Chip Gregory Promoted to President & Chief Operations Officer
The Rafn Company is proud to announce that Chip Gregory has been promoted to President & Chief Operations Officer, completing the company’s transition to its fourth generation of leadership. Like all Rafn leadership before him, Chip is a home-grown talent who has developed within the company. Chip began his career at Rafn in 2001 as a Project Manager and was quickly put in charge of Rafn’s Small Projects Group three years later. Running the busiest department within the company allowed him to learn from experienced executives while honing his leadership skills.
“As a manager, I focused on my projects and how to make them successful for ourselves and our clients. As President, my focus has shifted from individual projects to the company as a whole: how our company builds successful projects for our clients and how we will help our people develop and reach their goals.“
Chip graduated from the University of Washington’s Building Construction Program while putting himself through school, working for a residential homebuilder in the field and managing up to 6 projects simultaneously. After graduating, Chip entered the multi-family construction arena. That experience launched him into commercial contracting.
“Our industry is constantly changing, and everyone is at a different life stage. I work to support change and support our people to continually improve their skills in the areas they want to focus on. Ultimately, people stay engaged if they are interested in their work and feel they can make an impact.“
4th Generation of Rafn Company Leadership
Jack Rafn and his wife Marilyn were the first generation of company leadership. Beyond Jack’s innovative ideas to create a better construction company, he was driven by quality. He set the Rafn standard by paying attention to the little details, from a meticulous pre-construction plan to an impressive, finished product. He was always looking for ways to improve how he built and how he sustained client relationships. Most of all, he wanted to make something he could be proud of. So, he set expectations higher.
Tom Ambrey was hired during Rafn’s first year in business and worked his way from Carpenter to Project Manager before being promoted to President & COO in 1993 and eventually to CEO in 2000. Kim Bottles was hired as part of Jack’s first continuity plan in 1993 when he realized the company would continue beyond his retirement. Jack looked to Kim to take over the company’s financial side from Marilyn and partner with Tom. Kim was Rafn’s CFO until his retirement in 2013. This second generation of leadership cast Rafn’s vision as being collaborative to the core by embracing each project as a meeting of different groups, priorities, and points of view.
Rafn’s third generation of leadership was Shawn Rhode and Heather Bunn. Shawn was hired as a Carpenter in 1982 and Heather as a Project Manager in 1990. Shawn grew through the ranks to the position of Superintendent and teamed with Heather to lead 8 major projects together. Shawn earned the position of President & COO in 2000 and took over from Tom as CEO in 2015. Heather took over the position of Vice President of Business Development in 2007 and has held that position ever since. Their contributions to how work is done at the Rafn Company could be summed up as the right people for the right projects. Their aim to ensure the team’s continuity so that strategy remains consistent throughout each project extends to the continuity of the company’s leadership.
Rafn’s fourth generation of leadership began when Rafn’s Controller, Marc Victor, officially took over the CFO role from Kim Bottles in 2013. With his promotion to President & COO, Chip Gregory joins the leadership team to steer the company into the future. Marc, Shawn, and Heather have led the company together for the past decade, but now it is time for Chip and Marc to broaden their impact on the Rafn Company legacy. Combining an operations background with a financial background, they have created a vision for the company to own the construction process. Being proactive in this way lets Rafn keep an eye on the details, maintain our standard of quality, give peace of mind to clients, and ensure a completed project that’s on-time and on-budget.
The future looks bright for the Rafn Company with collaborative processes in place, tenured staff to produce quality work, and visionary leadership. But it is all because of the strong foundation the Rafn Company continues to build upon. Being a partner requires trust, commitment, and a dedicated spirit. The people of the Rafn Company have built our careers by living these virtues every single day. When we commit to a project, we put our name on it as a promise to deliver.