< PreviousSheppard, and the TTC’s McNicoll Bus Garage, all in Toronto. In Waterloo, there is the Barrel Yards, an urban community featur-ing two ten-story office towers, a 194-room hotel, seven resi-dential high-rises and townhouses, built on a two-level under-ground parking garage. And in London and Sudbury, there are wind farm projects. Maxime is especially proud of the AGF Group Foundation, led by his sister Catherine Gendron who reports to a board of directors. The foundation was established six years ago with three missions. “It’s to give back to communities where AGF is present, build ties among the AGF Group’s employees and partners – and we’re able to do that because we have founda-tion ambassadors from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador – and to increase the culture of philanthropy among our people,” he shares.“My father has served for a long time on the board of direc-tors of two hospitals (Verdun & General Hospital) and on the engineering school at Polytechnique de Montréal. He’s a very generous person and gave a substantial amount to the school which named a classroom after my grandfather.” But the foundation, he continues, is unique, in that it does not involve only the company owners, but as many of the employees as wish to get involved. “We felt a need to give back, but instead of just the company giving back, my father is teaching all our employees how to give back.” There is a large annual event in Montreal, but “we ask our employees ‘who in your community do you think we should be helping?’ Someone could say ‘I want to help a local charity that provides foodbank assistance in my community,’ and they will create an event to gather money, and the foundation will match it. We also have partners like La Tablée des Chefs in Quebec – which collects food and provides home-cooking and budgeting training for people in need – and with CAMH.” CAMH is a centre for treating addictions and mental health.“One of the greatest challenges we have is to attract young, motivated people and give them a sense of ownership within the company. After we started the foundation, our people realized they can make a difference as they create their own events, so it brings them a sense of belonging. It wasn’t our intention in the beginning. The purpose wasn’t to improve the company; it was to give back to the community, but now we see that it’s helping us as well.” Over six years, the number of employee-created events has gone from fifteen to ninety-six per year, for a total of four hundred individual projects, while over $2.5 million has gone back into communities where AGF has a presence, and only one percent of the funds have been spent on administration. Maxime says research into the longevity of family-owned com-panies in construction shows that only one in 10 000 has been able to sustain what AGF Group has done when it turned sev-enty-one this past May. “This is very special and something we want to sustain. We are putting a lot of effort into achieving it because this doesn’t happen by chance, and we need to plan,” he says. “We created a family board where we can discuss important matters as owners, and we created governance procedures, education, mentorship, and a succession plan for our family as owners. I have a brother living in France; he’s not part of the business, but he is a strong part of the family board. Every quarter he comes to Montreal for a meeting, and every month, we talk about the business, so he’s always in the loop.”The eighties, he says were tough times economically. Of the founder’s four children, only Serge followed in his footsteps, with the other three enjoying successful careers in other areas. “But we feel blessed that our father became part of the business. He is very modern in the way he thinks and wants to leave a legacy by teaching us about the responsibility of ownership. He says you don’t make money on the backs of your people; you make it with them. You need money to survive, but after that, you need to be a good citizen.” With such a philosophy, AGF’s future looks bright indeed. “We want everyone to feel they are involved in growing the company.”Journal 198121CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Full-service interior construction management firm The Pentacon Group serves the commercial sector from its Vaughan, Ontario headquarters. The group has a broad spectrum of in-house skills, allowing it to offer a widening range of services, depending on the client’s needs. JUNE 201922Written by Jaime McKeeThe Pentacon Group, a full-service interior construction management firm, serves the Greater Toronto Area commercial sector from its Vaughan, Ontario headquarters. The group possesses a broad spectrum of in-house skills, allowing it to offer an ever-grow-ing range of construction and project management services, depending on the client’s needs. We spoke with a Director of The Pentacon Group, Anthony Loumankis, P. Eng., who explained the diversity of skills avail-able. “We have always been in the commercial interiors section of the industry,” he explains. “Generally speaking, that means that we construct corporate offices of varying size, quality and detail. Most of our work is in the Toronto downtown core, and our portfolio includes retail work and some residential construction as well.”New beginningsThe end of one business can lead to the birth of fresh oppor-tunities, and The Pentacon Group understands this better than most. Three colleagues with a healthy dose of industry insight founded The Pentacon Group, using the skills and knowledge they had gathered throughout their years of experience in the commercial construction industry. Sam Tucci, also a Director at The Pentacon Group, explains how the team grew from the ashes of the initial venture. “The company was set up just over seven years ago,” he says. “The three founders, I, Anthony L. and Anthony M. have worked together for many years; creating relationships and the shared values are the basis of our growth at The Pentacon Group.” The three founders pooled their skills to create a depth and quality of service that surpassed their clients’ expectations. Tom Antonopoulos, Senior Project Manager, also joined the team.Sam acknowledges that the number of minds involved in the running of the company differs from industry norms and sets it apart in a very competitive field. “Our philosophy is that there is no one leader,” he says. “We all lead; we all do our own sales; we all do our own business development. One of our successes is that we are all