Purpose Built

Ask Daniel Herr what keeps him energized after 19 years at McCarthy, and his answer is less about the buildings and more about the people who depend on them.

“What I’ve always taken pride in is that we build things people need,” Herr says. “Hospitals, airports, research laboratories, water treatment plants—projects that help society. There is a lot of pride in knowing that the work you do makes a real difference.”

Since stepping into the role of Senior Director of Business Development for McCarthy’s Colorado team earlier this year, Herr has been channeling that sense of purpose into identifying opportunities where the company’s expertise can deliver the greatest impact.

It’s a natural progression from his previous role as Preconstruction Director, where he led the early planning and estimating strategies that set projects up for success.

Now, working alongside Business Unit Leader Tyler Richardson, Herr is focused on building relationships and leading project pursuit strategies in four core markets: aviation, healthcare, science & technology, and advanced manufacturing. He also collaborates closely with teams from McCarthy’s national practices in water/wastewater, renewable energy and mission critical facilities. 

After nearly two decades in preconstruction, Herr has traded a structured, predictable role for the fast-moving world of business development. “Preconstruction is methodical and process-driven; you know the playbook inside and out," Herr says. "BD is dynamic and unpredictable. One morning you’re working on an RFP, that afternoon you’re meeting an owner or trade partner, and the next day you’re at an industry event. It’s still a ton of interacting with the project teams, and that’s what I love.” 

Life on the Move

Pinpointing Herr’s hometown is a complicated exercise. Born in Effingham, Illinois, he and his family moved to Orlando before his second birthday. From there, his family relocated to Roswell, Georgia; Phoenix, Arizona; Norcross, Georgia; Omaha, Nebraska; Laguna Hills, California; and back to the Atlanta area.

The frequent relocations came with the territory of his dad’s job on the construction and engineering team at United Parcel Service (UPS). “The running joke was that we'd get toward the end of a school year and say, ‘Dad, are we moving?’ He'd say, ‘We're not moving,’” Herr recalls. “Then a week later he'd come home and say, ‘All right, we're moving.’”

Despite growing up around jobsites and spending summers working as a laborer, Herr initially pursued an engineering degree at Georgia Tech. He later shifted his focus, earning a degree in international business from American InterContinental University (AIU) in Atlanta.

Following graduation, he spent three years at a small general contractor in Atlanta before unexpectedly landing at McCarthy.

At the time, Herr’s older brother, Alex, was a McCarthy project manager in Atlanta—and had been trying to recruit him for a while.

Herr initially resisted following his brother to McCarthy, but growing frustration with his job eventually changed his mind. The brothers played in an adult hockey league together, sharing the ice with an employee from McCarthy's preconstruction team. One night after a game, Herr pulled that person aside to inquire if McCarthy was hiring.

A few days later, his brother called with a terse message: “‘You're getting an interview…and you didn't even tell me,’” Herr laughs.

He joined McCarthy’s new Atlanta office as an estimator in 2007—an eventful year that also included getting married and purchasing his first house. At the time, the office had a lean team of about two dozen employee-owners.

“In a smaller office, you get to touch almost every project,” Herr recalls. “You work directly with project teams, field staff and trade partners across multiple jobs on the front end. I really enjoyed that collaborative dynamic.”

Over the next decade, Herr advanced from senior estimator to preconstruction director, shaping the front-end strategy on several of the region’s signature projects. They included Georgia Tech’s Engineered Biosystems Building, developed to advance treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, and the landside modernization at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which featured two massive canopies spanning eight lanes of traffic.

Heading West

When McCarthy began expanding its Colorado presence in 2017, word came down that the office was looking for a preconstruction director. Herr raised his hand.

“My wife and I had always talked about moving to Denver because we love the outdoors and being near the mountains,” he says.

Since being tapped for the position, Herr has helped build the local preconstruction team while navigating the demands of the growing office. “You have to be willing to wear multiple hats,” he notes. “There were days I was counting toilet partitions and days I was presenting estimates to an owner—and everything in between. You flex where needed to support the team.”

Earlier this year, when Richardson asked him to consider moving into business development, Herr took the question home to his wife, Rebecca, whose response was immediate. “She looked at me and said, ‘Daniel, you need to say yes,’” he recalls. “‘You're going to be uncomfortable, but you've got to do it.’”

A few months in, he has no regrets.

For Herr, that means building relationships long before a project is ready to pursue. He’s adopted Richardson’s rule of thumb for staying top-of-mind with clients: be recent, relevant and reliable. “When a client has a project and needs to call somebody, we want them thinking, ‘I just talked to somebody at McCarthy—let me give them a call,’” he says.