Opus' Beth Duyvejonck a leader in recruiting more women to construction field

Beth Duyvejonck found it wasn't unusual to be the only woman on a job site when she began working as a construction project manager in the late 1990s.

Seen then "somewhat as a novelty," Duyvejonck, regional vice president of Opus Design Build, now is one of several women leaders she sees at the table in construction, project management and the skilled trades.

However, diversity in construction and the trades is a continuing concern for Duyvejonck. Though she sees more female leaders, women overall account for only 9% of the construction workforce, according to a June report she cited from Jobsite, an online industry news site.

The percentage hasn't changed in the 24 years since Duyvejonck joined Opus Design Build straight from Iowa State University with a degree in construction engineering.

"While we are successfully recruiting women into the construction industry, we have an area of opportunity in retention and in transforming construction to be an industry that is welcoming and inviting and inclusive," Duyvejonck said.

Promoted to her present role in April 2020, she is responsible for every project under construction in Minneapolis and Des Moines for Opus Design Build, the project management and construction subsidiary of the Opus Group, headquartered in Minnetonka.

She managed teams that built the 365 Nicollet and Nic on Fifth luxury apartment towers in downtown Minneapolis as well as corporate, industrial and university projects throughout the Twin Cities metro area.

Duyvejonck has a simple explanation for her success as a project manager in a male-dominated industry: "I was really good at it," she said. "I mean, the bringing it all together and just seeing the bigger picture, getting the team involved."

Duyvejonck points to two projects that bookend her career as examples of her leadership development.

As she worked on Best Buy's corporate campus in Richfield in the early 2000s, project executives demonstrated confidence in her and other project managers, giving them decision-making responsibility but also serving as a safety net. She has emulated that approach in such projects as the 365 Nicollet tower, completed in 2018, where she served as director of project management.

"How do you make sure that your team has what they need for their career development, letting them know that you have confidence in them, letting them be empowered and then knowing when to get out of the way?" Duyvejonck said. "Those skills would elevate any professional from a talented project manager to a vice president position. The fact that I was a female doing that was somewhat irrelevant."

Duyvejonck brought the $200 million-plus 365 Nicollet project in under budget, ahead of schedule and with "near perfect" execution, said Rick Lommel, managing director of U.S. construction services for AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. AIG was Opus Development's joint venture partner in the high-rise, multi-family project.

"I truly believe that would not have happened if it were not for Beth Duyvejonck," Lommel said in a statement. "Beth is one of the most competent, intelligent, knowledgeable and professional individuals I have worked with. She is a true leader, demonstrated by her ability to harness up to 25 sometimes aggressive individuals around a board table and keep them focused and on track."

Duyvejonck has taken a leadership role in getting more women into the industry as well. She was a co-founder of the Opus Women's Network, founded in part to ensure that women get the same access to mentoring as their male counterparts.

Through a connection with Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, Duyvejonck joined a number of Opus women volunteering with others from Dunwoody College of Technology and the Construction Careers Foundation at a summer camp that introduces girls to the construction trades.

Duyvejonck visits the classrooms of her daughters, ages 9 and 11, as often as she can to talk about jobs in construction and the importance of the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Her hope is "to try to change the narrative that even youth have about what does a construction worker look like, what does an engineer look like, what does a scientist look like," Duyvejonck said. "The work of changing the narrative and creating a new story or a new visual for youth needs to start young."

Facing a labor shortage that will only worsen with expected retirements, the construction industry and trades need to start recruiting before students reach college age, to attract more women and people from underrepresented populations, Duyvejonck said.

Duyvejonck is a leader in managing change and advocating for her team, according to her supervisor, Opus Design Build CEO Tom Becker. She has enhanced her knowledge of diversity, equity and inclusion and is a foundational member of the Opus DEI Action Team.

"Beth's passion about DEI, her credibility inside the organization at the highest levels, and her ability to identify improvements that will make an impact is a huge asset for Opus and our industry," Becker said in a statement.

She won this year's Woman of the Year — Industry Executive award from the Minnesota RE Journal.

Duyvejonck didn't know construction engineering existed until she got to college. The daughter of an accountant father and math major mother, her affinity for math and science, problem solving and piecing things together led her to Iowa State University's civil engineering program. She transferred, though, after learning that construction engineering was an option.

This month, she is graduating with a master of arts in organizational leadership from St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

"I wanted to build my skills in leadership, in increasing my ability to connect with my team in leading organizational change," Duyvejonck said. "Any leader should be developing the next generation of leaders. We all rise together. Being able to develop leadership in others has been a really rewarding piece of my own development as well."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.