Brad Richardson, Project Manager/Estimator, is celebrating 3 years with the company this month. To commemorate that milestone, he is supporting Primary Children’s Hospital, a not-for-profit, free-standing children’s hospital based in Salt Lake City that provides quality healthcare for children with complex illnesses and injuries from across the United States. 

Brad explained that he has a special place in his heart for the hospital because they helped his son 15 years ago. “My son spent a week up there when he was one year old—he’s now 16—and they really did a good job. He had Kawasaki disease [a rare type of vasculitis, or inflammation of the blood vessels, that usually affects children under age 5] and they did such a good job taking care of him, and taking care of us,” he said. “They are a great hospital to go to and I hope this helps people financially be able to put their kids in good hands.” 

 

Grade Tech donated $1,000 to Primary Children’s Hospital in Brad’s name. The charitable contribution is part of Grade Tech’s “giving back” program which supports the local community by celebrating employees’ work anniversaries (after the first 3 years of employment) by making annual donations to the employees’ “charities of choice.”

 

“I am more than happy to celebrate Brad’s anniversary by supporting the hospital that helped his son,” said Rory Hall. “As a father myself, I can only imagine the terrible feeling of having a sick child and you don’t know how to help him. I am grateful that Primary was able to help Brad’s family and hope that this donation will help others in the same situation.” 

 

Brad joined the Grade Tech team in 2021 after a long stint as a Project Manager for Rocky Mountain Power and a few months working for another excavating company. The West Jordan native says he came to Grade Tech for several reasons: the way Grade Tech supports/gives back to the community; the benefits and competitive pay; the opportunity to apply his vision to help grow the company; and the perks of working in a smaller, tight-knit company (for example, the entire team going to CONEXPO every three years).

 

When it comes to the job, he loves the problem-solving aspect of his role and believes that every day is a learning opportunity. “It is very rewarding to be able to find solutions when people come to me with problems,” he explains.  “Every day is an opportunity to learn something new and I get that here every day.”

 

Brad says that he juggles a lot of different things as a Project Manager—workloads, prioritization of what needs to be done first, staying on top of drawings and revisions across multiple different projects, getting the foremen what they need, being at the right place at the right time, trying to expand the business, and staying on top of innovative tools and software. “Some days it seems like I wear 10 different hats,” he says laughing, “But I like what I do and work hard to meet everyone’s expectations— customers, foremen, and Rory. It’s a lot and if it wasn’t for Rory and Billy believing in me, I don’t know if I would be here.”

 

Brad credits growing up on a farm to teaching him the value of hard work and he finds satisfaction in seeing a project come together after putting a lot of hard work and effort into it. “Every day you can see a change and see what has been done if you know what to look for. Seeing it all on paper and then watching it be successfully built is really gratifying.”

 

He believes in pursuing dreams and that that involves working hard and being able to learn—whether you’re doing paperwork or physical labor. His advice to young people that would like to become Project Managers/Estimators, is to stay in school and get a college degree. “It teaches you how to be taught so that you can adapt and learn later in life,” he explains. “Even though there are classes that are irrelevant to what you might want to do, it helps your brain process multiple things that will make it easier to learn in the future. You have to be book smart and street smart. It’s a hard balance but you have to do it.”

 

Brad believes in work-life management, rather than work-life balance, to achieve his goals. “Work hard, play hard” is the motto he lives by. When he’s not hard at work on the job, he enjoys anything outdoors, including hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, sand dunes, ATV’s, trail riding, repelling in slot canyons, remote adventure trips, and beach activities like surfing, bodyboarding, snorkeling, scuba diving, water skiing, and boating. He even likes yard work and can often be found tinkering on his cars and ATVs in the garage.

All the things he loves to do are made better by doing them with his sons. He says that it was important to keep his son, who is now 16, active and off unhealthy foods after battling Kawasaki’s Disease early in life and that their family still revolves around being active and healthy. It is being with his sons that makes all the hard work and hard play worth the time and effort. “My boys are what keep me going. I do all this for them because they are amazing.”

 

Please join us in congratulating Brad on his 3-year anniversary with Grade Tech and wishing him more success in the years to come!