Built for Collaboration
Nebraska Market Leader Kris Montgomery is a champion of collaborative delivery methods.
A framed black-and-white photo positioned on Kris Montgomery’s desk serves as a constant reminder of his deep construction roots.
The bricklayer pictured in the image is his great-grandfather, one of a long line of family members who earned their living as builders.
“Bricklaying has been in my family for as far back as anybody can remember,” says Montgomery, recalling fond memories of family holidays spent discussing construction projects and the fellow craftsmen who helped bring them to life.
Kris Montgomery’s desk includes a photo of his great-grandfather, who earned a living as a bricklayer.
Those experiences helped cement Montgomery’s commitment to continuing the family legacy. But rather than building a career at his family’s masonry contracting business, he carved his own distinctive path.
Since joining McCarthy as a project engineer in 2007, Montgomery has gained hands-on experience working on increasingly complex building assignments—from towering office buildings to intricate hospital expansions.
He currently oversees a growing team of 75+ partners in McCarthy’s thriving Omaha office. As Nebraska market leader, Montgomery is charged with expanding the firm’s footprint and positive impact across the Cornhusker State.
For him, it’s an ideal opportunity to highlight McCarthy’s distinctly collaborative approach to construction.
“We are a relationship-based local contractor built to serve as an extension of a client's team and work together toward solutions that yield the best possible outcomes.”
A prime example of the Omaha office’s expertise in action is the Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center, an outpatient care facility that earned the national Project of the Year and Best in Healthcare awards from Engineering News-Record (ENR) in 2021.
ENR National Project of the Year award celebration in 2021.
Funded through a unique public-private partnership (P3), it introduced a new project delivery process for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. McCarthy joined the team as construction manager early in design and collaborated with architect-engineer LEO A DALY to achieve $34 million in cost savings vs. traditional project delivery while accelerating the schedule by more than a year.
“It’s a beautiful facility that achieved all the key metrics of a successful project, including being completed under budget, on time and with zero safety incidents,” he says.
Omaha VA Ambulatory Care Center
Bridging Classroom and Jobsite
To educate potential clients and project partners on the benefits of collaborative delivery, Montgomery draws on his experiences as both a construction professional and an adjunct college professor.
He has developed an engaging presentation that outlines the pros and cons of various contracting models, including design-build, construction manager at risk (CMAR) and construction manager as owner’s agent.
“Most people are familiar with the traditional design-bid-build contracting method, but they may not understand why it may not be the best option, especially for complex projects with complicated phasing and technically complex requirements during construction,” he says. “During the presentation, I explain the role of the contractor in each delivery model and include real-life examples to illustrate what transparency, partnership and collaboration look like.”
By merging classroom curriculum with practical field experience, Montgomery equips people with valuable insights that are grounded in the real world.
“Many folks don't fully understand the benefits or the various contractual relationships associated with alternative construction procurement methods, and I can provide them with an unbiased, real-world perspective.”
The Road to Omaha
Montgomery grew up in Chatham, Illinois, a village located just south of Springfield.
As a teenager, he worked in the construction yard of the heavy highway contractor where his mom and stepdad also worked.
Despite all signs pointing to a full-time career in construction, Montgomery initially chose to major in biology at college. “Biology came naturally to me, but I soon realized that I didn't want to sit in a lab for the rest of my life,” he admits.
That revelation led to a period of soul searching where he considered dropping out of school and joining the Marine Corps. Instead, his mom convinced him to stay in college, but to choose a different major. In reviewing the available programs, he discovered construction management. “I didn't even know that program existed at the time,” he recalls, “but the more I read about the coursework, the more excited I got.”
After earning a construction management degree from Illinois State University in 2005, Montgomery briefly worked for his family’s masonry business before accepting a position at a Springfield general contractor that specialized in small commercial construction projects.
It was during a work trip to St. Louis in 2007 that Montgomery came face to face with his destiny. As he crossed the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River, he spotted massive tower cranes and concrete clamshell buckets framing a downtown construction site. “It was six o'clock in the evening and the job was running at full steam like you’d expect to see at 9 in the morning,” he recalls.
Approaching the project, he noticed a McCarthy banner hanging on the construction fence and decided that’s where he wanted to work. “Through my Springfield connections, I found a way to get my resume in front of some McCarthy folks, and the rest is history,” he says.
Signing on as a project engineer in 2007, Montgomery’s inaugural McCarthy project involved the construction of a new office building and parking garage on the Edward Jones North Campus in St. Louis County.
A couple of years later, he relocated to Omaha to work on a large program to renovate and expand on all five Alegent Health (now CHI Health) hospital campuses.
CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center Bergan Mercy
When those projects wrapped up, he moved back to St. Louis to begin an 18-month stint collaborating with McCarthy’s Corporate IT group to help streamline operations and improve communication with construction teams in the field.
Montgomery’s next assignment beckoned him to the Big Easy to work on the VA New Orleans Replacement Medical Center, a 1.6-million-square-foot healthcare campus that replaced critical medical infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Kris at the VA New Orleans Replacement Medical Center jobsite in 2013.
In 2016, he accepted an invitation to join a small group of emerging McCarthy leaders in opening the company’s permanent Omaha office. “My wife and I could not wait to get back to the Midwest to raise our family,” he says.
Since returning to Omaha, his fondness for the city has only grown. “It’s a big city with the culture of a small town,” he says, touting Omaha’s strong schools, top-notch healthcare and affordable cost of living. “We’ve been very fortunate to establish what feels like a second family here,” he says. “And the people I work with are friends.”
Kris with his family in Omaha.
Kris volunteering for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s REACH Beyond Mentoring Program.
Get to Know Kris Montgomery
- Both Kris and his wife, Liz, grew up in Chatham, Illinois. They have two daughters: Natalie (11) and Abigail (9).
- He has served as an adjunct professor at Metropolitan Community College, Wayne State College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
- The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Nebraska honored Kris with its 2017 Mentor Award in recognition of his leadership and positive influence on the local construction industry. And Midlands Business Journal recognized him on the 40 Under 40 list of local business leaders in 2019.
- Kris mentors small and emerging businesses as a volunteer for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s REACH Beyond Mentoring Program. He also volunteered for and supports the ACE Mentor Program of Greater Omaha, which introduces high school students to careers in architecture, construction and engineering.
- A clay shooting enthusiast, Kris helps plan the annual Tradition of Excellence Sporting Clay fundraising event hosted by the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
