Honoree: Jillian Dressel
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal (04-06-2007)

As a 33-year old woman, Jillian Dressel is almost an anomaly in the commercial construction industry, which is arguably a man's world. So far, though, she has not only proved herself unusually adept at managing the financial ins and outs of major projects, but has also founded a company whose visionary culture aims high.

"We wanted to create a company that was a great place for really super people to spend their careers. We're basically about the power of teamwork and Jillian has been the poster child for that vision," says Andrew Meade, who along with Dressel, founded Meade Construction Group three years ago.


They believed that the power of teamwork could lead a company to being the community's favorite builder, clients' favorite builder, and most importantly, their employees' favorite place to be, aside from home. Their first step was to write down their core values: build a company around really terrific people. Then, throw in savvy business practices.

So far, their self-described "passionate" vision has paid off.

Founded with six colleagues in 2004, Meade Construction now employs 65 people and last year worked on 150 projects with revenue of $41 million. The company specializes in health care and biotech centers, high tech data labs, and corporate office buildings.

"The growth is staggering," says Meade. Dressel, meanwhile, has added to her expertise as project manager -- previously overseeing such high profile projects as the $216 million Sun Microsystems Newark campus -- by wearing additional hats as chief financial officer and corporate secretary/treasurer.

"She's one of those kinds of multi-talented people who does a job that has all different aspects to it. Jill is the financial brains behind the company," says Meade. Dressel steers projects through the pre-construction phase, including infinite details of estimating, putting out bids, final design costs, and assisting clients to stay within budgets. She then manages the budgets of each project undertaken by Meade as well as keeping the fast-growing company profitable.

Formerly a member of the world record-setting All-Canada Volleyball team, Dressel moved to the Bay Area in 1996.