Megan Koop, senior project manager at Unitech Construction Management Ltd.
DELTA – When it comes to breaking into a new industry or having guidance while navigating a career move, mentorship is often one of the best ways to find your footing. However, it is not always such an easy thing to find.
That is certainly how Megan Koop, senior project manager at Unitech Construction Management Ltd., felt which is why she is paying it forward and doing her part for other women in the construction industry.
Since 1988, Unitech Construction Management Ltd has been a Pure Construction Management as Owners Agents firm, providing services to municipal, institutional, commercial, industrial, multifamily residential, and recreational clients throughout BC. This is done through the CCDC 5A Construction Management Contract on over 300 projects with a total value of over $2 Billion in construction volume.
Koop has worked for Unitech for 3 years but has over 10 year experience as a project manager. Recently, she took on the role of Director of Communications for the Canadian Construction Women (CCW) Association, something that allows her to share her valuable insights into the industry, align mentorship goals and be a central figure in connecting the community.
“There are a lot of stories that women in our group have shared about the challenges and the adversity they’ve experienced and had to push through, and I think while there have been major wins for diversity and equality, there is still a lot more work women, and allies, can be doing to drive change in our industry. There are so many opportunities for women in construction, both on the tools or in management and design.”
“The CCW partners with the VRCA and in the last two years, we’ve co-hosted the LEAP Conference, which is a women in construction event held in downtown Vancouver,” Koop explains. “It’s sold out both years, so there’s definitely a demand for spotlighting women in construction, and I’ve met a lot of very strong, capable, empowering women through this group, including mentors, and I would like to be a mentor at some point in my career as well, to help other women and people interested in coming into the industry.”
According to Koop, Unitech core values stem from the fact that it started as a small family run company in Delta, and the company still treats team members and clients like family, with mutual respect, compassion, fairness and transparency, building all relationships on trust, things she sees as also being vital to female empowerment in the sector. Moreover, keeping up with demand is more important now than ever.
“The industry is growing exponentially right now, just with our whole political climate and with the boomers retiring, there is a huge gap in resources, and then we’re going to need to fill those positions very soon. Whether it’s post-secondary schools offering programs dedicated to women in construction or introductory events and going into high schools to promote construction, we need to allocate time and resources to recruitment.”
Recently, Unitech celebrated its 300th project, and have many milestones in their portfolio like the Abbotsford Police Department expansion, North Cowichan RCMP detachment building in the Fort St John RCMP building and many more.
“We operate all over the province, and we’re always looking for new clients that are open to collaborative construction and construction management. Services that we provide are very unique, because we really work with transparency and honesty with our clients and our trade people.”
When asked for advice about getting into the industry, Koop is happy promote the CCW and the wonderful things they are doing for women in construction.
“Being part of the CCW, we’ve been having this conversation a lot lately about how to get started, and selfishly, I would like to say, look us up. There are so many women in the group that can help you from either being in the trades, or if you want to go into other areas like real estate or any aspect of the industry, there’s somebody in this group that’s been there, done that and can help.”
