LA Times Names Two Shawmut Leaders Commercial Real Estate Visionaries

Recognized for their noteworthy accomplishments and portfolios, director of estimating Michelle Rabinovich and project executive Sam Ragsdale were named Commercial Real Estate Visionaries by the LA Times. Read more about what makes Michelle and Sam CRE visionaries in their LA Times profiles (here and here) as well as below.

Michelle Rabinovich, Director of Estimating

Michelle has an impressive project portfolio and business achievements, rivaled only by her leadership in an industry that’s only 10% women. As director of estimating for Shawmut’s West region, Michelle leads the estimating team to provide clients with the most complete picture of the resources required to execute a construction effort as smoothly and efficiently as possible, providing certainty of outcome.

Throughout her career, Michelle has created processes and systems to make her team and department run smoother and enable members to excel. She streamlined the process for how estimators develop skills to grow in their career, beginning on their first day. A major accomplishment—Michelle led the preconstruction effort on the largest project in Shawmut’s history—a one million square-foot mass timber creative office campus.

Michelle joined Shawmut’s Regional Diversity Leadership Council almost a year ago, supporting the firm’s Diversity Leadership Council in its work toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is an associate member of BuildOUT California, the world’s first LGTBQIA industry association dedicated to the sustainable growth of LGTBQIA-owned and certified businesses—and allies—in the architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate development fields.

Sam Ragsdale, Project Executive

Sam has a portfolio consisting of some of the most impressive and iconic institutions in Los Angeles and Southern California: the Petersen Automotive Museum, work across USC’s campus, Getty Villa, Hammer Museum, Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and the Museum of Tolerance. Leveraging his experience with projects of substantial size, scope, and complexity, Sam drives Shawmut’s increased market share in large-scale projects.

Sam is entrusted with high-profile projects and repeat business because of his demonstrated skill and expertise from preconstruction through completion. He leads his teams to put in focused effort upfront to identify efficiencies and solve for potential challenges before anyone even steps foot on-site, ensuring projects complete on schedule and within budget. He does this through design-assist, early logistics planning and scheduling, early procurement mapping, and identifying the right trade partners.

To stay an innovative builder, Sam keeps his finger on the pulse of industry trends. He completed a mass timber installation training with CHICAP at the Carpenter Training Center in Chicago, the first in the country to develop a Mass Timber Installer Training Program. Now, mass timber’s popularity—recently growing in Southern California—demands this kind of skill and knowledge.