored another notable feature of Wright-Ryan’s team culture — its advancement of women in construction. Female team members represent 15% of Wright-Ryan’s total workforce, far surpassing the national average, with 45% of women at Wright-Ryan serving in senior leadership positions.
The company continues to make strides in its investment towards its team, highlighted by the recent relaunch of Wright-Ryan’s Employee Ownership Communications Committee (EOCC). The committee hosts a dedicated group of 10 team members focused on enhancing Wright-Ryan’s employee ownership culture. Informed by ongoing listening circles, these team-forward initiatives aim to engage employee-owners at every level. As Wright-Ryan approaches its annual strategic planning this September, these efforts will only continue to grow and evolve.
“With leadership coming from every corner of the company, and our unbeatable team culture, we are well prepared for a bright future,” said Sparn, the firm’s new president, during a company meeting earlier this year. “Collaborating closely with our team and our business partners, I am honored to guide Wright-Ryan forward, expand on the company’s legacy, and continue building for generations to come.”
Wright-Ryan
photo courtesy of Wright-Ryan
Wright-Ryan’s President, Alan Sparn
10 Danforth Street, Portland, ME, 04101
Sector: Construction
Alan Sparn, President
Founded: 1984
Maine employees: 100+
