Q. Until recently, your company used to go by another name.

A. The Kiewit organization operates throughout the United States under different names. Kiewit Pacific Co. was the organization that did all the work here in Hawai'i from about '83 forward, and we do roads and bridges, infrastructure, highways, wastewater treatment plants and power plants and vertical construction — anything that comes out of the ground. If it has a door and a window, that's what we do (in vertical construction).

The business of building construction is very different than infrastructure construction, where the primary driving factor on who to select is price.

The primary driver in the vertical construction business is relationships. It's your reputation as a builder, it's your relationship with the client. In 2005, in order to focus on the building business, we decided it was appropriate to separate ourselves from the heavy civil side, so we formed a separate corporation, with a separate contractor's license, a separate business license number, a separate address and a separate name.

We focus on things like your resorts, retail facilities and schools. The second market is healthcare and the building of hospitals. The third market is military construction and public works.

Q. So you were named to your position specifically to work on building relationships?

A. I'm born and raised here and have a great deal of aloha for this place. I care deeply about the people that work here, the people I work with and the clients I work with. I certainly value those relationships and hold them very close to my heart. The biggest part of my career was in civil work, where it's a bidding-type environment. Even then, my personal sense was that reaching out to the community was important, so I always did those things anyway, getting involved with the General Contractor's Association, where I served as president for a year and the Honolulu Executives Association.

Q. How did working in the cannery influence your current leadership and management philosophies?

A. My mother was a nurse who worked at the cannery, and she could get me the good job because she was an insider.

I was 15 or 16, and the good job was in the fruit receiving department because it was kind of outside and it was third shift — 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. or something like that. You got an extra 25 cents an hour. About the second or third week, I dropped a bin lid on my foot wearing a pair of sneakers. I was told by the foreman, 'Do not do this thing,' which I did and I just about broke my toe off.

They used to have what we called 'white coats' walking around, and they were sort of in charge. We never talked to them, and they certainly didn't talk to us. I remember thinking at 3 o'clock in the morning with my foot bloody, 'Hey, it would be nice if somebody came down and said something to me.' I've never forgotten that and I don't want to be that kind of guy that people don't know.

(The employees) were just hard-working people who believe in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. The physical effort they put in sticks with me to this day.

Q. Everyone wonders how long Hawai'i's construction boom will last.

A. Things are very, very good. But things that we cannot control are worldwide commodity prices like diesel fuel, PVC, asphalt, drywall, steel. The construction boom is worldwide. Hawai'i is a symptom, not a cause. I don't know if the market can keep absorbing that. Those kinds of things do concern me. But people always need to build stuff, even when they're expensive.

Q. You mentioned your concerns about grooming and keeping talent in Hawai'i.

A. The greater challenge is engaging young people's minds — ensuring that what we give them as a career is challenging and meaningful. That is the leadership challenge to me. It's not about the money. In my heart of hearts, I really don't believe that.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.