2024 Women in Construction: Rebecca Bentley, Head and Associates, Inc.

What has been the driving force behind your success in the AEC industry? My success has been built on relationships with clients, contractors, subcontractors, and peers. Getting to know my team members professionally and personally builds a shared fate throughout a project life cycle. Understanding my team members’ priorities, core values, drivers, and goals, and letting them understand mine, leads to trusted partnerships and a working environment that supports open dialogue, sharing of ideas and the ability to have hard conversations. Overall, relationships build trust, and trusted partners build successful projects. 

What is your favorite / most beneficial part of Women in Construction week? Visibility of women in construction is my favorite part of Women in Construction Week. It is wonderful to see how many women have joined the construction industry over the course of my career. Though we are still very much in the minority, I am not the only woman on project teams, on construction sites, on design teams or at groundbreaking ceremonies. Visibility shows more women that there are rewarding careers available in the construction industry ready for capable women to claim them.