Jim Pullen was recently promoted to Operations Manager for Sundt’s projects in the Southwest. The Fresno State University graduate started out in the industry as an entry level engineer and worked his way up to spend 19 years as a Project Director, primarily managing healthcare projects in Arizona, California, Hawaii and Kansas. Among his notable projects are Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix; Banner Health Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa; Thousand Oaks Medical Center and Marian Regional Medical Center in California and St. Francis Medical Center in Honolulu. He has been with Sundt for two years.
What are the primary duties in your new position?
The Operations Manager ensures the success of each project within the division. This is done by delivering on promises, creating predictable outcomes, managing our risk and making sure we hone our skills to advance our product.
How does this job differ from your former position as a Senior Project Manager?
The focus is more on the people than the process of building the project.
What are some initiatives you would like to undertake?
To make sure we continue to be collaborative, stay disciplined and improve ways to provide better predictability on all of our projects.
What are the biggest projects going on in the Southwest?
Our biggest project under construction is the joint venture remodel of Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. We are on our second phase at the stadium. The project has a third and final phase and will be completed in 2017. In Preconstruction, we have two large projects: Banner Health Care’s University Medical Center-Tucson, which breaks ground in April, and University Square, a mixed-use retail, apartment and hotel project in Tempe that will break ground this summer.
What do you see as Sundt’s biggest strengths?
We have good, solid people. We have had to become very collaborative and innovative to win work in this environment.
What trends are you seeing in the Southwest building environment?
We have seen a big shift from the public sector opportunities to more private work.