Saunders Construction Announces Upcoming Leadership Changes

(Englewood, Colo.) – January 23, 2024 – Saunders Construction grows its leadership capacity with the recent promotions of several tenured leaders.

Ryan Balakas, a 17-year veteran at Saunders, has been promoted to vice president and general manager for Saunders Commerical Construction, LLC. Balakas served as vice president since 2015, growing the Express business unit, starting Saunders Norwood Construction, and recently overseeing several large commercial and healthcare projects. His efforts in furthering our risk management and continuous improvement efforts have significantly contributed to the company’s long-term success.

In addition, Dale Schneider will continue as the general manager of Saunders Express Services, LLC and add general manager for Saunders Concrete Structures, LLC. With a strong, tenured team in place, Schneider will provide executive support, leveraging his experience with sales, preconstruction and operations to support our established goals in the Concrete Structures work program.

In other leadership changes:

• Saunders added the role of area manager to the corporate organizational structure. Derek Breier, Nathan Wilks and Allan Williams have been promoted from construction manager to area manager, overseeing northern Colorado, the mountain region and Pikes Peak region, respectively. In their new roles, Breier, Wilks and Williams will assume work program oversight and organizational leadership responsibilities, and continue to expand our resources and client base for their regions.
• Curtis Underwood has been promoted to construction manager. Underwood’s role will support the Saunders Express and Commercial business units. He will also join the operations leadership group, which focuses on the continuous improvement, employee engagement and development of all Saunders operations.
• Sean Jackson has been promoted to general superintendent. Jackson has been in the construction industry since 2000 and with Saunders since 2019. He has worked on high-profile and technically complex projects and his expertise in project planning, including scheduling, safety, quality, and logistics, will be highly beneficial in this role.
• Matt Johnson has been hired as general superintendent. Johnson comes to Saunders with over 35 years of experience in the construction industry. He started his career working in the trades and progressively gained additional responsibilities. Johnson has a passion for project planning and mentoring up-and-coming operations team members.

Saunders is committed to adapting through action and leading the Colorado market in delivering an outstanding construction experience in the years to come. “We sought to grow our operations leadership capacity and seamlessly transition both leadership responsibilities and roles to safeguard our culture, values and core competencies,” said President Justin Cooper. “We are excited to support our team members in their new roles and for the additional focus and capacity to support their respective teams.” Saunders remains dedicated to building what matters with exceptional skill — creating better communities, outstanding experiences and a culture of care for all.

About Saunders

Saunders serves the commercial building industry as a full-service general contractor, design-builder and construction manager. A leader in the Colorado construction industry since its inception in 1972, Saunders’ experience includes a wide range of project types. Saunders is one of the region’s largest general contractors and is the recipient of more than 100 industry awards for its construction excellence, employee achievements and community contributions. In addition, Saunders is a member of the Citadel Group – an alliance of seven regional construction-related companies with operations in 19 cities. For additional information, please visit www.saundersinc.com.

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Saunders Construction, Inc.

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