out there fostering our relation-ships with clients.” Service from start to finishThe Pentacon Group offers total service from start to finish, backed up by the wealth of experience provided by its estimat-ing department. “Alan Weeks, our chief estimator, manages most of our tendering,” Tom explains. “From there, we get into project implementation. The Pentacon Directors also work as project directors and managers, and have found that this approach to be very successful because clients can see that there is full own-ership responsibility with any project we take on.”Tucci explains that, “Our industry is very fast-paced; there is a lot of pressure, and deadlines are always there. We are fortunate in that we have been very selective about who we hire, and when we do hire, we give them support and training so that they can flourish and be successful,” he shares. “Our whole team has a lot of training and experience, at all levels of the organization. Our clients and project partners recognize the benefits that the aforementioned brings to the project.”The team sees this method as an opportunity to ensure that the client always receives the best service possible. With exten-sive knowledge in all aspects of construction and a keen atten-tion to detail, The Pentacon Group is able to deliver consistent results every time, to the benefit of the client. “We find that by being involved from start to finish with a project, our clients are provided with the full service expected from The Pentacon Group,” says Loumankis.“Since our involvement starts at project inception, there is a seamless transition from our pre-construction to construction and finally post-construction. This approach eliminates gaps in information and potential information loss. The designated Pentacon team is involved on the project from the very begin-ning and continues to project total completion. The team is also there for the time after project completion to assist in any and all matters for our clients.”“Our philosophy is that there is no one leader. We all lead; we all do our own sales; we all do our own business development.”JUNE 201924At Tickner and Associates, we pride our-selves on keeping people safe at work. Our success is defined by our strong relation-ships with valued clients like The Pentacon Group, who demand professional quality, highly credentialled service. With The Pentacon Group, we have established sound health and safety practices, ensuring compliance with government legislation. Health and Safety remains a cornerstone of The Pentacon Group’s success and core part of our business. Safety. It’s what we do. Committed to safetyAnother key point of difference at the company is its commitment to safety and ongoing training. Anthony Maddalena, Director, is keen to stress the widespread nature of this training. “From a safety perspective, all of our employ-ees – whether they are out in the field or in the office – are all trained with the most current safety standards that exist today, and [this training] is updated on a regular basis.” This is not merely a sales pitch. “At the Pentacon Group, from senior manage-ment down to our site personnel, we ensure the highest safety standards are met and kept.” Maddalena sees this as an integral and necessary aspect in all the company’s projects. “Once we commence a project, we set up safety orientation meetings where we run through the project and identify the potential hazards,” he explains. “This happens onsite with all involved with the project, including anyone accessing the site. The site managers have weekly meetings where they will discuss specific items that are coming up, and further-more, we retain a third-party consultant that comes in and inspects our site on a weekly to biweekly basis. They complete a full safety audit and discuss concerns with the site managers and all personnel on site.”Certainly, this continuous health and safety training has advantages for the company. Maddalena explains that the commitment to safety stems from a practical necessity. “Our rationale – why we train absolutely everybody – is that our office staff frequents the site quite a bit since we are so hands-on. We are proactive in all our projects through all aspects including design, engineering, budget, schedule, and especially safety. With our experience, we at times can foresee situations and then can correct the matter during the course of con-struction so as not to compromise the safety of the project.” 27CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Giving backThe Pentacon Group’s commitment to the highest levels of service and quality, as well as its dedication to the project and to its health and safety standards, has led to a growing reputation for the company. While the team’s project portfo-lio is expanding, there are also burgeoning opportunities to give something back to the local community. Every year, the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario (ARIDO) chooses an organization or charity and assists in improving their interior service environment. ARIDO calls this was part of the 2016 efforts. Loumankis explains how the partnership came about and how the project was of mutual benefit to stakeholders. “We are invited by ARIDO to meet each February for a group dis-cussion on various industry issues including the ROI. We were very excited about ARIDO’s commitment to assist the com-munity and wanted to be part of the next ROI. That particu-lar year, SKETCH had been chosen by ARIDO for the industry return back to our great community – it was an office refresh for SKETCH. Their existing offices were a little antiquated and we worked with interior designers, engineers, suppliers and sub-contractors as well as the end users at SKETCH to create an exciting, vibrant office.”Toronto-based community arts initiative SKETCH’s purpose is to “create opportunities for young people to experience the trans-formative power of the arts; to build leadership and economic self-sufficiency in the arts; and to cultivate social and environ-mental change through the arts.” While SKETCH has given the company a chance to showcase its talents publicly, The Pentacon Group is no stranger to working with local groups and giving back to the broader communi-ty. “Here locally, we participate with many organizations. We mostly contribute financially to purchase sports equipment, provide coaching, et cetera, to help get kids off the street and have them participating in a sport for some fun.” 29CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Next >