Congratulations Gino! DBusniness 30 In Their Thirties

Gino Roncelli, the third-generation CEO of the Roncelli construction company, based in Sterling Heights, thinks it’s advantageous for his company to be led by someone of his age.“There’s nothing special about me, but there’s something about a company of this size with a CEO in his 30s — at the advent of AI, automation, and software (innovations) — that’s a distinct advantage for us,” he says.“I’ve spent the better part of the last couple of years improving our data platforms. In the next two or three years, we’re going to be using those data platforms with an AI overlay to get more predictable, reduce risk, and avoid safety incidents before anyone knows they’re coming.”“We want to manage projects using automation software to deliver lower costs to the owners of projects.”Roncelli got its start in 1966 as a small trenching company founded by Roncelli’s grandfather, Raymond. His father, Gary, built the business into a general contractor in the late 1980s, a bigger general contractor in the late 1990s, and made it bigger yet in the early 2000s, mostly in Michigan.Under Gino Roncelli’s watchful eye, first as a vice president, when his father became ill, and since July as president and CEO, when his father passed away, the company has continued to grow. It’s now in seven states and Ontario, Canada.“Nine months ago the company was dropped in my lap, and I haven’t run it into the ground yet,” Roncelli says, adding that revenue has doubled since he took over.“We could have doubled that revenue again, but when you say yes to too many things, you don’t do a good job — and that’s not what we want to do.”Born and raised in Armada, Roncelli attended De La Salle Collegiate High School and then the University of Michigan, where he earned a degree in finance. Throughout his youth and high school and college years, Roncelli worked in the family business.“My first job in construction was pushing a broom at the LG Chem battery facility in Holland at age 12,” he recalls.After graduating from U-M, he got a job at UBS on the wealth management team while going to law school at Wayne State University in Detroit at night.Eventually the lure of returning to the family business was too much to resist, and he became a financial analyst for Roncelli’s out-of-country work, launching its Mexican division in Mexico City and overseeing the construction of a wastewater facility southwest of Mexico City for General Motors.Now, after nine months at the Roncelli helm, Gino Roncelli says he’s starting to get the hang of it. “I’m still not a great builder compared to others in my company, but I’m getting there.”DBusiness ArticleAuthor: Tim Keenan