Bill O’Neil, former W.E. O’Neil CEO, dies at 83

William “Invoice” O’Neil II, former CEO and board chairman of Chicago-based W.E. O’Neil, who labored on the firm for practically 50 years, died on April 10, according to the firm. O’Neil was 83.

The grandson of the corporate’s founder, William Edward O’Neil, Invoice O’Neil joined the agency’s ranks in 1967. From there, he labored his means by positions together with format engineer, superintendent, undertaking supervisor and estimator, in response to the builder.

O’Neil grew to become CEO of the agency in 1985. He left the position in 2003, and transitioned to chairman of the board till 2020. Throughout his tenure, the corporate expanded throughout the nation — it opened its first places of work in Los Angeles in 1985; Denver in 1999; and Nashville in 2014, per the firm’s history page.

In 1994, the O’Neil household and firm management collaborated to ascertain the beginnings of W.E. O’Neil’s worker inventory possession plan, in response to its historical past web page.

ESOPs have since gained prominence in the industry each as a sustainable path for house owners to exit their companies whereas concurrently persevering with the legacy of the operation by way of worker possession. Main ESOP companies within the building business embrace Omaha, Nebraska-based HDR, Kansas Metropolis, Phoenix-based Willmeng Development and San Jose, California-based Rosendin Electrical.  

“Placing them proper up entrance is the fitting factor to do,” O’Neil mentioned on the time.

The agency grew to become absolutely employee-owned below former CEO Brian Ramsay in 2020, who himself retired earlier this year.

“As I labored at W.E. O’Neil over the course of a number of a long time, the one factor that grew to become increasingly more obvious about Invoice O’Neil was that he had two nice loves in his life: the love he demonstrated for his household and the love and help that he confirmed for the workers of O’Neil,” Ramsay mentioned within the information launch.

W.E. O’Neil was based in 1925 and can have fun its a hundredth anniversary this 12 months. A number of the firm’s latest milestones embrace the acquisition of Austin, Texas-based DCA Construction and the $1.4 billion Midfield Satellite Concourse South undertaking at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport. The contractor introduced in October that preliminary building of the 9 segments of the Midfield Satellite tv for pc Concourse South have been completed offsite.

“He believed each worker ought to share in what we construct collectively,” mentioned John Finn, the agency’s present CEO, of O’Neil. “Invoice’s legacy lives on within the tradition he helped form and the lives he touched.”